<p>Missypie, are you saying sports and cheer are classes? Are you from Texas by any chance? I’ve had some football players from that state tell me that they take football as a class. I was skeptical, but maybe I shouldn’t have been.</p>
<p>Yep. Sports (I think except for track and lacrosse) are double blocked classes, as well as band, cheer and drill team. They are 2 of your 8 classes. If you do one of these all four years, a full 1/4 of your credits will be in your sport or activity. Kind of crazy to have twice as much football or cheer as math, but welcome to Texas.</p>
<p>Local MS and HS have been on the A day/B day Block schedule for years. All classes are every other day (no double blocks), and only a few electives are one semester classes. All AP classes run all year. AP exams are mandatory if you take the class.</p>
<p>S’s magnet school has all 8 blocks (shorter time) on Monday. Tues/Thurs are Blocks 1-4, Wed/Fri are Blocks 5-8. There are no actual classes in 8th block, its for clubs and other EC’s,tutoring,test make up, etc. Because they are a science & tech HS, I can’t see them not doing a Block schedule.</p>
<p>D2’s block schedule is the same as missipie described 4 blocks every other day. In D2’s HS, 25% of students are IB students and they are on block schedule. The other 75% students are traditional students and these students are on 7 period schedule. IB students (belongs to magnet program) and traditional students are taught by two different sets of teachers.</p>
<p>I’m curious if anyone has experience with the EXPLORE test (precursory to the ACT). My daughter just received the results from her test (she’s a 9th grader) and I’m wondering if these scores tend to stay constant? Suggestions for improvement? If a kid does well on an ACT-type test, how does that compare to SAT scores?</p>
<p>My 2014 son took the Explore Test as part of Midwest Academic Talent Search when he was younger. I do think it is similar to the ACT so after he had taken the Explore for a couple years he started taking the ACT once a year without any additional stress. He scored a 32 composite on the ACT at the end of 8th grade. He and his older brother and sister have found the ACT easier than the SAT but, since the National Merit scholarships are tied to the PSAT, it is probably a good idea to practice the SAT rather then the ACT if you have a strong student who might be in the running for a National Merit scholarship as a junior. The ACT seems to be a better test for kids who are stronger verbally than mathematically because the science section is essentially another reading test so there is 1 math test: 4 language arts tests (including writing) while the SAT is 1 math: 2 language arts (including writing). </p>
<p>I found an old Explore score report from MATS. It says that the mean Explore score for 8th graders nationwide was a composite of 14.7, the MATS kids’ 8th grade mean was 16.2. My son’s composite in 3rd grade was 18 but he is kind of an unusual kid.</p>
<p>The way our high school is set up, the kids take the Explore in 9th grade, PLAN in 10th grade, PSAT in 11th and SAT in 12th. Is there a better way to prepare?</p>
<p>My D’s school does the following:</p>
<p>9th & 10th: PLAN & PSAT in fall & ACT in spring
11th: PSAT and/or ACT in fall & ACT and/or SAT in spring
12th: fall testing of either test for those needing to retake</p>
<p>Check with your state universities to see if they offer test prep courses. The U of MN offers an 8-week course every winter. Students can begin sitting the course in 9th grade & are able retake the course during 10th & 11th grades.</p>
<p>Hi All
Hope everyone is heading into the New Year happy and healthy.</p>
<p>Hope everyone sees good grades for mid year exams. ;)</p>
<p>^The kids took exams before Christmas. The schools started very early this year in order to get first semester over by the holidays. The ods are still waiting for results. Then the district, in its infinite wisdom, took semester 1 off to put up semester 2. So, all classes there were just one semester disappeared! Guess we just get to wait for paper report cards to be mailed. Most of od2’s classes are year long, so it’s less of an issue for her (and she already knows that she didn’t pull off a pure A in English). Od1, my senior, who is right on the edge of top 5% for grad honors, is another story.</p>
<p>Any of your class14 (9th graders) sons/daughters took the PAST in the fall 2010?
D2’14 took the test and just received her result. She did well as a 9th grader. Her school required all IB students in 9th-11th to take the PSAT.</p>
<p>Yes, we are at a private HS and all freshman and sophomores take the PSAT. They take the ACT and SAT as part of the Duke Talent Search in 7th and 8th grades.</p>
<p>Our HS director of guidance pays for a set number of PSATs. He gave priority to juniors and sophomores, but he also opened it to freshmen. My son was one of eight or nine freshmen who took it. He did okay for a 13-year-old student, but he had been hoping to do much better. I chatted with my friend who teaches English at his school, and she looks for his verbal score to jump big time once he’s in her class next year. She does a lot with SAT prep, word origin, vocabulary and essay writing. His math, however, was very good.</p>
<p>Because of snow and some water problems, our school pushed back the end of the semester, and my son is counting the days. If every day included just math and science, he would be thrilled, but he has neither class the second semester. He does realize, however, that he needs to improve his reading skills, so I look for him to spend some additional time with a book.</p>
<p>D took the PSAT. If you were in pre-AP math or English you were automatically signed up and the district paid. She got almost the same score as her older sister did as a freshman…pretty much “above average.”</p>
<p>Can you believe it? Course books are out for next year, and I think students request courses in the next 2 weeks already. Seems early, but I guess the first semester did finish earlier this year. 5 cores are easy. Percussion is a given, but ah, what to do with that remanaining 7th period. Od2’s goal seems to be to take whatever she has to in order to avoid PE. The kid was/is a 3 sport athlete this year. What the heck would she have against PE?</p>
<p>In our state you can count your sport towards your second PE credit so S’14 is done with PE after running cross country this fall. His couch potato younger sibs won’t have it so easy (not that cross country is easy).</p>
<p>All 9th graders take the PSAT at D-14’s school. We are happy with D-14’s score. Unfortunately, D was out of school for a month with mono and now she’s playing catch up. 2 1/2 more weeks until the end of the second marking period, and sooooo many tests and quizzes to make up. UGH!</p>
<p>She’ll be choosing next year’s classes soon. Although she did quite well with three honors classes and a foreign language (while doing marching band and jv cheerleading), I’m still on the fence about the amount of honors classes she should think about for next year. And since her second marking period is so abnormal, with being out with mono, it’s hard to tell right now if she can handle it. </p>
<p>On a better note, although she was at home sick, she was able to muster up enough energy to submit an audition video for the spring musical - and nabbed the part that she wanted!</p>
<p>^ Glad your daughter is feeling better sydsim. That length of time missed is hard to recover from. When choosing honors classes for next year I might consider what the pre-req’s are for any APs she may want to take later. Different schools are set up differently. Here you have to have H Chem before AP Chem, but AP Bio or AP Physics don’t have the same pre-req. Few students get a green light for AP Physics w/o pre-calc. You don’t have to have taken H English in 9/10 to take AP Comp in 11 or AP Lit in 12. Most kids do, but it’s not required. YMMV.</p>
<p>It takes a bit of mapping, and kids do change their minds, but knowing what the pre-req’s are for later classes can help a lot in knowing which classes to build on in which years.</p>
<p>Do you know much about physics v. AP physics? My 2014 son plans to take physics and calculus next year. I wonder if he could take AP physics.</p>
<p>Apollo6, my S14 freshman is taking AP Physics B this year and doing very well. If your son is strong in math, I think he would do well in AP level physics.</p>