<p>This is when I am glad we are on an after labor day start (although, remember we got out late June!).
herandhisMom–what is TJ?
Also, IJustDrive–wow, was that a sudden decision?</p>
<p>Both my girls are organized and beyond elementary school didn’t require much parental prodding/assistance with school work.</p>
<p>This is normally true of my D, which is why I am so annoyed with her. >:/</p>
<p>Hope the tryouts go well for your D, Gibson - let us know how it goes. It’s been really hot here all summer too and I’ve had to watch younger D’s asthma.</p>
<p>IJD, are you happy about your D2’s decision?</p>
<p>please…my son has not even looked at his summer HW assignment. It’s not much - read 2 books and write 2 papers, but with summer swim team and his lifeguard job, he hasn’t been home too much. Now he’s off to Boy Scout camp for 3 weeks, so we will clamp down once he’s back. Luckily his first day of school is Sept 7, so we have plenty of summer break left.</p>
<p>IJustDrive - I hope your D is very happy with her decision. My guess is she will do well wherever she goes. 
Are you happy with the choice?</p>
<p>No summer HW here. Thank goodness. S has been doing math all summer by choice, both an online course on contest math and getting ahead for PreCalc because of his teacher’s reputation for being hard. But we decided that starting this week, he’s done enough and so now he has two weeks with no work. </p>
<p>Had some drama though - his first girlfriend broke up with him. 
Bummer.</p>
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<p>Not really. She’s been thinking about it for a whole year, and obviously she applied and did what she needed to do. I had just thought that, given that it was a close call and she had a really great 9th grade year that she’d stay put. There were a lot of things in place for her. So I was really surprised. (I’m happy to go into details privately, but not publicly.)</p>
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<p>I think so. Her reasoning is sound, and she’s brought up issues that I hadn’t considered and didn’t think were issues for her. This is the school her big sister graduated from last spring, and I think one of the problems with sending the second child is you know where all of the bodies are buried. But since her two options were both ones I was comfortable with, I’m OK with her making the decision.</p>
<p>D’15 began her summer reading when school ended, before she went to summer program. She’s almost done now. This is typical for D :)</p>
<p>S’12, in HS, never looked at his until a few days before school…and around here summer work is at least 3 books and one with extensive Q&A form and/or paper.</p>
<p>S has one summer reading assignment for college now and I’m happy to say he started it a month ago. He might actually finish it before college begins, which would be a nice sign of college readiness :)</p>
<p>Summer homework hasn’t yet happened here, either. D2015 loaded up late June thru early the first part of August with volunteering, camps, dance competition, National Latin Convention, bird watching, getting her scuba license, etc. School here doesn’t start until after Labor Day, so the last couple of weeks of August are set-aside for seat-work. She did finish online Health class and Driver’s Ed, and has done a ton of (non-assigned, just for fun) reading, so her brain hasn’t been completely disengaged.</p>
<p>@momsings, TJ is Thomas Jefferson HS in VA. Apparently it’s extremely hard to get in. It’s a public school with super high quality - that’s my impression. </p>
<p>this year my daughter did CTY chem. Her roommate, who is a HS2015, took physics in freshman year. (her school is doing “physics first.”) She didn’t take physics AP exam, but took physics SAT II. She got 800. I’m very much impressed.</p>
<p>I keep asking about summer homework, and keep getting the same answer: “Don’t worry, I’m on target.” I sure hope so. Driving school started this week and band camp starts next week. Summer days are dwindling fast.</p>
<p>FWIW, I’ve heard that a 800 on the SAT II is harder to get than 5s on the AP exams in physics, though they test very different material, and there’s very little cross-over (which is why it’s one of the few SAT II/AP pairings where testing at the same time is NOT encouraged.</p>
<p>D’15 is a physics girl. D’12 was not, though she did take both AP exams and scored well enough to, as she says “never have to take physics again.” It’s amazing how they’re so different, or at least I see the differences. Everyone else just sees the similarities.</p>
<p>S hasn’t started his summer homework. He has it for honors English and APWorld. He does have a good timeline in mind, so I am not worried. The English assignment makes me a little cranky because I think it is a bit over the top for summer homework.
S has been anxious a bit. I think much of it stems from the fact that older brother is leaving in 2 and 1/2 weeks, obviously a significant change for S15. Also, the driving aspect of driver’s ed is a challenge for him as he is a bit on the nervous side. I have told him it is all good–we will take as much time as he needs to feel comfortable and safe. There is no rush to learn this thing.</p>
<p>momsings - agreed!</p>
<p>My H is a driver - I drive to get from a to b- much rather sit in the passenger seat. Funny to see the similarities in our girls. D1 is happy to let anyone else drive, she drives out of necessity, D2 who has her permit I can already tell is going to love driving.
Some of D1’s friends didn’t drive till they were 18- and they all managed just fine.</p>
<p>D. finished her summer AP chem homework. It doesn’t mean she can stop working at it. Everyone told us AP chem was the hardest AP. I suggested that she should change AP to honors. But she insists on AP. She didn’t take honors chem. We were hoping CTY summer course could get her prepared. She learned a lot in CTY, but anyway 3 weeks can’t replace a year of honors chem. So she has to work hard.</p>
<p>@IJD, I didn’t know SAT II physics is harder than AP physics! </p>
<p>I’ve heard AP chem is a lot harder than SAT II chem. Has anybody else heard the same thing? We are quite nervous about AP chem here. :p</p>
<p>Since I’m a science person and know about chem and physics, I did compare AP physics (B) with AP chem. My feeling is if someone gets a 5 in AP chem, s/he can safely skip the first year college general chem. But if a person gets a 5 in AP physics B, it’s far from the level of first year college physics. Of course AP physics C could be a different story. I haven’t looked at AP physics C yet, since D.'s school only offers AP physics B.</p>
<p>I think AP Physics C is calculus based, while Physics B isn’t. </p>
<p>It’s so interesting how different school districts offer sciences in different orders. Ours does biology freshman year for everyone, then either chemistry or integrated chem/physics for sophomore year. After that, there are several choices for junior and senior years.</p>
<p>It’s not so much a “harder” or “easier” thing, it’s that different material is covered, and the two exams allow for different amounts of wrong answers. So in fact, the material covered on the AP Chem exam is a LOT more advanced than the SAT II (and it’s cumulative – you need the material that is tested on the SAT II for AP Chem) but the AP exam, because of the different grading scale will award a top score to a paper that has more errors than the SAT II.</p>
<p>For physics, they don’t even cover the same material, and the material isn’t really cumulative. They aren’t comparable exams.</p>
<p>(I was only discussing the Physics C exam, which is calculus-based, FWIW. I know nothing about Physics B except that many colleges will not use it for either placement or credit because it’s not calc-based.)</p>
<p>Physics subject test and AP Physics are really weird.</p>
<p>AP Physics B actually covers more topics than AP Physics C. One of the Physics C exam covers mechanics, and the other Physics C exam covers electricity & magnetism. AP Physics B covers both topics, as well as many other topics such as waves, optics, heat, thermodynamics, nuclear physics, and atomic physics. However, AP Physics B doesn’t go nearly as in-depth as AP Physics C, which is calculus-based and covers much more information in its own topic. On the other hand, Physics B is only a mere overview of each topic.</p>
<p>To further complicate things, the physics SAT II doesn’t really overlap with AP Physics B. The physics SAT II isn’t necessarily harder than AP Physics, but it’s kinda weird because AP Physics B goes over topics that the SAT II doesn’t, while the SAT II goes over topics that AP Physics B doesn’t go over, either - like quantum physics, relativity, history of physics, and a couple other topics.</p>
<p>You can look at the topics for the SAT II exam here (look under topics on the test):
[SAT</a> Physics Subject Test - Physics Questions & Tests](<a href=“The SAT – SAT Suite | College Board”>The SAT – SAT Suite | College Board)</p>
<p>You can look at the topics for the AP Physics exam here (starting on pg. 13):
<a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board;
<p>It’s very helpful to read what you all wrote about physics APs and SAT.</p>
<p>Took S shopping for school clothes yesterday. It was 106 degrees, tax-free weekend, and S hates shopping. He lasted about 3 hours in crowded stores before his eyes glazed over. He was really excited about his new “driving” shoes. Says they are really great for getting a good feel for the gas/brake pedal…LOL. </p>
<p>Somehow he escaped all summer homework. There was a big change in English faculty for the fall and the incoming teacher didn’t get the assignments out before the end of school. I keep watching the website for assignments, but so far we’re clear! He picks up his schedule next Thursday…hoping they got it right! </p>
<p>Do lots of your students take Physics this year??? Our school only offers it Senior year…</p>