I was just going through the results thread of USC for 2019 and it is pretty funny. I guess last year they sent everything in a yellow envelope. One kid went out to his mailbox and saw the envelope and got all excited until he realized it was a brochure for Drexel. Another opened his mailbox and saw it and got excited and it was a new phone book. They both seemed to take it in stride.
@LKnomad I think someone else posted a very similar story a few weeks ago about trying to find a way into a locked building for an alumni interviewâŠI wonder if it was the same interviewer?
Congrats @Undercovermom1!!
I was always under impression that seniors donât work hard second semester and teachers know about it and donât give much homework. Somehow it not the case at DDâs school this year. They have one test after another and those stressed out kids have to work as hard as they did all those years of HS.
@4kids2graduate wouldnât surprise me at all. My son said that the interviewer received a call in the middle of the interview from the very confused next applicant who was trying to find her way in. She apparently was forced to wait outside until my son was done. My son, I think, passed the test by finding the one door that led up directly to his office from outside. We had to walk around the building and my son went through a logic exercise where he looked through various windows to figure out if the room number were ascending or descending and then deducted where the room would be. One he figured it out we found a hidden staircase, walked up and could see right into his office. He was waiting and happily greated us.
I think I did post about this in Dec after it happened.
This was the same interviewer who gave my son a complicated calculus problem right in the middle of the interview. He was an interesting guy. My son left with various stickers and bookmarks for a NASA program that the interview was involved in. Of course we already had those stickers and bookmarks at home from S20 who had collected them at a Doctor Who con previously. S20 would have been very impressed.
@Ballerina016 That certainly is not the case at our school. Kids work crazy hard up through AP test weeks in first half of May, then the last couple of weeks things relax a little because final senior grades have to be in earlier.
@Ballerina016 I donât think that is true here either. At least it wouldnât be for AP classes since most teachers are trying to get their students ready for the tests. Leniency would mean poor test scores.
@Ballerina2016, I always start the second semester telling the seniors about other seniors I had who got their admissions rescinded due to senioritis. At this point in their high school career all they want to do us sleep. The heads are on the desk as they take notes. I donât increase or let up on the difficulty of the class. I am not a big fan of homework because any morning I go into the cafeteria I can see kids copying homework. I also write my own tests because any tests (or homework) that comes from the publisher can be found online.
S had an interview last week, so 2 down, but in the last two days two more have been scheduled.
@LKnomad At Dâs school majority of the students including my DD take 12-15 AP classes by graduation. They will not be able to use those AP credits at many schools they will go to. For example out 15 APs and 3 DE classes USC school of engineering only gives credit for one calculus and one history class. So it really doesnât make sense for us to pay for AP tests this year.
@Undercovermom1 , so pleased to hear your good news!
@mysonsdad, I just wish there was a way to get some sort of specific explanation. I hope it didnât come down to lost paperwork for your son.
@Ballerina016 at our school the district pays for AP tests and most kids go to state schools so APs matter.
@Mysonsdad I also write all my own problemsâŠAnd once I caught a teacher at another school plagiarizing a problem set Iâd written that someone must have shared. The other teacherâs version had not changed my husbandâs name in one of the problems LOL
Thatâs probably true for a lot of the kids at our school, but not for the ones in the top 5-10%. Theyâre all working harder than ever. But at least this year some of itâs fun stuff-- running Thespians inductions, being concertmaster, planning Spanish honor society events-- in between the Calc tests and lit projects. S isnât working at school work quite as hard as last year-- thank God and small school scheduling he ran out of APs and spends half his day in the music building. D is taking more APs than she has previously, but theyâre not terribly difficult ones (except Stats, her personal .bĂȘte noire) so her homework load is manageable.
I was strangely nervous to check grades last semester. AP Chem has been a bear. But all goodâheld the 4.0, pulling the 94 in chem off. Phew.
@fretfulmother, thatâs the âlazy way to teachingâ method. We tell kids not to plagiarize and then a teacher does it. I wonder what he/she tells the kids who are caught plagiarizing.
@Booajo congratulations to your DC.
I know Iâll still be working hard second semester- the workload doesnât slow any for me. But there are people who have very few classes and get to arrive late and leave early. But my schedule doesnât look that hard to some people -only one AP and one college level class. But I have to work hard in physics and math too. And AP Language is brutal- no one has above an 85 and most people are in the high 70âs.
My sonâs AP classes are pretty hard, plus he is yearbook editor and that has been and will be a ton of work. He did finally agree to take an office aide period and he is loving that. He loves hearing all that is going on and getting treats that are brought into the office. I was all for it. He has a retreat from Thursday to Saturday this week and the week after that he goes to Model UN in Chicago. Is anyone elseâs child a part of this? I hope the fact that so many kids from his classes are participating in these activities means the teachers will at least give them some extra time to catch up with the work.
@mysonsdad you sound like a wonderful teacher. If only my Dâs teacher taught the material he test on. There have been many times he himself does not know the answer to a problem but sends them home to figure out the problem. D has the highest grade in the class, but has had to do alot of outside research to achieve this. This class has knocked her out of being valedictorian. She is now 2nd. This has been her lifelong dream. Oh wellâŠit has not been from slacking.
@Sophmore1, with so little separating the top few kids-- at our school itâs thousandths of a point between first and third, and hundredths between third and eighth-- I canât imagine anyone would even think of slacking as a cause.
@LKnomad That is great that district paying for AP test. In our case it is out of pocket expenses
DDâ school has an official senior ditch day when senior just notifies principle that they take it that particular day. Also they are allowed to take days off for senior activities.
@CAMidwestMom my son worked at the office one period when he was in a 10th grade. He loved it. They always had a free food.