@traveler98 - I agree with that for sure. My D18 Math 2 wasn’t “stellar” but she refused to retake it, so I am kind of happy to have them be recommended 
Really glad to read that others thought this ACT was hard. My D spent a lot of time preparing so was pretty disappointed. At least she wasn’t alone.
My DD said the ACT was tough this time. She finished the Math last time but not this time. She had a solid score last time but is hoping for a bump, esp for superscoring. It will be interesting to see.
I just hope she gets her score in a timely manner this time! Hers took forever last time and she’s holding apps for this!
Congrats @AmyBeth68 !! <:-P May it be the first of many!
@traveler98, those are very good subject scores. If that was my D, I’d be including them.
Congrats to @AmyBeth68! Woot!
D18 said this ACT’s Math section was more difficult than the one she took last year (iirc, Oct 2016). Math is her weakest subject, so it’s not looking good on the ACT front this year. She does great on the other components of the ACT (the fact that other kids find the Reading section difficult confuses her, she always says, “the answer is right there in the text!”).
OTOH, she thought the Sep 2017 SAT was not as difficult as last year’s SAT (Oct 2016). Her EBRW and Math subscores are much closer on the SAT vs. the ACT.
Still kicking myself for not having her take both tests with the essay last year. We would have been done with those tests if I had … of course, D18 is obsessed with having her SAT score start with “15” instead of “14”. It’s difficult to get a headstrong kid to focus on what’s really important.
@twinsmama - we’ve had ZERO luck requesting fee waivers across the board. Public, private, in state and out. Tulane already sent a mass mailing fee waiver out a few months ago but the other 11 schools aren’t budging!
@amominaz - we got the same email from Rice and thought the same thing! The hurricane was terrible timing for them, it has to be to encourage applications.
@suzy100, I didn’t mean to imply that I thought S’s 790 in the math 2 was bad; of course I know it’s a great score. I did send the free score reports to schools when he took the subject tests in June. I just don’t see how they add anything to his file since they just agree with his SAT and AP and ACT scores. I guess if they were way out of whack with his other standardized test scores it might raise a red flag?
@traveler98 re the SAT Subject scores. I think that’s just another data point, just like AP scores are another data point, and I think it’s useful if the colleges don’t really know a particular HS very well, so this is an objective score about subject matter that the kids should have learned in a particular class. Personally, I think the reporting of AP and SAT subject scores is really confusing. My D’s HS told me that some colleges want ALL the AP score results, and others just want whichever ones you want to tell them. My D’s HS encourages kids NOT to take the AP exam if they don’t think they will score particularly well on it. This goes against advice that I’ve read here that if you are in an AP class and you don’t take the exam, then colleges are going to think you took it and did poorly on it so that’s why you didn’t report it. For the SAT subject scores, I’ve heard that some schools want all, some want none, and some will let you pick and choose. Given this lack of uniformity, some kids might take more tests and submit some of APs and some of SAT2s, and it just gets kind of crazy. Personally, I think colleges should have the kids report everything, and that they should take EITHER the AP or SAT2 for particular subjects. You said your S took chemistry and math2. So in your case as an example, I think a college should look for the AP Chemistry and SAT2math2, or vice-versa, or all AP or all SAT2. Not AP chem and SAT2chemistry, and since the math isn’t a good example, I’ll say not AP Lit and SAT2lit.
D18 dropped by her GC’s office today to turn in a form and ended up in her office for over an hour discussing college plans, career aspirations, HS activites, ECs and awards and she even gave her an abbreviated Myers Briggs. D came home a little bewildered, excited, bemused and confused all wrapped up in one. She hasn’t heard of anyone else going though this spur of the moment in-depth session. D felt that after three years of being on the fringes and the GC barely knowing her name that she finally is taking an interest and this has to be good! This GC has about 75 seniors to deal with so obviously not everyone is getting this kind of attention. Fingers crossed a good LOR comes out of this ;
@Veronica02 so glad your D had a positive interaction with her GC!
Son’s high school is one of the pilot schools in CollegeBoard’s latest money-grab, er, research program:
Instead of AP Exam registration and payment happening in the early spring, it is happening at the pilot schools in October and November. The idea? “Students who register and pay for exams at the beginning of the school year are more invested in the class and are more likely to do better on the exam.”
I call bullsh%t on this one. Utter, steaming sh%te.
In my humble opinion a student–and only the student–is going to decide if the student will do the work in the class. Payment or no payment. Parents can’t force a kid to do the readings, the homework, listen to the lectures. It’s up to the kid.
Anywho. If this spring’s test results coordinate at all with CollegeBoard’s newest money-grubbing, er, theory, parents should expect to be paying up for AP exam fees by November 1st next fall. (If you will still have a child or children in high school, anyway.)
Anyone else’s school in this pilot program?
Wow, AP, just wow. That is completely a money grab.
@HeliMom74 Aha, yes, apparently ours is. I was wondering why we had to commit to AP tests so early this year!
Completely unacceptable. I really hope my D’s school is not in this pilot program. I’ll raise hell if it is. Those tests are expensive and may be of no value to the student if, say, he or she enrolls in a college that does not give credit or even placement for AP tests.
I was not happy with the AP exam fees I had to pay in August. It was the most ever for us, and on top of extra book fees.
We don’t pay tuition as a faculty perk, so I really shouldn’t complain. Most families have good incomes, but I don’t think it’s easy for them either. I just really feel for the low income scholarship students who come in from a very dangerous and depressed city. I don’t know how those families would manage those extra costs.
So I have mixed feelings about the move to more APs. While it’s bringing the school more inline to the local public schools in affluent towns, it could widen the divide between kids within the school if it’s not done right.
Excellent point, @suzy100 .
Pigs get fat, hogs (should) get slaughtered. Just who is the College Board that decides where so many of our kids go to college? First the 3 hour SAT test that has such a disproportionate impact on admissions. Then basically deciding the whole US HS curriculum, originally with the AP, now with the Pre-AP. And this whole testing cycle that has US HS Juniors and Seniors jumping through hoops…tell me why kids have to take BOTH APs and SAT2s? Now this blatant money grab. There really needs to be pushback against this, and it’s only the colleges that can do this.
Re: AP exams and policies-
It is interesting to see how it is different across the districts & states. Our district is doing APs a little different this year. Students may not drop an AP class before the first 6 weeks of a 9 week grading period. AP students are required to take at least one AP test, meaning you can take 4 AP classes, but only are required to take one AP test. The district picks up a large part of the exam fees: Exam 1 & 2 - student pays $30/exam, district pays $64/exam; Exam 3 & 4 - student pays $20/exam, district pays $74 exam; Exam 5+ - student pays $15/exam, district pays $79/exam. Each AP student, parent, and teacher must sign a contract outlining this policy at the beginning of the school year. (FWIW - the district has been paying a portion of the exams for years, that’s not new with this policy change.)
Sorry for the postscript (again), but shouldn’t the US Dept of Education be deciding curriculum rather than a private company? Sure I could see the Dept of Ed farming out the testing responsiblities, but then that should be done through a bidding process.
Hmmm, College Board, sure you want to keep on trying to continue to gain more and more control over the US educational process?