Just seems too early to start thinking about college applications but guess it’s a reality. Fortunately or unfortunately, most schools my D is looking at don’t appear to be common app - but one or two are so I see lots of work ahead. Also, D is taking ACT Saturday - 3rd time - preps but could always do more in my opinion. Good luck to others this Saturday.
Kind of interesting dilemma as DS is selecting senior year courses. No regular AP Calculus BC or AP Chemistry expected. Not enough kids so both to be an independent study with a teacher facilitating during the teacher’s planning period. Thinks it will still be a weighted class but isn’t completely sure yet. Will need to decide what to do, if he should do these as independent study or not. If not, what to take? There just isn’t much left he is interested in.
I feel like this is eventual end of all the acceleration. Eventually there is nothing left to take.
@LOUKYDAD maybe worth exploring if there is a dual enrollment option available to him. My D is also looking at senior year schedule and may take a couple of DE classes at the local community college. Same outcome as AP in her case.
My son is taking the ACT this Saturday also. It’s his second time, and he is actually at his prep class right now!
I’ve already told him to expect to spend time on his essays this summer. He says he will, but I foresee having to pull teeth and butt heads. He tends to be pretty laid back in general, and sometimes, a procrastinator. I printed out the new common app questions, and he said, “you are way too into this college thing mom. No one else’s mom gets on them the way you get on me.”
“No one else’s mom gets on them the way you get on me.”
Tell him I said that’s not true :))
I texted my D AT SCHOOL with the new Common App questions.
@ShrimpBurrito If only S18 would get on CC, he would realize I am “normal”! LOL
Common app has one essay but many of S17’s schools had supplements - other essays, short answer q’s etc. All but 1 school took the common app. He got a solid draft of the main essay done last summer and knew there were 5 that had Nov 1 & 15/Dec 1deadlines - EA and scholarships for RD.
After taking the ACT and PSAT, S has decided SAT is the one for him. I have him signed up for March and then there’s one in school in April. I ordered the prep books (Meltzer and Pwn) suggested by @3scoutsmom and others. Now the trick will be making him actually use the books (plus Khan Academy).
Good luck to those taking the ACT!
We’ve all been sick here with a never-ending respiratory virus since midterms ended. I bought the pwn book but it’s sat unopened. 
@LOUKYDAD We have the same problem, our school has only 7 AP courses and all of the DE courses overlap with the AP except for college algebra. I’m hoping they will let her do AP Econ and AP Stat as independent study.
@ShrimpBurrito I did the same!! Hahaha (cause I don’t know how to use those emojis).
@cardinal2020mom Click on the little smiley face in the upper right corner of the reply box. A drop down menu will give you a bazillion options.
My D had a friend who took Calc AB as a junior, he then took Calc 2 as DE senior year. But some take AP Stats instead, if they don’t have that option and if their school offers it.
Can someone please share those SAT books that were recommended? I know they will sit unopened but it will make me feel better to have at least put them in front of D before she heads into this dreaded March SAT with no prep. 
^^As a follow up to the above could someone explain the benefits of the prep books? What do they provide that isn’t available with the Khan Academy Prep? Just out of curiosity…S would never use them but I am wondering what he is missing, lol?
Still (im)patiently awaiting the January SAT score release on Feb 23rd. I can’t believe that this coming Saturday’s ACT scores will be available the day before!
:-S @ShrimpBurrito - I am trying the emoji. Not sure I did it correctly.
Re Khan Academy, our DD’18 used it to prep for the SAT she took in January (results not in yet). She liked using it because it automatically provides questions for which the student needs improvement. The down side is that students need to continue to practice the questions they can get correct because pace and timing are important. I would recommend using Khan Academy, but supplementing with the College Board Blue Book, as well. JMHO.
There were a couple of types of problems my D still has issued with while using Khan for prep for the January SAT, so I bought the PWN book recommended here, after seeing further reviews that the explanations in PWN were very clear.
I’m really looking forward to the SAT results because she did the PSAT with zero prep. Then she started prepping for the math exclusively with Khan. So it will be an interesting test of the effectiveness of Khan by itself.
She’s a diligent kid but has a busy schedule with ECs everyday so there were some limits on how much she could put into Khan, but she did follow the schedule they gave her and did extra when she could.
This kid definitely has long-term issues with math speed and forgetting things that she hasn’t seen for awhile. This has been true since day one. It will affect testing but doesn’t seem to impact her classwork so I guess I should be glad about that part. But that means if Khan increases her math score, it should definitely be helpful for other kids.
I just still get frustrated knowing how the math test is going to drag down chances for merit. Gotta let it go, gotta let it go…
re: what do you get from prep books - Stuff like this:
- When two answers are similar, the shorter one is usually the correct one. (Meltzer)
- When to solve a math problem via backsolving or plugging in vs. doing the actual problem. (PWN)
- How to detect a tone mismatch in two similar answers, which means the mismatched one is wrong. (Meltzer)
- How to logically eliminate possible answers before you do the problem. (PWN and Meltzer)
Maybe that stuff is in Khan, but we didn’t use Khan to know.
I believe reason that my math scores weren’t abysmal 35 years ago was that I instinctively eliminated wrong answers fairly well. Even though I had nearly failed Algebra 2, I scored in the top 15 percent or so on the ACT/SAT math sections. I suspect that some students are naturally good at gaming the test; I’m sure anyone can at least improve.
Another thing that’s useful in the Meltzer and PWN books is that both have tables in the back that list the skills being tested for each and every question on the official SAT practice tests. This means that you can go through and highlight each question you got wrong, look at the list of tested skills/ concepts, then use the list to target your review.
If you do this with a couple of tests, you develop a sense of what skills are being tested just by looking at a question. “Oh, this is a translating words to numbers question,” or “Oh, this is a big picture question.” Knowing that sort of thing in advance is helpful and a time-saver.