No skipping district/state-mandated testing in our school. The only way out is to be sick. In our case, the testing was after APs at the end of their school year.
My DS would sleep every weekend till 10 or 11 if allowed - not to common bc too much work to do. He’s got so much to do his summer but not much is actually structured so am anticipating a lot of snarling when I have to poke the bear a lot to get up and to make a plan to get stuff done. Thinking though about a month long physics course at a local college - he took AP Physics 1 and wants to study Physics 2 before C – & to take the SAT Subject test At least that would serve several purposes and cut down on the inevitable inertia (get the physics ref??) from lack of structure for awhile. Other son got a full time job as a lifeguard for the whole summer so he’s gonna be pretty busy.
@payn4ward re: being near a major airport…my D16 was accepted to UVA but the hassle of getting to and from the airport was a major drawback. It’s a two hour ride on top of the flight! And the school doesn’t provide a shuttle (they do from the smaller airport nearby but there were no direct flights to there)
@mtrosemom my D17 is still in school for another two weeks but my D16 is finished and she has become the laziest person ever! Won’t get out of her pjs unless she goes out with her friends. But OTOH she has worked so hard has been such a great kid that I can’t complain. She will be off to college in three short months, so I guess enjoy your r&r while you can.
Welcome @Ghibelline2017 glad you finally delurked! You too @picklesarenice. I am with you about my D even opening a book for SAT/ACT. I just ripped into her today about how she can’t complain about not increasing her score if she hasn’t even tried. She has a great score and I think that is what is making her so lackadaisical, that’s it’s good enough so why try for one or two extra points. Then why make me pay for the tests!!! Kids…
@canypava - Thanks. Since CC is confidential, I can’t reveal what position school got 
Trying to catch up…long day at work!
Will let D go full out on the couch and emerging only for bathroom and food if that is what she wants. She has one.more.test. tomorrow and then is exempt from all but two finals and she says those will not be a big deal because they are not cumulative. She has 1.5 weeks to gear up and prep hard again for the ACT before she leaves for Germany. She will still work a few hours in that week and we have a college visit next Friday.
Her focus has been gone since yesterday when she received an email from her German “sister” i.e. the home where she will be staying for three weeks. And then it was all over when her sister snapchatted a picture of the seven dachshund puppies their dog just had!
:o3 :o3 :o3 :o3 :o3 :o3 :o3
We are suffering from loss of focus in our house, too. I’ll give D a few more days (school is out on June 4) to flake out, and then she’s back behind the wheel.
Just received an email today asking D to ‘apply’ for a free fly-in at a school that is on D’s list, albeit a bit low. It’s like a mini-college app…transcript, scores, resume… Have to see what she thinks…may have to update the latitude-list.
2 1/2 weeks left in school but thankfully no finals in DD’s AP classes so she will finish next Thursday. She is a junior Marshall for graduation, so gets to deal with all the graduation rehearsals.
I will admit we just looked up the UT Dallas mascot. He reminds me of Syndrome from The Incredibles.
I just looked at the UT Dallas mascot also. He’s an evil Muppet! I’ll stick to Sammy the Slug.
Reading another thread has made me curious. How many courses do your kids normally take per yr? (Dd will be taking 8. I thought that was pretty normal these days, but that thread made 6 sound typical.)
@Mom2aphysicsgeek …you mean core courses?
I would say seven actual classes and then an elective. Up until this year it was orchestra. Next year she has 8 solid classes and I’m kind of scared for her.
1 Math, 2 science, engl, history, gym, band, lang
Our school and most of our district only allow 6 classes. (There is one school in the area that has block scheduling with 4 different classes each semester.) There are some ways to take an early morning class or PE for sports after school, but they usually make such kids have a study hall in the middle of the day.
It is a problem. The various academy-type programs have a 3-year or 4-year course sequence on top of the core subjects. With 4 core classes + foreign language + academy class + PE/health you are already over the limit and haven’t even thought about electives like band or art. So, it starves the elective classes of students and forces a lot of kids to take dual enrollment evening or summer classes. Also, many kids, even STEM kids, only take 2 or 3 years of science to fit everything in. The school doesn’t even offer a freshman option for history or social studies because no one could take it, so the most you can take is 3.5 years of that subject if you double-up senior year on AP Econs.
6 classes only for us also. Band is zero period and a special science project is period 7 (juniors and seniors), but it’s not every day and each kid has specific role in the project.
At D’s school, the typical number of courses is 8 freshman year, 7 sophomore year, 6 junior year and 5-6 senior year. I find that to be very slackerish. But they are rather strict about the 7 course max sophomore year. D, however, had no problem getting approval for 8. After that (for junior and senior year), her GC just let her take what she wanted. D currently has 7 courses. And she will take 8 first semester of senior year and either 6 or 7 second semester (will depend on whether she decides to take differential equations).
(I just checked and they changed it to a max of 7 for the last three years).
Too many
Eng/Lit, Science + labs (7 classes per week total w/ labs - some kids need to schedule labs for before/after school if they don’t have any room), math, history, language, PE/health, + 2 electives (can be an additional science, math or history - or economics, accounting, computer science, performance music etc…)
Most of the AP/college bound kids do not take any studyhall or lunch. If they don’t want any electives they can get lunch AND studyhalls (this works for kids who don’t want to dilute their GPA with regular courses). Some kids take PE/health over the summer so they can get a lunch during the year.
My theory about why 6 class periods is common in CA is the way the “UC capped GPA” is calculated. You only get an extra point for honors/AP/IB/DE for 8 semesters worth of classes taken in 10th and 11th. So, once you have that, taking more classes just lowers your UC capped GPA because the denominator gets larger, but there’s no additional weighted credit. DS will have a somewhat lower UC GPA because of summer, evening, and online classes.
It bugs me, but at least UC Berkeley and UCLA are supposed to look at the fully weighted GPA (using their list of courses that qualify). The other UCs reportedly only look at the capped GPA.
Our lunch does not count as one of the 6 periods. Everyone has the same 30 minute lunch time. That’s when most clubs happen.
@carachel2 I meant full fledged credits, core or electives. Next yr dd will take 4 yr long courses Eng, French, Russ, and American history) and 4 semester courses (Econ, gov’t, stats, and bio). She had originally decided not to take and courses DE, but now she thinks she going to take bio and stats that way.
Welcome @Ghibelline2017 & @picklesarenice. It’s always nice to have more folks join in the conversation. We may need to form a comedy troupe to pay for tuition!
There are 7 class periods at Spykid’s school. Band and Leadership are zero period.
No slacking here in Spyville, yet. School is in session until June 10.