<p>I don’t know if the kids are taking the Spanish exam or not, possibly. I will ask when they get home :D. </p>
<p>None of the schools the kids are considering require SAT II’s but some do use those for placement as long as it isn’t a major class. They may take the SAT II’s for Spanish next year so they can test into a high level and possibly get a minor in Spanish. They will know by then if they need to take the test or not. Their last ACT prep class is today and Saturday they do a full practice exam so we will have a good idea where they need to focus their studies and a good estimate of a real score. They both said they need to refresh their geometry. It’s been way too long since they had geometry.</p>
<p>My son sent the SAT scores to Natl Merit (he is on the cusp), Bama because he was confident in over 1400 CR/M, and 2 safeties that he isn’t certain he’ll apply to, but neither use the scores as a cut-off for merit.</p>
<p>Some “reach” schools require ALL scores, so you may want to send to the reach instead of safeties.</p>
<p>Follow up on our public school.
Our public won’t do away with Pre-Calc The honors classes will remain for 2012/2013 year.<br>
With 2 younger kids and the reality we can’t do private school and college simultaneously, it is with regret we have to start getting the house ready for sale. DH built the house and it is very difficult for him to let it go. I’m fine with letting it go, but I don’t want to be at a loss selling it. It will be an interesting year…Part of me just wants to throw it all away and start over in a different region; preferably a state with good state colleges at reasonable price.</p>
<p>RobD: Mine is taking national Spanish exam today. He is also taking AIME today which a 3 hr test- I am not sure how long is the national spanish exam . He will be missing all his classes today due to these two exams.</p>
<p>Longhaul: while I’m glad to hear that you’ll get a year’s grace period for the honors & advanced math classes, I’m sorry that you’ll have to move. I hate moving & it’s especially difficult when you’re forced to do so for reasons out of your control. Boo.</p>
<p>Donivrian: D has to miss 2 periods to take the National Spanish Exam so it can’t be more than an hour and 40 minute. AIME and the NSE in one day? Yikes. Sounds like a melted brain type of day ;)</p>
<p>I have never heard of the national Spanish exam either. I will ask S3. We have a lot of native speakers at our school who always ace the AP Spanish exam (and the Spanish SAT2). I wonder if they take it. </p>
<p>I was talking to a parent of a senior today. They are waiting for the UC’s admissions to come out. It makes me nervous just talking about it!!! I fear a year from now I will be a wreck.</p>
<p>I was in line at the grocery store today. Two young men were behind me in line. I guess one was a junior and one was a senior.</p>
<p>Junior: Dude, you are totally going to college next year, are you excited?
Senior: Well, first thing I gotta do is get a prom date. That’s what I am thinking about.</p>
<p>I wanted to hug them. I know I will be a wreck next year. Don’t even go close to the Parents of Class of 2012 thread if you know what is good for you.</p>
<p>Guess it’s foreign language week. S’13 is participating in Congre tomorrow which is the statewide French competition. We cut spring college trip short to make it back home.</p>
<p>A good trip with really beautiful weather up north (PA, NJ, MD). We visited 4 schools in 5 days (plus stops for cheesesteak and taking in some sights). We knocked two schools off the list, added one and confirmed one. So, a net narrowing of the list by one. I guess that’s success.</p>
<p>It really is funny how different schools are about GPAs. The system here is A is a 4.0, B is a 3.0, etc. No plus or minus. Honors classes are plus 0.04 and AP/Dual Enrollment are plus 0.08. These are cumulative and stay part of the GPA. So, a straight A kid with 10 Honors classes and 5 APs would have a cumulative GPA of 4.0+0.40+0.40=4.8. A straight B kid in the same classes would have a 3.8. The top kids graduate with crazy GPAs of around 7.0. As has been mentioned, colleges recalculate. Kind of different. It makes ranking easier, I guess.</p>
<p>BerneseMtn~ I am addicted to that board! I will be a wreck, too. This whole year is going to be long. </p>
<p>D is in Chicago for a band festival. The day before she left there was not one, but two stories of school trips gone wrong. The crash and deaths in Switzerland, and a local school band that went to NYC for a trip, got food poisoning, and half of them were hospitalized in PA. The pics of the busses pulled to the side of the road and students laying on the grass was sad. So far, so good, though for D and the band. </p>
<p>It’s been a low key Spring Break here, but nice to not talk about testing and grades for a few days.</p>
<p>I am curious…My D does not study very much at all. She should be studying more, but usually gets by fairly well without it, so she hasn’t felt the need to do it. Next year her schedule will be more challanging, and she is concerned, but I think it is mostly about the time required for homework, etc, which she is not used to. I never felt innately smart, and studied all of the time in hs and college. I don’t remember learning to do it, I just did it. Do kids learn to study? Does someone teach them how to do it? If she isn’t strong at this skill now is there a way to help her become more studious? I don’t feel that I teach her anything very effectively because her ADD brain has a different organization system than mine. Should we be doing something to address this before college, or just let her learn/deal with as she matures?</p>
<p>Also, I had a strange conversation with my niece, who is a freshman in college. She is was irriated because one of her professors did not put notes on an overhead so that she could copy them. Apparently, that is how most of her hs teachers did it, and she was surprised when I suggested that she take notes from the lecture. She did not know how to take notes. My D takes notes(not that she needs them to study;), but is this also a skill that needs to be learned these days?</p>
<p>Midwestmom–in this day and age when kids expect rubrics for everything, that doesn’t surprise me. </p>
<p>Kids are taking a practice ACT today, final class for their prep class. The high school sponsors a prep class, mostly test taking strategies vs content, so we will have a pretty good idea where they stand after this. They take the ACT for real in April.</p>
<p>Midwest Mom - Not surprising. And this is why colleges are pulling their hair out (many of them) when their incoming freshmen are clueless as to note-taking and paper-writing (without the LOLs and OMGs I mean ) </p>
<p>SteveMA - I am jealous. Step-D’s school had a pretty intensive 2 month SAT prep course, but nothing for the ACT! sigh. Step-D has the review book and will have to do the best on her own for her first time taking it in April. It would be so nice if the school offered a review!</p>
<p>midwestmom- good question. I’ll have to ask my d about that. I remember my d complaining mightily as a 9th grader b/c one of the teachers used an outline format and she had to learn a new way to take notes. Ultimately, she grew to really like writing notes in that format. Now you’ve got me curious!</p>
<p>So, D and I are going to be off on a little college tour the week after her mission trip. We’re heading out to Western PA, to look at Juniata College, Grove City College and the University of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>After that, we are going to spend about three days tooling around Ohio. I’d love to hear from any of you that have been out there before. The list of colleges that we could potentially see include Denison, Kenyon, Wooster, Wittenberg, Univ of Dayton, Ohio Wesleyan, Miami U., Oberlin (although I don’t see this being a fit in any way.) Have any of you been to any of these with your other kids? Thoughts/input?</p>
<p>University of Dayton is one we have looked into. We have not been there on a visit though. I would like DD to go visit there, just don’t know when she will be able to .</p>
<p>In my D’s school they learn a couple different methods for note taking. I do think taking notes is a valuable skill- not just school related. I find my new college grads that work for me, have a very hard time taking notes and summarizing meetings. It never occured to me that they would not have done this in school.
Here is a guide I found on how to study. </p>
<p>My D went to State Literary Meet today & her trio won first place! THEN they recalledit due to a clerical error & now they are second. Scores must have been added wrong at first. Still wonderful to be second in state.</p>
The honors classes will remain for 2012/2013 year.<br>
) </p>