<p>Sunnyday I think I would show up with a gift card tucked inside a birthday card.</p>
<p>So when is a re-score appropriate? D thought that she deserved the AP scores she got (and they were all good) but she does tend to undersell herself. Still, it’s hard to complain about a “passing” or better score.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. It sounds like it might be worth it for D to take both English AP exams if she has the stamina. One of my daughters did that but in her case it made sense. She’s a writer and wanted to be sure to show her focus. I don’t think it got her out of freshman seminar though. In fact, I don’t think any of her APs got her out of anything even though her scores were very high. From what I understand, the two tests are essentially the same with the language exam focusing more on nonfiction passages. I hadn’t realized that there was such a disparity in the scoring of the different exams but after seeing some of the writing coming out of D’s school, I’m not surprised. I also wonder how many kids take Lit vs. Calculus. The kids who take the AP Calc BC exam are very well prepared and very skilled. Every single kid in D’s school is required to take the AP English Literature or the AP English Language exam. I don’t know how representative this is but if it is at all common, it makes sense that they aren’t going to do as well.</p>
<p>Celeste, thank you so much for that information about rescoring. I had no idea.</p>
<p>Sunnydayfun, I agree with the gift card idea slipped into the card. </p>
<p>The bedtime has already changed. D was up until midnight last night and there was no test in sight. Junior year is off and running.</p>
<p>My daughter has been averaging 6 hours of sleep per night lately. The same thing happened last year at this time. She will have more time at the end of October when fall sports ends. Thankfully she can sleep a little later tomorrow, but I doubt she will. She claims to have six tests next week but I think she is exaggerating. Today we got an email about Naviance, transcripts and PSAT. Yes junior year has begun! 3girls our school does not have that AP test requirement for the whole school.</p>
<p>The requirement that all juniors take AP English language or literature probably isn’t all that common after all but it’s par for the course in the private schools I’m familiar with. Parents and kids really don’t like it: if a kid is really strong in a different area why force that child to take this class and this test? He will likely learn more writing skills in a class that is more appealing and still teaches well. If a kid is really strong in this area, why have him sit in a class with people who don’t want to be there and slow the pace and level? I’ve never understood why history and science are primarily self-selecting and math has obvious boundaries but English is seen as accessible to everyone. I heard from a bunch of unhappy parents who are VERY upset about the requirement. They’ve just learned of it and they are not happy. This is a school that is moving away from so-called AP classes so I’m guessing that they will start offering classes that teach at the AP level or beyond but don’t have an AP test requirement associated with them. My guess then is that the kids and parents will realize that they had a better deal with the AP.</p>
<p>D is taking a full fledged practice SAT under test conditions this weekend.</p>
<p>^^^ That ties into one of my pet peeves. It seems to be perfectly OK to say “I’m terrible at math!” One hears it often, almost like a brag. But one never seems to hear folks claim “I can barely read!” or “I’m functionally illiterate!” Folks who read poorly are usually ashamed and take pains to keep it hidden. Why is hating math considered socially acceptable, indeed even admirable?</p>
<p>Celeste, Thanks for the interesting story on AP rescoring. My 2013 daughter got a 2 on AP bio in 2011 after her teacher predicted a 4. I seriously considered asking for it to be re scored but I didn’t. She’s not going to be happy retaking biology for her environmental science minor but I think its too late now. ;)</p>
<p>Any kids interested in music composition and/or computer science here? My 2015 son is loving his IB music course and is busy writing a percussion ensemble piece with computer software. I may need to start looking at that combination for college choices.</p>
<p>Mihcal, I agree that there’s an odd pride in innumeracy–not sure if it’s anti-intellectualism or showing that one is a regular person and not a nerd or geek?</p>
<p>Apollo6, D is enjoying her Advanced Music Theory class; last year in Music Theory 1 she had fun experimenting with the ScoreWriter program and coming up with tunes in different keys. She’s looking forward to AP Music Theory next year. I really don’t think she’ll be a music major in college, though. She wanted to take a computer programming class but it didn’t fit her schedule so they gave her a Photoshop class instead–at least she likes the teacher.</p>
<p>D took a practice PSAT this am and came out asking why a senior would be there–one girl asked “So, are we all seniors here?” and everyone else stared and shook their heads. I told her that I’ve heard of people thinking that PSAT means Practice SAT and she said that then that girl might be thinking she was taking a practice Practice SAT :)</p>
<p>Soooo, there’s this boy…<br>
Oh boy, not sure I’m ready for this. D is meeting a boy at the movies later today. I’ve only met him briefly. D has been the jeans and t-shirt type, but lately has let her friends take her shopping for a dress for an occasion they are all cooking up. Times are changing. Hanging on for the ride!</p>
<p>That’s sweet shoboemom! My D has Homecoming tonight. She’s excited because she got her hair done did. She told me it’s the hairdo she’s dreamed of having since she was in 3rd grade. :)</p>
<p>OhMomof2 - did your kiddo take the ACT this morning? Anybody else? Wondering how they felt about it.</p>
<p>I guess the “bad at math” thing is just such a shared experience, more so than
“Bad at reading”. But I do hear people say they rarely read, and people do admit to not really being able to understand contracts and that sort of thing. </p>
<p>I am still trying to encourage D to study some for the PSAT…just SOME! I am really surprised that she is avoiding it. She is usually good at self study type projects. Her new “I’m not going to stress.” attitude seems to be stressing me!</p>
<p>Apollo6- Mine is interested in both music and CS. She likes what she’s seen of music theory but hasn’t the time for AP Music Theory (which would be mostly a self-study).</p>
<p>She’s involved in a hacking competition this weekend, and I miss her!</p>
<p>shoeboemom</p>
<p>hahaha. My d1 her first boyfriend xmas junior year, she broke his heart. 2nd boyfriend her senior year, they broke each others hearts. 3rd boyfriend sophomore yr at college and they are still dating.</p>
<p>D2 has loads of guy friends. Her homecoming date inquired if she was free this weekend. She is so busy the girl can hardy breathe, so she ( hopefully kindly) declined. Her words " when does she have time to date". Hope the date went well.</p>
<p>Suzy- Hope they have a great homecoming. Wish we could share pics. I would love to see pics of all your kids!</p>
<p>That would be fun to see pix- oh well! We have Homecoming in a few weeks. She still needs a dress but I can’t see her leaving the house to get one. I also wonder how the ACT went this morning.</p>
<p>S’s HS scheduled homecoming on PSAT day.That’s how you can tell we live in ACT country. It’s also soccer boys regionals that week. So we found another HS that does it on Weds morning and he’s going to take it there.</p>
<p>I managed to get him to do a bit of PSAT stuff in late summer. He always wants to do the fun math sections because he can ace those, instead of the reading that he bombs. Not very effective practice.</p>
<p>His older sister refused to practice for the PSAT at all,was in a contrary mood that fall.“Why would I waste time on that? I’ll never score high enough for National Merit no matter how hard I study.” “I would never go to any of those schools that have the big scholarships anyway. They’re all awful places.” Etc. I gave up. She did grudgingly agree to at least TAKE the PSAT. Flash forward. Today she is at one of those awful schools with a full tuition NMF scholarship on top of her music scholarship. Made NMSF by a hair.</p>
<p>The AP rescore issue was difficult. I had heard that only a few people manage to get scores raised and mostly they just take people’s money and tell them ‘no change’. So I felt kind of silly sending them money, like a chump. But she was adamant that she had done well and lowest she got before was a 4 on a self-study. I was actually flabbergasted that they changed her score.I figured maybe she got off track on her MC bubbles. We had a spat about that- How could I think she is that dumb and she always checks that as she goes along.</p>
<p>Celeste, your post made me laugh. My big girl refused to practice for the PSAT or SAT. She was adamant that she wasn’t going to “play the game.” Then she came home with the papers to advance to National Merit finalist, threw them at me and scowled, “you don’t actually expect me to do this, do you?” It turned out that one of her favorite schools did give scholarship money to National Merit scholars and she came very, very close to going there.</p>
<p>I hope the ACT went well for all who took it today!</p>
<p>I’d love to see the homecoming pix too. Boys! Yikes! That hasn’t entered the picture here but shoboe, it sounds sweet.</p>
<p>D took the ACT with Writing this morning. She thought it went “ok” and felt like another practice exam from the Redbook. She said she had enough time except the Science section which she finished it on time but wasn’t able to check her answers. She is happy ACT is done (for now). If your kid is taking the ACT, make sure she is comfortable with the problems in the RB. PSAT next.</p>
<p>D is home from the movies. She says all went well.</p>
<p>3 girls, boys weren’t even remotely on the radar, until recently and suddenly (at least it sure seems that way to me!).</p>
<p>Well, it’s good to know we are in good company with other kids avoiding studying for the PSAT. I looked it up and a school she likes does give a small (but helpful) scholarship for it. I just really want her to go in prepared since she has also signed up to do the SAT a couple weeks later. It would, of course, be so nice if she did well on the first take.<br>
I do love seeing all the homecoming and prom pics on fb, but I rarely post pics of my own D.</p>
<p>D and her friends are doing their own anti-homecoming, group event. They say dances, with the exception of prom, which is better chaperoned, tend to have a lot of ‘inappropriate’ things going on, so they are choosing to avoid that. Can’t argue much with that plan. So they are still going to get dressed up and go out to eat.</p>
<p>Our Homecoming is very well chaperoned, but the activities that happen after are not and some kids get into trouble. Thankfully my daughter stays away- she will either come home after the dance or go to a local restaurant with 2 or 3 girls. She has been doing some SAT work but has not touched the ACT red book since the summer. She really needs to start that up again given that I signed her up for both tests in December.</p>