<p>FromMD My D. said exactly the same thing!! 
:D</p>
<p>We are making some progress. She said " let me do my school work first and then we will talk."</p>
<p>twogirls â The College Board swears up and down [it</a> ainât so](<a href=âhttp://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/scores/essay]itâ>Understanding SAT Scores â SAT Suite | College Board), but length and neatness are probably the two most important factors in essay score. Here are a couple of articles about it:
[NYTimes</a> | SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors](<a href=âSAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors - The New York Timesâ>SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors - The New York Times)
[Princeton</a> Review | SAT Essay Tips | Five Tips for Writing a Great SAT Essay](<a href=âhttp://www.princetonreview.com/sat-essay.aspx]Princetonâ>5 SAT Essay Tips for a Great Score | The Princeton Review)</p>
<p>We are having a relaxed day before the EC race begins in a few hours. I woke up to the following song blaring throughout the house: [Queen</a> - âAnother One Bites the Dustâ - YouTube](<a href=âQueen - Another One Bites the Dust (Official Video) - YouTubeâ>Queen - Another One Bites the Dust (Official Video) - YouTube)</p>
<p>BHGâs advanced chemistry and genetics test scores are posted in Power School, and in celebration she woke up the whole neighborhood! She and the class of 2015 âbadboyâ joined forces as study partners and are brutally acing the tests to the angst of her friends and classmates. Gotta love the genius guy in badboy guise. </p>
<p>At this rate, BunHeadGirlâs increasing GPA positions her for acceptances at all the schools on her list. Her goal is 5 semesters with a GPA of 3.9 or higher. Sheâs on track to do so. She just needs to hold on until the end of 1st semester when anything chemistry is out of her life until the AP study sessions begin in March. From 2nd semester until graduation, BHGâs science courses are all biology basedâmolecular genetics, anatomy & physiology, and comparative anatomy. If she has to double up, then sheâll also take astronomy. </p>
<p>Although 11th grade is suppose to be the most grueling of the high school years, for my daughter, this year is much easier and enjoyable. It does not hurt that boys are noticing her. Or, is BHG now noticing boys? Well, for what it is worth, sheâs moved up quite a bit in the school âpopularityâ hierarchy, which she finds amusing since she has not changed outside of growing out her hair. Her close school friends bask in the attention even though BHG finds it distracting, if not embarrassing. It could be that BHG has a competitive streak. Her house won several events during homecoming week, so they have several out of uniform days, not to mention lead all the houses in points. Sheâs good at being Prefect by leading and persuading a majority of her house members to participate in house related activities. Sheâs now organizing meetings with the other Prefects to come up with this yearâs charitable drives, volunteer activities, and Snow Daze dance theme and ideas. Letâs just say that last yearâs Prefects dropped the ball on organizing this yearâs homecoming dance, which was almost a bust due to lack of decorations and refreshments. </p>
<p>Iâm sorry for the long post, but it makes my heart sing to see BHG so happy with where she is in school academically and socially. Thanks!</p>
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<p>I agree, Mical1. I read those articles to BHG 2 summers ago, and she used the neatness and length to her advantage, along with a including a counter argument resulting in a 10 on the ACT essay. </p>
<p>We found an italic handwriting program [Handwriting</a> Success - Getty-Dubay Productions | Write Now](<a href=âhttp://www.handwritingsuccess.com/write-now.php]Handwritingâ>Write Now - Handwriting Success) 2 summers ago that increased BHGâs neatness and printing speed, but still met the requirement to print and not use cursive for the essay. The italic handwriting also increased grades on in class essays and other writings as BHG used to write via the chicken scratch handwriting method.</p>
<p>Thanks you guys for the encouragement on the essay. Iâll have to make sure she knows that she has to write neatly and at greater length and with a lot less concern about the content. Lol! This is so not her style. Iâve already counseled her that a mediocre essay score wonât harm her enough to worry about it so much. Maybe this will help too.</p>
<p>BunHeadMom, it is so nice to hear your happiness and pride for your D! She has really come into her own, hasnât she? Thatâs wonderful. I think itâs interesting that the dreaded junior year can be the best year for kids. Mine is working harder but is a lot happier than she was freshman or sophomore years.</p>
<p>Twogirls, I think I have a (very old) PSAT hanging around the house too. Thanks for the idea! Meanwhile, my girl was concerned because she wanted to practice and she had nothing to practice. So I asked her, based on what you all have been saying, whether the school sent one home. OH yeah! I forgot! They put them in our boxes! She scurried off then, not to take the test but to practice violin.</p>
<p>D is upstairs supposedly taking the PSAT that came home from school. Of course I have no way of knowing how many twitter breaks sheâs taking. Or if she started from the back ;)</p>
<p>I am intrigued by the handwriting/length theories. That bodes very well for D as she has beautiful handwriting and suffers from verbal diarrhea. She tends to write as much as she possibly can without regard to run-on sentences. I am constantly telling her the period is her friend lol. Now my boys will be another story. My 6th grader is lefty and has kindergarten handwriting, ugh!</p>
<p>BHGâŠwonderful for you and your D!! Itâs so nice to see them happy and content.</p>
<p>3girls3cats</p>
<p>I should have posted earlier. My D1 never mastered the SAT essay. Despite scoring 5âs on all her language related APâs. Her highest essay score was an 8. Her SAT was a 2290. Now that D2 is going through the process and has had a SAT test prep class we have been discussing this. D1 is a great writer, but a factual one. She is concise and not a " warm and fuzzy" writer. She also has small, very child like handwriting. We both wonder if this was the problem. I tend to think D1 was writing over the examinerâs skill level . LOL</p>
<p>Been a rough week. Softball team finished 3rd in the regions. Very disappointing for the girls, since they went in #1 seed. They are a young team ( only one senior who was hurt) , so basically they will be the same team next year and can come back older and stronger) They do still advanced to round 1 of states. We expect to be hammered, since we still have 4 injured!</p>
<p>PinotNoir: âMy kid is sitting on the couch wrapped in a sheet watching The Office reruns.â
This made me laugh! That sounds like my D. Sheâs been watching a lot of reruns on Netflix.</p>
<p>You people are making me awfully nervous about summer stuff!! Iâm pretty sure D will just be getting a job again this summer, although we are looking at some of the programs you all recommended. No PSAT prep here as far as I can tell. D is having friends over for a bonfire tonight - no school tomorrow. We had a loooong day of shopping and Iâm pooped. Going to have that glass of wine and watch The Walking Dead Tonight. 
(No work for me tomorrow either.)</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the disappointing result Sally22, but itâs nice that so much of her team will be back next year!</p>
<p>Also, update on the teacher issue. My D made me promise not to email the teacher. 
I will abide by that, but itâs going to kill me.</p>
<p>^^^ When my D tells me she doesnât want me to email the teacher, my response is usually âThen you talk to him and report back to me what he says.â</p>
<p>Mihcal thanks for the info. BHG glad to hear that your daughter is doing so well!! Sally I am sorry to hear about your tough week. </p>
<p>Suzy my daughter gets mad at me when I email teachers. Last week my daughter was screaming that she has a 70 in her IB English class, so of course I emailed the teacher even though I knew that she does not have anything close to a 70. The teacher emailed me back and said she was puzzled as to why my daughter thinks she has a 70 because she has an A. I donât really know why I emailed other than I was really annoyed that my kid spews out this information that is completely false. I will try my best from now on not to send any more emails. I think the school thinks I am crazy. </p>
<p>So I got her to do the first section of the PSAT and that was it because she has to finish her application for one of her clubs. Perhaps she will finish later, or maybe not. I should know better than to make her take one of these tests after working all day. I think she will ultimately do fine on the SAT, but I think her ACT will be much stronger. She is able to pull off 33âs and 34âs ( composite) on practice tests without studying, under timed conditions. Her SAT scores are not quite at that level. She will take both tests twice and then probably call it quits. Not sure if she will make NMF, but itâs fine. The SAT tutor keeps telling me that the SAT gets harder every year- great. He is pleased with her work, but I suspect she may be stronger on the ACT. </p>
<p>Right now she is filling out an application for VAASA - varsity athletes against substance abuse. Itâs a long application. We got the letter yesterday about NHS. I suspect that it will also be a lengthy application. There is really a lot going on!! </p>
<p>She was a little freaked out today about the AP Spanish listening sections, but seemed to get better as the day went on and she had more time to practice. I donât like to wish time away because one day I will miss this, but honestly this school year is exhausting me!!</p>
<p>Once again I am truly amazed at the programs that all of your kids are involved in. They are an impressive group!</p>
<p>Run your own race!! I love it.</p>
<p>Mihcal do you give your D a time frame ie email your teacher and report back to me in 2 days? I really love the advice that you give out. I feel as though I struggle with something and you so brilliantly summarize the perfect solution in one or two sentences. Thank you!!</p>
<p>Talked to S15 in the UK today. I felt a little guilty when he told me that he is the only student at his school that will take the PSAT. Either I am the pushiest parent of the 5 American first years or the most optimistic. I do know that the international boarding school cut off score is very high and they actively discouraged students from taking the test. (Sheepish look)</p>
<p>Oh Apollo6, you terrible parent you!</p>
<p>mihcal, I will do that. I backed off when she reacted. Really I think she should be the one talking to the teacher anyway but she knows I will respect her boundaries, even though sometimes I donât want to.</p>
<p>D and I do have a little history about contacting teachers/administration but not about grades. Freshman year, she had a new friend who she learned was cutting herself. She told me about it, and I told her I was going to have to contact the school psychologist and she agreed. So we have a trust thing going that Iâm not going to mess with as far as contacting the school.</p>
<p>^ I just promised my daughter that I will not email teachers or guidance this year. It will be her job to deal with any issues that may come up.</p>
<p>BHG you are right, we are in the West metro so not the same school. We donât attend the west metro school with the house system, though we live only a mile from it. My D is actually open enrolled into the distict next to us. Her school is also frequently in the news as it usually is at the top of the lists for public schools in MN. </p>
<p>It is fun to see how proud you are of your daughter, so nice when they are doing well on multiple fronts. I was dreading Jr year but so far it is easier than 9 or 10, and if my D continues on her current trend she may apply EA to a couple schools and not have to stress too much next year either. I am MUCH impressed with your certainty as to the schools she will apply to. I feel like we are going to end up applying to 10+ schools, none of which is similar to the others. We have HUGE OOS publics, small Elite LACâs, mid size middle of the road LACâs, a couple on the CTCL list, a couple of OOS small directionals that are financial safeties based on stats. Very unfocused and I am not super comfortable with that. I have been in higher ed adminitration for 20 years but now that my child is entering the system I find myself less sure than I thought I would be. Financial aid, I <em>know</em> that- big schools, small schools, online schools, elite, have done some time in every sector. The admissions âfitâ part is what is hard for me. </p>
<p>My younger D ( will be class of 18) will be a completely different search altogether- likely recruited athlete, very outgoing, very intelligent but more concerned about the social aspects of college than the academic</p>
<p>Twogirls- not sure about the college fairs. We attended and found ourselves just stopping at schools we already knew aboiut, except my D discovered Cardiff which I wish she had notâŠgoing to college in Wales was not on my radar How do you know which schools factor student interest into admissions decisions? I see that question listed in the Common Data sets but have never seen one that said it was really a factor. Have you gained this knowledge just from asking around about each each school individually?</p>
<p>Not sure what D should do next summer. She really thinks she should have a job but they seem hard to come by around here. She will be taking the online PE class through BYU and maybe taking Econ online through the college I work for. She thinks she would like to do that so that she can have a study hall next year. Most of her friends took in in 9th grade, but she made a couple of different choices and now really does not want to take it with the 9th grade students anyway. Taking it at my college should allow her to transfer it without needed an AP test. She could do those things and still do a summer program though and I think she should but she is not sure what exactly she wants to study. This is a student who really is annoyed at how much she is supposed to be sure about her future and sometimes opportunities pass her by while she is contemplating her choicesâŠ</p>
<p>twogirls â glad you find my advice helpful. Yes, our kids have reached the stage where they should be advocating for themselves, and itâs best if our job is limited to âcoachingâ them behind the scenes. I donât know about imposing a specific time-frame, but might be good to discuss with D how itâs easier to deal with stuff while itâs still fresh. I am also fond of saying things like âWell, if you just get xxx done, then I wonât have to nag you about it anymore.â </p>
<p>suzy100 â itâs terrific that your D trusted you enough to tell you about the classmate who was cutting herself! We all hope our kids will trust us, if they have to deal with stuff like that.</p>
<p>Apollo6 â agreed. Bad parent, no biscuit. ;)</p>
<p>mihcal, thank you for posting the links to info about how the SAT essay is graded.
Is seems like the colleges are on to that, since colleges will accept the ACT writing to replace the SAT subject tests, but donât accept the SAT writing for the same thing. </p>
<p>BHG, I understand what you mean about just being so happy to see our kids happy! <in is having good and bad days, and good and bad hours, but I SO love those happy times! I also have noticed that the workload, so far, seems less tan last year. D says she thinks itâs partly the way it is being assigned,but she feels that they (she and her friends) have just realized that they donât HAVE to do everything perfectly, which I think is a good thing overall, but she thinks part of that is sue to burn out from the last couple years of work overload. </p>
<p>Twogirls, They had a big college night near us this weekend too, but we decided not to go. It seemed like it was going to be a huge crowd, and likely hard to really talk to anyone. In that environment, and hating crowds, I donât think any of the schools would have come across favorably to us. 
So, we went on a college visit instead! See my next postâŠ</p>
<p>I to am floored by all the summer activities. I think D will probably want to just spend some down time hanging out and sleeping in, like last summer. lol she did work a little (very part time) and we did a family vacation, saw some schools. I imagine next summer being similar. That last summer before the senior year will be the last family vacation opportunity before she is off to college.</p>
<p>She liked an in-state school!!! We went this weekend to a special visitors day they had at FAUâs Honors college. </p>
<p>I am so glad to have found what seems to be a great in-state option to put on her list! I was worrying that it could turn out that all the schools she liked would end up being too expensiveâŠmaybe not coming through with the financial aid and/or merit aid that weâd need. So, I feel very relieved that there is at least one state school she likes enough to put on the short list. Most of our state schools are huge, and she really wants a smaller lac atmosphere.</p>
<p>Iâm not sure how much of a safety it is as far as admissions because itâs the Honors College of a larger state U, (The Harriet Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University), so all the data for admission rates etc that you can find online are about FAU in general, not the honors collegeâŠif anyone knows how to research that sort of thing further, let me know! But it is definitely a financial safety! Woohoo!</p>