<p>For vocab studying…I would test my son out loud when we were on hour plus car rides during his Jr year. (My husband would be driving so I had was able to read the words & definitions.) We both burned out after perhaps 15 or 20 minutes, but if we managed 15 min on the way there, and 15 min on the way home, that was worthwhile.</p>
<p>CR was never his problem section so I don’t know how much this helped. I think reading the NYT & WSJ during breakfast probably helped more.</p>
<p>As to SAT vs ACT…it seems to me that for anyone who has to prep at all, you might as well choose one test and stick with it. My son found that CB blue book practice test scores were really close to his actual scores. I imagine the same would be true for the red ACT book. So, if a student completes practice exams for both ACT & SAT, she should be able to identify which one she prefers, and then dedicate all studying to that one test. I realize this will not work for everyone, but the more my son practiced, the more his scores increased, so I am glad that all his prep time was dedicated to one exam.</p>
<p>IJD, I think that your daughter’s participation and time spent still counts for a lot. Even the most competitive colleges get that some of what separates those who make it to the next level from those who don’t is the luck of landing butter side up rather than differences in ability. If your D is able to describe her ECs (and all the time committed to them) in a well written essay she will be very well received. In fact, it might be refreshing to the adcom who has read one too many essay from yet another perfect kid. (Please understand this is not meant in any way to diminish those golden kids!)</p>
<p>CT I do the same with my daughter- study vocabulary out loud while my husband drives. We last about 20 minutes each way. I am glad to hear that the blue book scores were kind of accurate- I was wondering about that. Same with the ACT book. My daughter is getting ACT scores ( practice) that are about even with her SAT practice tests, so she will take both and see what happens. </p>
<p>I have a key ring with SAT vocabulary attached but so far it has not moved from my table. She has a book and a vocabulary list that she studies from. I am looking forward to February 8 because she will be done… " two and through" is my new mantra.</p>
<p>CT, that’s how I feel: try to do as min. as possible when it comes to tests. I don’t know if it’s right. It may just be an excuse to be lazy. So far we don’t even know what ACT looks like. Hopefully D. does the SAT and does it well, once or twice. And of course, that means she will have to deal with subject tests.</p>
<p>I hadn’t even really thought about participating in the studying for SAT. lol D used to be so intent on studying on her own, I never used to have to try to motivate her. That has changed. Although she used to sometimes ask me to help her study…call out questions, that sort of thing. Once her scores come back from this SAT and she decides if she’s going to do that again or just the ACT I will do some more active encouraging. I can imagine putting a few words of the day near the toilet or the in the shower…</p>
<p>She has a test tomorrow on logarithms. I canNOT help her with that, but H can if he brushes up on it a bit. The tricky part for her is often, not how to do the math, but when to use what strategy.</p>
<p>I can’t help my daughter with any of her work, and thankfully she never asks. Sometimes she asks me to read something and offer an opinion about a comma, but that’s about it. I am surprised she agrees to vocabulary in the car but hey, I am not going to question it LOL.
She has been doing a lot of SAT work and a lot of reading and English ACT work, but only one ACT science and math section. I think it’s time to get back to doing at least one more math and science practice test. She will NOT be happy about that so I have to plan a strategy. The math is one hour and the science is 35 minutes. Maybe I can convince her to do one this Saturday and one next Saturday. I kind of feel like she will be going into the ACT without much studying… Oh well. I don’t think much studying is required- I think it’s a matter of getting through the test without running out of time, and she seems to have a good grip on that. </p>
<p>I have a friend who has her kid tutored for the SAT. The tutor told her that SAT studying will help for the ACT, but the reverse is not true. Who knows…</p>
<p>Right now she is doing physics. It’s best not to interrupt LOL. She is in a surprisingly good mood, probably because school is closed tomorrow!</p>
<p>Well I asked her if she can take a practice math and science section, and she said that she is working on a physics problem and I keep blabbering on and on about the ACT… She said it in a joking way which means she is not terribly upset with the idea. She said that next weekend is a three day weekend ( Veteran’s Day) so she will do it then. I am shocked at how easy that was- we will see.</p>
<p>After getting study guides for D, I stayed out the SAT and ACT preps. I’m always impressed when parents tell me they are able to guide their children in this. I barely know when D studied, never mind what she studied or how.</p>
<p>Aside from the exams, we haven’t done much. I need to set up more college visits. I’m still trying to figure out how to plan a road trip covering so many states (I really wish she focused on a single geographic area now). We’ve done the ones closest to home. Now all the colleges are at least six hours away.</p>
<p>I think we’ll go to Florida over spring break and visit Eckerd and New College of Florida and visit UNC Asheville this month.</p>
<p>AP Bio kicked D hard last week. She had an A average. Then there was the take home exam. Luckily the teacher allows make ups (take a new test) or buy backs (correct the wrong answers and state reasoning) so hopefully D can claw her way back. That was the first parent alert I’ve gotten in over a month so she’s doing way better than last year.</p>
<p>Re school visits – The question I am struggling with at the moment is how much “process” or “motion” to go through given: 1) most likely we won’t quality for FA (i.e., full pay or loan); 2) most likely D will continue her education after college (i.e., save money for med school); and 3) she wants to stay close to home (if you can believe that). When we went thru the process with older boys, after visiting so many schools, we ended up where we started – our flagship – mostly due to reason 1. Apparently, we make too much to qualify for FA but not enough to do full pay. D’s point is why bother visiting schools when she already knows the outcome (and she is not resentful or bitter as far as I can tell). While I don’t disagree with her logic, I can’t help feeling she is short-changing herself by not visiting the schools. At the same time, if I encourage her to look around, I maybe making a disingenuous request since I don’t want to deal with ~250k price tag for undergrad. So, yeah, that’s where we are…</p>
<p>FromMD we r very similar- can’t afford $50,000 a year and don’t qualify for FA ( except maybe Princeton LOL) and considering med school. We r searching for schools where she qualifies for merit based on her stats, and she may end up at our state school, depending. I think her stats will get her some decent money, but who knows.</p>
<p>FromMD, I’ve been struggling with the same thought process. D will likely end up at her in-state top choice (or I hope she does), so how much effort should we put into these college visits? I don’t want her to just settle for the one school without visiting others but we don’t have unlimited funds (well, we could afford $50K a year, if we don’t save for her younger brother…). The best advice I got on CC was to run the NPCs. I choked to discover our EFC at some schools - knocked MANY schools off the list immediately.</p>
<p>I also don’t want D to set unrealistic goals for the ultra-reach schools. I’ve already seen the impact of seeing top reach schools first (before tests), liking them, and then realizing the schools may be out of reach after test results come back. We did visit Swarthmore - luckily she sensed it was an intense learning environment and said that school wasn’t for her. She was okay with a suburban location and the visit confirmed she wanted a small liberal arts college.</p>
<p>I don’t guide studying either. My role is one of reassurance that she’s doing fine and not to worry. It is different with each kid though. I was far more active with middle D who needed handholding and guidance and asked for help. I didn’t dare touch eldest with a ten foot pole even though she could have used more help with the math section. </p>
<p>I really wanted to take D to visit Scripps (and maybe a couple of the other Claremont Colleges) over this long weekend. They are holding a Scripps preview day on Monday and I think it would be a great opportunity for her to see the benefits of a small school like this, particularly because it is part of a larger and unique sort of consortium. Merit aid is available here too even though it’s very competitive. Unfortunately, she is so burnt out over a very dense and challenging week that she can’t face the idea. Sigh. I really don’t see how next year will be any easier to fit these visits in so I can’t just shrug and figure we’ll do it later. </p>
<p>I also don’t want to tour reach schools, or at least not exclusively. My parents allowed me to go through the entire process with no sense of our financial constraints and at the very last minute–AFTER acceptances were in–told me I could not attend my dream school. I ended up at a large and impersonal state school that I hated and was a terrible fit for me. In retrospect, I see that my dream school probably wouldn’t have been a whole heck of a lot better as it too was enormous and probably just as impersonal. At the time it just felt that I was having to settle for something I didn’t want.</p>
<p>@Slackermommd, Are you looking at St. Mary’s in MD. I’ve heard great things. My DD likes our flagship and the program she’s interested in is ranked very high. She would be very happy there.</p>
<p>We’re considering another college visit next weekend, D has Friday off. I’d love to go to Northwestern, because I think she’d like it and I’d like to spend the weekend in Chicago ( I mean…who wouldn’t??), but not sure if it can work yet.</p>
<p>If not (or in addition) we may visit a local LAC. I’d like to get more big-small-city-country school tours under her belt so she can begin to formulate some kind of college list. Also the weather is still nice now and soon it won’t be…spring break won’t be an option so all we really have are these weekends to see colleges close by and some bit of the summer break. As a senior she can revisit the ones she needs to.</p>
<p>I don’t have much to do with D’s studying for school or tests at all, and she doesn’t share a lot about it with me unless she’s having difficulty and she always gets her work done and done well so I have had no reason to get involved. </p>
<p>But AP Gov is really, really hard for her. She wound up with a B+ last quarter because of projects and things other than tests…but this quarter has started with a test grade of 67 - D+. It’s the FRQs that she is struggling with apparently…she knows her stuff and can do the MC but can’t seem to get the FRQ thing down for Gov (and its different than she did for Euro last year, apparently). I try to help by drilling her before tests, and I just printed out a guide to writing FRQs for Gov, but beyond that I can’t do much. Her older brother says everyone struggles at first in that class then gets better…I hope he’s right.</p>
<p>Off to vote…we have a school levy on the ballot this time…not much else.</p>
<p>@4CookieMonster - yes! That’s the current top choice. D visited it last spring and took to it. The campus-wide tag game, that ran into us, convinced her that the students have fun on weekends, and the rock wall helped as well. She talked with the then-admissions director (who I think was demoted or, uh, left after the school didn’t meet their admissions goal last spring) a bit after a presentation. D’s been asking to return for another visit - maybe in January, so we can see what the place looks like when you can’t be on the water.</p>
<p>School levy on the ballot here too. I’m worried because the last one didn’t pass. If this one doesn’t either, I think we are going to see cuts in AP classes that are offered. :(</p>
<p>I may the only one holding my breath to see the Junior year grades. D goes to a school with significant grade deflation, and Junior year is a tough one. I fear that her college choices are going to be dictated by these grades, and even though we’ve done the college visiting and D has high expectations, I don’t want to do any sort of pushing (except for schoolwork) until the semester is over. I’m really unhappy with some of the grades I’m seeing, and she’s always been a really strong student. Sigh.</p>
<p>Honestly I never paid attention to Princeton because the acceptance rate is so low and I just assumed it was way too expensive. I stumbled upon their financial aid and was pleasantly surprised. It’s still more money than our state school, but more reasonable than others. Getting in is the problem… !!</p>
I can imagine putting a few words of the day near the toilet or the in the shower…</p>