<p>OHmom, yes she can do that but most schools want the ACT with writing.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that the kids are feeling positive about the test! </p>
<p>Apollo, don’t give up yet. My D told me yesterday that she feels much better about math after having been in the highest math level in high school. She says that she is for more comfortable grappling with tough problems. The classes sound very similar to what your S is experiencing. The tests are excruciating and it’s not uncommon for kids to have trouble answering many of the questions. I don’t think she’s come out of any of them feeling as if she’s passed. He may find that answering 1-1/2 questions out of 6 was a good result.</p>
<p>D was in there for 5 hours! Seems like it took awhile for them to get going. She said test was OK. She thought reading was harder than expected. I told her I was surprised, as that’s usually her strong suit. She said maybe it was because she had done NO prep for reading, only writing and math. What???</p>
<p>We dropped D at 7:45, and they apparently didn’t let them in the building until 8 am. We then went on our ways (work-related activities for both of us). D walked home after the test, and was supposed to be at her violin studio at 1:45. I got home at 1:30 and she had just walked in the door. A fast lunch and out we ran. Today would have been a good day for her to have had a drivers license. </p>
<p>So now she’s totally spent, having both sat the SAT and played for a crowd this afternoon. Not much productive will happen here the rest of today!</p>
<p>My DD came out feeling pretty good about the test today. Math was easier than she thought it would be, CR is always the easiest for her, and she though the essay prompt was lame but managed to produce something ‘decent’ so we will see. She thought the math questions were easier than the ones in the PSAT prep books she has used, so hopefully this will be true of the PSAT as well. Then the ACT in December and we will have a good feel for next steps in the college selection process. Planning to retake both tests at least once unless her scores are really high. Sure would be nice to have all testing out of the way by January!</p>
<p>Sounds like most of our kids that tested today thought it went ok, great to see that. I hope all of their scores meet their hopes/expectations.</p>
<p>My DD is looking more closely at Alabama. Meanwhile my well meaning sister in law keeps pushing St Olaf, where her daughter is having a great experience. She is doing their Global Semester abroad right now- seven countries over 5 1/2 months. If our pockets were deep enough to pay that big, it would probably be on our list but DD really wants to get out of MN. Actually we had the funds to send her to Cardiff ( in the UK) that would really be her first choice.</p>
<p>At St. Olaf it is possible to get up to half the $50k/yr cost covered by merit scholarships But if you have a relative attending there, you probably already know that. I guess if going OOS is one of your D’s criteria, it’s not a match anyway.</p>
<p>Their orchestra played a concert with my D13’s youth orchestra during app season and very savvy, brought their admissions staff who set up a table outside the auditorium with all kinds of info. A few of D’s older music friends are in the music program there and were always badgering her to apply. She loved the orchestra and was tempted, but ultimately decided she wanted a larger school and particularly a less secluded setting, so didn’t apply there or to any schools like that. It is a fine school.</p>
<p>Glad to hear everyone had a good testing day yesterday. D didn’t take SAT/SATII yesterday but we are anxiously waiting for her ACT score - possibly coming out tomorrow. I hope it comes out tonight before we hit the bed so I don’t have to wait until after school tomorrow to find out.</p>
<p>@suzy - enjoyed your D’s “no prep for reading” story. It’s not funny but funny… :)</p>
<p>@herandhis - glad your D didn’t forget the last 30 problems this time! It helps to do all 90!! :)</p>
<p>Echoing FromMD-I am glad that testing went well yesterday for the 2015’s who took the SAT & SATII tests, and wish good luck to those awaiting ACT scores this week.</p>
<p>Good luck to everybody awaiting test scores. Next weekend is a 3 day weekend ( Columbus Day) - told my daughter it’s the perfect time to take an ACT practice test!! </p>
<p>This week will be rough because she has 3 games, but the good news is that the season ends in 2 weeks. She just told me that she may do winter track… Ugh! May be a good thing because it gets her away from her books for a little bit.</p>
<p>Ah, next weekend, if anything, is a PSAT run-through. But perhaps it’s just a sleep in late and write the English paper kind of weekend. (She has 4 days, not 3).</p>
<p>I forgot about the PSAT LOL. She took a practice PSAT in August and has been studying for the SAT, so at this point it is what it is. I want her to take a practice science section from the ACT- it’s only 35 minutes and she promised me she would do it next weekend. Hopefully she does it without complaining.</p>
<p>Responding to the discussion about St. Olaf and going out of state - We also have a First Year at St. Olaf (D13) who is having a great experience so far - and that’s with not everything going right, but with great response from the school when there’s a problem that my daughter has to solve. (She has to solve issues on her own, as we are 1200 miles away, so it’s good to see that the school is meeting her half way.)</p>
<p>I agree that there is a huge value to going far enough away from home that you are really on your own. It doesn’t have to be for everyone, as some kids will thrive closer to home, but if the kid wants to put some distance between home life and college life, I think that is a goal worth supporting - the more they do for themselves, the more their confidence grows. </p>
<p>It does mean that you don’t see as much - games, concerts, etc. And I do envy the parents at my kids’ boarding school who were able to be there for the holiday festivities and other events (though we did get there for parents’ weekend). But things have changed a lot since we were kids - when I went 2000 miles away for boarding school and college, there were once a week letters. Now there’s all-you-can-eat texting and calling and Facebook and email - so much so that there are days when I exchange more information with my kids now than I did when they were home. </p>
<p>Based on what I’ve been reading on this thread, I think we all know this already. But I just had a conversation with a colleague who doesn’t want to let his kid go farther away than a 1 hour drive, and with the benefit of an outsider’s view, she probably needs to be a little farther away than that!</p>
<p>ssacdfamily- Not surprised your DD is enjoying St Olaf, they are an excellent school and very focused on the student experience. I know some of the FA people there and while it may be possible for some to get 25k in Merit Aid, my DD would be looking at quite a bit less based on her GPA ( high test scores but GPA somewhat lower) and her EC’s are not as strong, she had a very rough freshman year emotionally. She’s come a long, long way and the fact that she even wants to go out of state is amazing. I went OOS and highly recommend it for any student who wants to do so, it is a good thing to live amoung people with different backgrounds, different life experiences, in a town very different from the place you grew up. Ultimately I came home and raised my family close to where I grew up, but would not trade that experience. SO we will support her desire to do that, if it makes sense financially.</p>
<p>I know a student who wants to go OOS and the parents say she can’t, has to be within 3 hours of home. This is a student who could have a wide choice of schools to attend with siginicant merit aid. I hope they change their minds…both of them commuted from home so they are nervous about the idea of a dorm at all, let along getting on a plane to get there.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that nobody was too traumatized by the SATs on Saturday. suzy100, I would be going “what!?!?” about the no reading prep as well, it’s impossible to figure out what goes through their heads sometimes. But hopefully if it’s your D’s strong suit she’ll have done fine. </p>
<p>herandhismom, I remember your SAT II story from June, glad to hear it went well this time!</p>
<p>We have PSAT prep coming up here too over the next week. D’s school is closed tomorrow for a teacher meeting–yay, more PSAT prep time! She was at a friend’s house this evening and when I got there to pick her up she told me that another girlfriend had left early because her mom insisted on her getting home to do PSAT review. That made me feel much less of an ogre for telling her that she has to spend at least 3 hours tomorrow reviewing.</p>
<p>D is also doing some PSAT prep in school. their English teacher went over the CR and W from a PSAT practice test with them last week and they’ll do more this coming week. Not sure if they’ve done any math prep, she’s in Pre-Calc which for half of the kids in the school is a 12th grade subject.</p>
<p>And for those of you who have been following the escaped parakeet saga, thanks for the good wishes but unfortunately there’s no good news I’ve put out a cage with millet, water, mirrors, and played recordings of parakeet calls but the only birds coming around are sparrows and finches.</p>
<p>Crepes so sorry to hear that your parakeet has not returned. It is also refreshing to hear about the mom who picked her kid up early to do SAT review. Of course mine hardly goes out ( LOL) except for school functions, but I also keep telling her about the schedule she must follow. I keep it small- 60 minutes at a time. She already took a real PSAT ( from my older kids junior year) in the summer so now it’s just practicing with the SAT. If I hit her with 3 hours now she would flip due to all of her other work, but eventually it will happen. </p>
<p>The prep she is doing seems to be working ( don’t want to jinx it). For the first 2-3 weeks her scores basically stayed the same, but now they are slowly starting to creep up. We have 9 more weeks until the SAT and 10 more until the ACT and I am hoping with continued work she will get the score on at least one test that will finally end this misery. It’s really about practicing the sections and understanding mistakes, and doing vocabulary work. I am hoping slow and steady wins the race- she will be putting in about 5 hours a week for about 14 weeks, plus whatever she did in the summer. Worst case is that she will do this again in January and February. She has been studying her vocabulary book and making vocabulary lists of SAT words each time she does a CR section. </p>
<p>Wishing everyone a stress free day. Mine has a game out of the county ( ugh- last one thank goodness) which will get her home by 7:45. Thankfully she did all of her physics which is due tomorrow, but I still anticipate a late night. If we can avoid a melt down or a frantic text message than my day will be ok.</p>
<p>Good to see the SAT went will this weekend for everyone here.</p>
<p>crepes, really sorry to hear the parakeet didn’t come back. three hours, wow. That’s a lot of studying. I don’t think I’ve ever put in that much time. D does the slow and steady, studying at most a hour a day. I think she started studying in August (I got the books in July) for the October ACT and November SAT. She’s seeing the improvement now, after learning how to answer the trick questions. With two/three weeks to go, she’s just doing practice problems. I don’t think she’s ever done a timed practice test. She didn’t find timing an issue during the June exams, just answering the questions correctly ;-)</p>
<p>Last night H was called back to work (federal employee) so he’s no longer hanging around the house. He was not a happy camper last week at all. The only saving grace for him was he took care of S when S was off last Thursday and Friday. I don’t know if he’ll get paid now or later, but I’d rather H work without pay than mope at home without pay.</p>
<p>I have determined that vocabulary is D’s kryptonite. When she does practice sections she tells me the ones she got wrong are all vocab. She has had 3 vocab quizzes in AP English…the first one she got a 95 but the last 2 she got an 80. Her English average is in a scary place right now.</p>
<p>I partly blame the school district. They do some vocab in 5th and 6th grade and then they don’t touch that or grammar again until 11th grade. I just don’t get it. The child was and is a reader. Now granted, it isn’t always great literature and it tends to be more Pretty Little Liars, but still. This is the child who tackled Harry Potter as an 8 year old.</p>
<p>It’s like she has a mental block against it. I thought someone said the ACT has less vocab…I’m really leaning towards skipping the SAT all together.</p>
<p>I got her the Direct Hits books but it’s hard to study those words with all the other work she has. I’m thinking of making flashcards from the book and starting my 8th and 6th grader on them now. They don’t even like to read.</p>
<p>On the good news front…D was accepted into the NHS and the induction ceremony is Thursday night. Of course she has an away game the day of the “mandatory” rehearsal. I told her to make sure she talks to the advisor and she bit my head off saying one of her teammates probably will. Ok, but will that teammate speak for everyone who will miss? Step away from the argument…let her handle it…</p>
<p>crepes, I’m sorry about the parakeet. My friend never did get back to me - wish I could have given you the magic answer. Have you checked any lost and founds around there to see if anybody found him?</p>
<p>I’m starting to wish that I had made my D study more for the SAT/PSAT. (Still some time for the PSAT I guess.) She saw a tutor, but other than that one hour a week (and a small amount of prep for that one hour a week) she didn’t really study and I’m wishing I had been on top of her more about that.</p>
I’ve put out a cage with millet, water, mirrors, and played recordings of parakeet calls but the only birds coming around are sparrows and finches.</p>