Parents of the HS Class of 2015

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
4901

<p>Speaking of the new GC and AP Calc, the counselor talked to D yesterday and convinced her to take AP Calc next year - but I have no idea whether it’s AB or BC! D took pre-AP Calc last year and is taking AP Stats this year. She got word from seniors last year that APCalc is a GPA-killer so she decided not to take it this year, and she was leaning toward just taking regular Calc but the GC told her it was important for her to do it since she’s capable. It was nice to have someone who is NOT ME telling her this. </p>

<p>D is taking SAT in just about a week. She’s not a bit nervous but I am!</p>

4902

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<p>BunHeadGirl attends a k-12 independent school with roughly 200 kids in the high school, and an all school student population of about 800. It is not a magnet school, but is competitive and begins high school level curricula as early as 7th grade.</p>

<p>Most students begin algebra in 7th grade and complete calculus in 11th grade. Those on target usually take statistics and advanced math as seniors. Students also take high school level science beginning in 7th grade as well. The only required science in high school is that all students must take biology and chemistry in 9th & 10th grades. Once an upperclassman, students may take a combination of any of the following sciences:</p>

<p>•Advanced Chemistry(H) (S)
• Physics AB(H)
• Advanced Physics(H) (S)
• Astronomy(H) (S)
• Geology(H) (S)
• Genetics (S)
• Anatomy and Physiology (S)
• Comparative Anatomy (S)
• Molecular Biology (S)</p>

<p>Most of the upper-division sciences are semester long courses. It may appear that BunHeadGirl’s school is a science/math school, but its main focus is on classical education based on the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and partly on the quadrivium (astronomy, arithmetic, music and geometry). Formal grammar instruction and logic is finished by the end of 8th grade. Rhetoric begins in 9th grade and continues through 12th grade with a section Rhet-ethics (a dual study of rhetoric and ethics.</p>

<p>Students cannot graduate until they write a thesis of a minimum of 15 pages, and defend it to a committee consisting of the student’s mentor and others from college/university that specialize in the area of the student’s thesis. </p>

<p>The top 4 theses are selected and those students defend it in front of the whole school along with the mentors, and academia judges. Each of the top students receive a honor’s cord to wear at graduation.</p>

<p>The students begin an elementary level of Latin in roughly 3rd/4th grades, and officially begin Latin studies in 6th or 7th grades. By 11th grade, Latin is all translation. Some students begin an independent study of Greek in 11th grade. Once a high school level sequence of Latin is completed, students may chose to take Japanese, French or Spanish. Latin instruction is usually completed by the 8th or 9th grade. BunHeadGirl chose to continue Latin, as she knew it would be an easy SATII 800, and most likely a 5 on the AP exam this spring. She’ll finish Latin VIII as a senior.</p>

<p>Oh, all students must take guitar along with art history and application courses in the upper school, while lower school students learn to play violin.</p>

4903

<p>Our AP fee is ~$90 as well. We have a large school district (over 150,000 students K-12) and D’s school has about 2200 kids (about 550 kids each grade). All high schools in our county - including D’s school - offer a wide variety of classes depending on students ability and willingness to work. D’s school produced over 40 NMSF this year so the stress level is pretty high. </p>

<p>suzy - best wishes to your D with SAT. My D is anxiously waiting for her ACT score. She was telling me yesterday that she had a nightmare the night before about getting her score back.</p>

4904

<p>Congrats to the students in NHS and the school play…good stuff!!</p>

<p>As far as personalities and school work…there is no right and wrong. Sometimes I feel like my D has a crappy social life but it doesn’t seem to bother her at all so I try not to let it bother me! Perfect example last night…her practice ended at 5:15 and the boys vball team had a game. S was required to stay for the varsity game and I was signed up to work the concession, plus many of her teammates were staying. She asked me to take her home after her brother’s game bc she had 3 tests today. So I drove her home and drove back (my username should be IJustDrive lol). I know she would have had a great time but she wanted to study. I knew better than to force her to stay and it’s not like she said I want to go home to watch TV.</p>

<p>D is in Pre-Calc now which is actually given through a local university taught by a HS teacher. We have the option to pay the tuition and try to get transfer credits or just take the class without paying. She has 3 of those types of classes and 3 AP classes. Honor Physics is actually the only class where no one is asking me for money! We decided not to pay for Pre-calc as she will be in AP Calc next year but we did elect to pay for Humanities and Spanish. We’ll see if she gets transfer credit for them. According to our school’s course selection book, they offer Calc AB and BC senior year and you choose which class. It says BC is AB plus other topics. I’ll find out more at her conference. We pay around $85 per AP exam and they are required. Anyone who doesn’t take the exam does not get the weighted multiplier on their GPA/class rank.</p>

<p>Update on 8th grade Algebra…I spoke to the Math chair who told me S’s teacher did the flipped class last year and was successful bc she had a 94% “passing” rate on the Regents. I can’t stand when my district spews stats like that, it makes me crazy! I told him I wasn’t interested in my son passing and how many students scored in the 90’s? He then said 20% scored “mastery” which is 85 and above. Those of you in NY and familiar with Regents know that scoring in the 90’s should not be difficult for an honors kid. Heck, even I got 90’s on the math Regents back in the day! He then went on to blame the state and how they are forcing all these tests and standards on them. I am absolutely sympathetic, I understand the school’s hands are tied with Common Core crap, however that does not mean they can stop teaching lessons during class time. He really feels that this is the best way to cover all the material and give individualized attention during class and they are not changing the format. I got him to agree to put the textbook page numbers on each assignment so we have something to refer to when S needs our help. This has been so frustrating!</p>

<p>Oh and D’s wrist is a lovely shade of black and purple. Her coach is still shaking his head over how it looks. She is playing through the pain, icing and wrapping it.</p>

4905

<p>Fingers crossed for a good ACT result FromMD. When are you expecting scores? </p>

<p>keepmecruisin, I played high school volleyball. The thought of playing with a bruise like that makes me cringe! That’s gotta hurt. </p>

<p>bunheadmom, that sounds like an incredible curriculum for the kids.</p>

4906

<p>Bunheadmom, Your daughter’s school sounds outstanding! To think that she is a serious dancer AND doing that kind of curriculum!</p>

4907

<p>My daughter told me that her goal was to get at least an 80 on her AP physics test, so I feel she is making nice progress on the " perfectionist" front. Her actual grade gave her a nice confidence boost but at least she understands that she may not always get that type of grade. Slacker we can make the trade later today because she wants to go out driving!</p>

<p>I remember reading that if kids do not take the AP test then they can’t get the weighted bump. </p>

<p>BunHead- wow!! That’s quite a school!
Good to all the test takers!</p>

4908

<p>suzy - ACT will start posting scores on Oct 7th. Some kids on CC ACT thread trying to figure out how to get the scores early by “tapping” into ACT website “unofficially” if you know what I mean. :)</p>

4909

<p>Anyone else with a kid in IB HLmath? I kinda understand the AP math courses but I don’t know anything about the IB courses. My 2015 son took math through precal and AP stats in the US but is now taking IB HL math at an international boarding school in the UK.</p>

4910

<p>I do know about that “trick” FromMD - I’ve bookmarked that thread and was going to send it to you. ;)</p>

4911

<p>You can see the scores on the ACT website before they post them officially? I have a lot to learn ;)</p>

4912

<p>This reminds me of when my older one applied to schools and I logged on to each school to make sure they had everything ( yes I realize that was her job…) and I was able to tell that she was accepted just by the way they posted certain things. For example one school assigned her a student ID, and when I researched this particular type of ID I learned that it is used on campus for different things.</p>

<p>I know I am bad…</p>

4913

<p>suzy - thanks!</p>

<p>keepme - That’s what kids are talking about. Someone figured out there’s a glitch and they can use it to “see” the scores when ACT internally post them. I don’t recommend it thought. </p>

<p>Apollo - at D’s school IB HL comes 1-2 years after AP Cal BC. After AP Cal BC, kids can take either Mluti-variable Cal or IB HL Math. D plans to take it next year since she is in BC this year.</p>

4914

<p>Ok, I know this is a silly question, but for those of you whose kids are taking the SAT in the fall, do they not take the PSAT this year? Did they take it last year?</p>

4915

<p>momsings, my D did take it last year (and the year before) just as practice - the school administered it. She will be taking it “for real” on October 19th.</p>

4916

<p>AP exam fee here is about $90. It is a bargain considering how much college tuition costs these days. AP exam is encouraged but not required. Students are allowed to skip finals if they take national AP exams instead. Our HS has 1300-1400 kids for each of 11th and 12th grade. 9th and 10th graders are at a separate campus, so this year is a new campus environment for S2. It is a competitive suburban public school with 34 NMSF seniors this year and 28 AP classes offered.</p>

<p>momsings-my s took practice PSAT last year and will take PSAT for real next month. He is not competing for NMF at all. It is just what it is-a Preliminary SAT for him.</p>

4917

<p>S is not on FB all night either, these days. He’s on Twitter. H, who has same name as S, was picking up something at the seafood store the other day and 19 yo kid behind the counter recognized his name, started telling H how he follows S on Twitter.</p>

<p>Well we are in a public city school district, where all the city employees live who insist on biking/busing to work as a non-negotiable quality of life issue. That’s my H. I would’ve been happy to go out a bit further and live where we could have a horse. Only one ‘real’ private HS around, Catholic. Plus a couple of very tiny ones that extend beyond K-8 but don’t have many HS level students. The rest of private schools go through middle school.</p>

<p>School district is strapped for cash because legislature no longer allows districts to raise decent money by referendum, keeps a tight lid on things. So we have to, for example, organize parent drivers for all soccer games when everyone else comes on buses. Actually in our district it’s uneven. The 2 HSs with huge population of low-SES get buses because they’d never be able to find enough parent drivers, while we get to drive.</p>

<p>We get 20some NMF at each of our 2 HSs with only moderately high number of low-SES kids.</p>

<p>S was up til 4 am after game last night studying AP Bio and other stuff. The other night he didn’t go to bed at all! I had no input into his schedule. He just told me what classes he was taking. I remarked at the time that it looked brutal, but he was unconcerned. Then he didn’t exactly start the year going gangbusters. I mentioned a few times that these classes are going to be a lot of work and he’d better hang out with friends less on weekends so he doesn’t get behind, but he blew me off. As I expected, realization hit him this week and he buckled down. But valuable time lost when he could’ve got a good start and now it’ll be scrambling like mad the rest of semester to make up for lazy September. But he had to see it himself. He’s too old for me to order him to organize his time a certain way. If I tried, it would backfire. He’s not that kind of compliant kid in any case (I want one of those, please. They didn’t send me the kids I ordered, need to call customer service for tech support.)</p>

4918

<p>Oh my! So much activity already this morning!</p>

<p>Momsings, as far as I know, all juniors take the PSAT this October. Some juniors elect to take the SAT near the same time as the PSAT, the reasoning being that it’s just a longer version of the same test and they have already done the preparation or are in the mindset for the PSAT. Many juniors may have taken the PSAT last year as sophomores but only for practice.</p>

<p>Slackermom, I have both the oblivious optimist and the petrified pessimist in this family. The oldest girl’s mantra in high school was, “It’s not a big deal. Why are you freaking out?” This alternated with “but that’s a good grade for this school!” (fantasy. It was not.) I get to have a wee bit of revenge now that she’s editing other people and they don’t turn their articles in on time or in finished format. She’s not quite so laid back anymore.</p>

<p>BunHeadMom, what an amazing curriculum! You are incredibly lucky to have such a school in your area and to have a daughter who can benefit from it.</p>

<p>Twogirls, I could also sometimes see when older Ds were going to be accepted to their schools. They didn’t believe me but it was something you could glean from correspondence or status checks. </p>

<p>Keepmecruisin, that logic makes me crazy too. There are several very high performing schools in this area and I always laugh that they could have an empty desk at the front of the room and the kids would still be just as high performing as ever. I hope they come to a resolution or that the approach is manageable for this year anyway.</p>

<p>We had a huge blowup last night that ended with me losing my temper. I had already had a long and disagreeable day so I had no patience to start. My bad. Then when D started planning out ridiculously involved history essays that she’d have to write during a single class period, I just lost it. “Stop making everything more complicated than it needs to be!” I shouted. I texted my husband (conveniently at the gym) and told him to come home RIGHT THAT MINUTE and deal with HIS daughter. Then I left the room and dove into a book. We had a reasonably calm morning but the temperature is still a bit cool.</p>

4919

<p>celesteroberts, lol - I like how you describe your son. you need to tell me how you’re approaching the college search and application process. My daughter sounds like your son. I remember going with her to register for 10th classes (and not saying much) but last year, D just came home with what she picked for her junior schedule. We do talk beforehand about what she finds interesting. The first time I have taken a stand is this crazy calculus thing.</p>

<p>momsings, D’s high school has 9,10 and 11 graders take the PSATs but only the 11th grade one counts. Like sunnydayfarm’s S, the PSAT is pretty meaningless because D is not in contention for NMF. She’d rather focus on the SAT.</p>

4920

<p>My D will take SAT on Oct. 5th.
Sophos and Juniors are eligible to take PSAT at school on Oct. 16. Her score as a Sopho was 228 (in Illinois) so she is aiming for NMF.
Hopefully, a good score can save us big bucks in college.</p>

<p>As a Sopho, she took two AP courses, US History and Cal BC. She got 5 on both AP tests. She took SAT subject on these two right after and got two perfect socres(800).
My advice is to take SAT subject once you finish your AP courses.</p>