<p>Igloo- the SAT is over at close to 1 PM so I think that your daughter’s play is still doable. Sometimes it is done by 12:30ish but it depends when they actually start the test. Some rooms start before others. Thing is, the kids are EXHAUSTED after it. My kids all came home and crashed. YMMV.</p>
<p>Pinot- I don’t know if my kid takes final’s in his AP classes this year but last year he didn’t have any in either of his two AP classes (World History and Statistics). </p>
<p>Geogirl - your strategy sounds like ours. This is son’s second year of Chemistry (first honors now AP) so hopefully, with a little extra test specific practice, he can do well on the Chemistry SAT 2 in May.</p>
<p>Seiclan- I’m envious that your DS is taking AP Chem. Mine took Honors chem last year, but insists that he wants to take AP Bio, AP Enviro and honors physics and not AP Chem. I’ve tried to tell him that AP Chem is a must for a science/bio major, but he won’t budge. Our school is small and lab classes are 2 periods in a day so it is very difficult to take 2 AP science classes in one year. I’d love for him to forgo AP Envir and take AP Chem instead. However, doesn’t seem that it will happen. In many ways I just wish he would do what I want him to do! Then again, I’m very thankful that he is so independant as I know whatever path he takes in life it will be his path and he will do it well.</p>
<p>geogirl- Can’t your son take AP Chemistry next year? My son didn’t have room in his Junior year schedule this year for all the classes he wished that he could take so he is taking AP Biology next year, as a senior. BTW, the AP Chemistry labs are long and my son has an afterschool lab for 2 hours every month on what is an “early release/teacher planning time” for the other students. My son is currently taking 3 sciences (AP Chem, AP Physics B and honors marine science) and next year plans on taking 3 as well (AP Bio, AP Physics C and honors Astronomy). It is a major interest of his. Medical School someday is probably on his short list. But, time (and test results) will tell. :</p>
<p>Seiclan - He tried to take AP Bio, AP Env and Marine Science this year (jr). He couldn’t fit in Enviro Science, so he just has AP Bio and Marine science. So next year he will take Honors Physics (no AP offered) and AP Enviro. I’m trying to get hm to take Chem instead on Enviro, but he is not that interested. Like your son, med school might be in the future, but only time will tell if interest and test scores will support that path. He also loves Marine Bio, but he is concerned if there is a “real” job/career for that major.</p>
<p>Igloo: The SAT is over by 1:00p, so it is possible, but she will be working so hard to get her lines and blocking memorized that it will be tough to prep for the SAT. I guess it depends on how big a part she has in the play. Just a thought.</p>
<p>glido, my D is just playing her instrument in the play. She will play a few songs. I don’t know how long she will stay on stage. Would that be less demanding?</p>
<p>Igloo-- if she loves performing, my guess is that she’ll be fine. If it’s a chore, then it will be a worse chore. I used to tell my D she couldn’t audition for this or that because of school…until I realized that she’s a much better student when she’s involved in a play. Her mind is snapping and she’s wide awake and ready for anything. So, if this was her (and it may be next March), I’d let her go on with the show. (Then I’d be prepared for a major crash that evening…but the exhilaration of performing brings an adrenaline rush that over-rides everything else.)</p>
<p>Sounds like the performing might be a good distraction and a de-stressor in her case. Definitely agree with the adrenaline crash in the evening!</p>
<p>I was able to get out of son a date for the SAT (May) and the subject tests (June). This is progress, folks!</p>
<p>D will not be doing any SAT subject tests. The only schools she may apply to that require them are the UC’s here in CA, but they are not going to be required for the class of 2012 so she is going to skip taking any.</p>
<p>First DD was going to take the October SAT. Then she wasn’t, so I signed her up for November. Now she has a Nov. conflict and wants to walk in to October.</p>
<p>Hey all. I’m back. Been busy shipping the older one back to UCLA. Hope those of you in SoCal are not baking too much! I don’t have A/C. Its been rough. Anyway, the younger D has been steadily studying for the Oct. SAT. She was in a program that did not end after the summer and got her first 800 on CR last week. Like some others, she is a spring sport, so doing the SAT this in fall made the most sense. She is planning on taking her US Subject this January when the class is over. (She is on a 4x4.) Then she will take her English Lit subject next June and those subject tests will be done! She is applying to private schools and needs subject tests, so she will have W.H., U.S. History and Eng. Lit as her 3 subject tests. (She took Chem, but it was ugly.) This year, she has APUSH, AP Art History, AP Psych, AP Eng. Lang., and AP French (self study) this May, so that is another reason for taking the SAT now and hoping she is done with it. (She already had AP Chem and AP World last year.)</p>
<p>After the October SAT, I will have some more college visits to report. We are heading to UC Irvine, the Claremont Colleges, and then up to Stanford and Berkeley. I will also give a review of UCLA after big sis gives little sis the “tour”. (That should be an amusing day.) For spring break, its off to Northwestern and Univ. of Chicago, so I will report on those too. Then we are done with college tours. We will have seen all we really needed to see but Univ. of Penn, which I can’t figure out how to get done, and Columbia, which she will see next year when she goes with her h.s. magazine for the national journalism conference in November (just in the nick of time, eh?) </p>
<p>I guess I learned a few things from the last go round. Those were: (1) don’t wait till the last minute to do college tours; (2) do the testing as soon as you think your kid is ready… and I emphasize ready… but keep in mind the beginning of senior year really sucks and is not good for testing.</p>
<p>Funny, U Penn and Columbia were the two that we did get to see last summer. My son liked them both very much. Time will tell if he can get his reading/writing testing scores up to an “acceptible by these colleges” range. I don’t know how much time we will have to travel to see colleges this year at all. It may have to wait until next June again when son is out of school and done with June testing. Not optimal but air travel (let alone getting away) just isn’t as convenient as it used to be. We may even have to apply without visits and save visiting for the post acceptance round.</p>
<p>Chrissyblu - I take it you mean an 800 on a practice test. How closely do you think that will correlate to the actual test? My son has been taking practice tests as well and we’re not sure what to think about how he’ll do on the actual test.</p>
<p>But the page also shows you what a raw score tends to be in the range of. Based upon this page, we have been fairly accurate at guessing what her test prep company was going to give her. So, look at this after your kids take a practice test and calculate their raw scores and you can guess what they would get on the SAT fairly accurately (at least a range.) What your kid gets will depend on how the other students do on that day, as you can see from this page. A raw score will vary depending on the other test taker. One time it may be worth a 720, the next time a 740, etc.</p>
<p>If your kid gets a 9 on the essay, that is worth 100 points. If they get a 10, its more like 110 or more points, etc.</p>
<p>A student’s score does <em>not</em> depend on how well or poorly other students did that day. The variation in the curves solely reflects the small variation in the difficulty of the SATs from one administration to another. The curves are meant to compensate for that difficulty variation: a somewhat harder test has a more generous curve, and a somewhat easier test has a tougher curve.</p>
<p>One should always be cautious about the meaning of scores on tests other than actual SATs (by ‘actual’ I mean either exams taken or previously administered tests that are available). The curves chart cannot be used to take a raw score from a non-College Board exam and determine a scaled score. </p>
<p>Some resources of legally available, modern format, actual SATs are:
[ul]
[li]The first three tests in the College Board Official Study Guide.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]The practice tests released each year by the College Board (see [thread=757034]this thread[/thread] for links to download these tests from the College Board web site).[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>I believe fignewton is correct that the tests are not scaled based on how well test takers do on a particular date, but rather the curve is adjusted based on the difficulty of a particular test. I am still curious how much variation is typical between practice test taking and actual test taking. Some students can do great in practice, but on the actual test date, not as well. The opposite may happen as well, i.e., students “rise to the occasion” and perform better on the test. Or, do some students just get lucky - and the material on a particular date just happen to be more familiar. It seems difficult to predict with precision how well a student will do on practice versus actual tests.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this hekps. In my D’s case, she took a diagonistic sat and a practice sat. Her CR scores were about the same. They were also compatible with what she got in CR for PSAT last year. I am guessing in her case, what she gets in a mock test will probably be close to her real score.</p>