<p>My instinct was right not to schedule the SAT for tomorrow. Between Halloween last night and the vball playoff game tonight, a test tomorrow would have been ridiculous for her. Score one for mom!!</p>
<p>Good luck to all testing tomorrow :)</p>
<p>Ooh, thanks for the note about the calculator for the ACT, PN. I would just have assumed that what was OK for the SAT was OK for the ACT. Yikes!</p>
<p>Good luck to your S!</p>
<p>suzy100 - you might have looked already, but here’s the ACT link: [Frequently</a> Asked Questions | Can I use a calculator? | ACT Student](<a href=“http://www.actstudent.org/faq/calculator.html]Frequently”>http://www.actstudent.org/faq/calculator.html)</p>
<p>Ugh. Of course D’s calculator is on the “prohibited” list. Thank you for the link! Guess D will be getting a shiny new calculator for Christmas. ;)</p>
<p>suzy, When is she taking exam? Don’t want to go into test with unfamiliar calculator. Need time to get used to it to be efficient and accurate.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on calculators for the ACT. I will show it to my daughter. Thankfully we still have a few weeks to deal with it. </p>
<p>Good luck to all test takers tomorrow!!</p>
<p>Suzy - ask around first and see what kids say about what they use a calculator for on the ACT before spending much money. We had to scramble and grabbed a simple one we had in the house that morning and S didn’t need any more. I’ll try to remember to ask him what he needed to do with his calculator - it may be just simple math operations is all that’s needed.</p>
<p>In general they don’t need such complicated calculators for most of these exams, except maybe AP calc. The thing is to be accustomed to what you are using. Even simple scientific calculators can vary a lot on where the various keys are and sequence of keys needed to accomplish certain things. A lot of questions you don’t need calculator at all, but there isn’t a minute to spare on ACT . so should practice on something</p>
<p>This is what it says in REAL ACT. “Each problem on the Mathematics Test can be solved in a reasonable amount of time without a calculator. A calculator will be most helpful if you are very familiar with the one you bring to the test and you use it wisely during the test. Trying to use a calculator you are not familiar with or trying to use a calculator on every problem can have disastrous effects…Bring the calculator that you are most familiar with.”</p>
<p>OMG PN thank you so much for the link!
Do you know if a calculator is prohibited for ACT, is it also prohibited for the SAT? Is there a list like that for the SAT?</p>
<p>Before I make myself crazy over calculators, is the TI-84 allowed on the ACT? I could swear she used it on the PLAN.</p>
<p>TI-84 is allowed.No worries. </p>
<p>For SAT, calculator policy is less restrictive.
[Calculator</a> Policy](<a href=“The SAT – SAT Suite | College Board”>SAT Calculator Policy – SAT Suite | College Board)</p>
<p>FWIW, D said on the ACT, she only used her calculator to check her arithmetic. I would see if your child can borrow a “legal” calculator from a friend who isn’t taking the exam on that day instead of buying a new one.</p>
<p>So my daughter must have checked one or more boxes on the PSAT. I just got a phone call from a company called " word" something claiming to be an SAT prep and scholarship company. The woman stated that my daughter checked off the box on the PSAT. I told her that we are not interested in the tutoring and she immediately hung up. I had no time to tell her that we would be interested in the scholarships LOL. </p>
<p>Well that was fast… The calls are starting just 13 days after the test!! We are still getting emails for free applications for my older one who graduated in 2012!</p>
<p>I’m thinking back to 3girls3cats’s post from a couple of days ago, asking for activity suggestions for her shy D. </p>
<p>A shy kid might be more comfortable doing some sort of community service activity that didn’t explicitly require being social with peers. I’m thinking about something like volunteering to shelve books at the local library (description of the D’s “quieter way” brought that to mind), or socializing animals at the local shelter (if she likes animals). Maybe your HS’s counseling or career center has a list of volunteer opportunities?</p>
<p>Another suggestion is to find some kind of “with other people but not necessarily interacting” activity, like a knitting circle, gardening club, plein air painting class, or going deeper into the yoga.</p>
<p>I hope your D does find something to enjoy other than studying, 3girls3cats. Not just for the sake of college applications, but for her own well-being, too.</p>
<p>She’s not taking it until February, so we have plenty of time to check into it. I just don’t think it would have occurred to me so I’m grateful for the heads up.</p>
<p>My D got into trail restoration projects. Around here there’s something every weekend. You know, pulling out invasive vegetation, building bridges. I went too a couple times and then she started going on her own. It began as a way to fulfill AP EnvSc project, but she got to love it. They’re run by adults and mostly adults volunteering,with a few older teens. There is some cooperative work needed, but much of it one can do on own, socialize as much or little as you like. It looked good on college apps. She liked petting kitties at humane society, had a regular shift there.But the trail restoration was a great thing. Learned to identify plants and felt good about doing something real and useful for the world, got some exercise other than blowing into her oboe and sax.</p>
<p>Ok, so let’s review…I want to give D the basic review of ‘how to take the SAT’:</p>
<p>Don’t guess unless you can eliminate at least one answer choice.
Answer the ones you can do fairly quickly and go back to do any that take a lot of time if you have time left.
Know that you have 25 minutes for the writing section…use a historical reference if you can, write legibly, use some varied sentence structure, toss in some good vocabulary, write to fill the page, finish.</p>
<p>Does that seem right? What else?</p>
<p>D’s friend, who is also taking the test tomorrow, came over yesterday and when I referred to studying for the SAT, she seemed surprised to learn that people do that. I do wish they’d spend some time preparing the kids at school. It wouldn’t have to be a lot, just a practice test and some basic info/advice would be nice.</p>
<p>The tutor told me that the most impt thing for the essay is to write legibly. It does not have to be neat, just legible. If they can’t read the handwriting you will be getting a 2. After that you need to fill up the space - do not go over. If you go under because you are going slowly ( to write legibly) that’s ok. Then I suppose you need an intro, two examples, and a conclusion. He told me that " average" students tend to do well on the essay because they do not overthink it. I think it’s crazy that my English Honor Society kid may screw up the essay due to her handwriting. Ugh. You get penalized for guessing so try and narrow it down. Saving the difficult ones for the end if time permits sounds like a good plan. </p>
<p>I am beginning to realize that the SAT essay shows nothing.</p>
<p>Good luck to the SAT testers. Sorry it had to be the Saturday after Halloween! I’ll be heading out at the crack of dawn with my speech team. First meet of the year. I hope they don’t eat candy for breakfast!</p>
<p>“you need an into, two examples and a conclusion” How flexible is the 2 examples part? I know we hammer that 5 paragraph essay into them for test taking, but with the time constraint I can sure see that 4 would be better!</p>