@Cotton2017 Relax. You are fine. I went through this with DS16. We started SAT prep the Summer before Jr Year. He started testing the Fall of his Jr year which gave us plenty of time for retakes to get high enough scores for merit. We did school visits starting Fall of Junior Year and completed them by the Summer before Sr year. He applied EA to 5 schools and had 5/5 acceptances by Christmas. If you are not targeting super selective schools, you are on track. Focus on GPA and ECs right now. I grew up in Baltimore and attended Towson University. I turned out fine and have been gainfully employed since I graduated. Donāt make the process more stressful than it has to be for your child or youā¦
Just an aside, IMO unless a child truly has a good shot of being accepted at selective schools, taking them for a visit to " motivate them" is adding stress to an already stressful time.
@carolinamom2boys - thanks!!! We are definitely not looking for selective schools. We also donāt have the funding to pay for high OOS tuition so our college search will be fairly limited since we donāt qualify for FA. I went St. Maryās of Maryland and ended up with a great job so I know Harvard is not necessary (or for usā¦desirable). Naively, I did think she could get into to North Carolina publics until I read posts here. I had no idea how selective they were (or expensive). Itās been an education so far.
Avoid the chance threads!!!
Always!
Our oldest did an online prep class and it worked out just fine and suited him the best. Not the right solution for the others but if rural it could definitely be a great option. Many kids self study but of our 4, only 2 really have that personality so think about how your kiddo works best and search for opportunities based on that.
Donāt let the College Confidential craziness get to you. The only way I could see touring colleges sophomore year is If your kid is interested in touring and brings it up on their own, or if its in a location that you just happen to be anyway and the visit makes logistical sense. Otherwise I would wait. My D16 was a much better student than S19, and much more motivated about college, but her first visits were spring break junior year. There is no need to be doing it so early.
As far as test prep, Iām also (relatively) rural and there arenāt many options around here and I donāt know if my kid will ever get motivated enough to do an online course. I am worried about that, because her test scores so far have been pretty blah.
My d19 did a free practice ACT at our library over the weekend. Sheās done a couple online practice SATs over the last year. Thatās the extent of our actual test prep so far. What Iāve learned so far is her scores are decent, not stellar, and that I think the SAT is probably going to be a better match for her so what we will focus on more over the summer.
I think itās not out of the realm that with some summer prep she might have a shot at a good PSAT score in the fall. That would give her a few more options. But even without it, she will get a good enough SAT score that, with her solid GPA, will get her into our state public that has her potential major.
My college talk with her has been plans for summer prep (roughly a half hour a day as a goal) and talking about the benefits of the state public. If the scores give her a shot at other options, we will look into them then. I donāt want her to fall in love with a school until she knows if her scores will give her a good chance at admission and merit.
Hi @Cotton2017!
S19 is studying for SAT over summer. I think itās totally possible to study on oneās own. I have a plan. He will take practice test (one of the real six tests released from the College Board). After he checks his answers, heās going to use PWN the SAT Math and the Meltzer books for reading and grammar. In all of these books, you can cross reference with the questions you got wrong and go to the prep sections you need most. Then, they give you tips and more practice on just what you need. Then, he will go back to that original SAT and try to answer the questions that he answered incorrectly the first time.
He will continue practice questions on Kahn and then retake another test.
We will do that (take a test, review incorrect answers) until he buts up against the August SAT, probably leaving two tests for the two weeks before the test so heās fresh for the test.
IF he finds that he is still struggling with certain kinds of questions, Iāve lined up a tutor to work on only those questions with him in August.
The one thing that Iām struggling with is how to prep for the essay part. Iāve started checking schools on our tentative list, though, and not ONE considers the essay or even wants the score. Soā¦I might just have him wing it.
S19 knows the plan. Honestly, I havenāt the foggiest idea how many hours it will take. He will just have to take the first practice test and do the review and then have him take another full test and see how he does. That will determine how much more review he needs. He also has drivers ed every day for the first three weeks of summer, running with the XC team each morning, art class twice a week, and working as a soccer ref on the weekends. Heās clear that this will not necessarily be a restful summer but I still think he will have plenty of time to hang out. MUCH more time than he has during the school year for sure.
He took a practice test at the library for free without prepping. Got a 670 Reading/680 Math. Heās shooting for 750+ on each section. He missed some easy questions in math because (1) he didnāt remember his geometry from eighth grade and (2) he rushed through the first page and made some really silly mistakes. On Reading, heās good with the grammar section but the reading felt rushed and he struggles with the questions that come in pairs (you answer one question about a passage and then the second question asks you WHY you answered the first question the way you did). Definitely needs some tip on those kinds of questions!
@Cotton2017, your daughter will be just fine. My D19 did some prep with Khan Academy last year for her PSAT for about 10 days. It worked pretty well for her. She will start her prep this summer for SAT, ACT. She will use Khan academy, books primarily.
Encourage your daughter to find her strengths while preparing or taking the practice test. Here is what my daughter did:
She was struggling with reading. She took a timed test. She did miserably. She took another test without timing it. She did much better. She inferred that she needed to improve on time aspect more than the comprehension aspect of the reading section. She worked on that part. Many kids struggle because of the no-calculator part of the Math section. If she can find her own strengths and weaknesses, she will have an effective prep.
Just like everything in parenting, there is no one right way to do this whole college search/application thing. The best thing about CC is that you can see a lot of different ways people have gone about it and get new information and ideas that might not have occurred to you. The worst thing is that you can see how others do things and worry you are doing it wrong if you donāt do it that way.
And even if you are an experienced parent you can get it right with #1 and totally screw it up with #2 because each kid is different.
I totally agree with @carolinamom2boys that I would not visit a school my kid had very little/no shot at.
I totally agree with @me29034 that college visits spring break sophomore year can be unnecessary/maybe ill advised. In our case marching band consumes the entire fall and spring break junior year will be spent on a class trip.
Now that Iāve written all this I feel like I sound really defensive. Honestly I just want to encourage everyone to know your own kid, gather your own information, and do your own thing. It can be a stressful time but there are a thousand good ways to do this and it works out fine for most people in the end.
Weāre looking at high acceptance rate in-state options during sophomore year spring break because junior year spring break will be filled with theatre production and we will not be able to travel then. We would rather see the state campuses with students roaming around vs. during the empty campus and hot-as-Hades summer months.
Finishing up this process for D17 (and I recognize many others in the same position). No college visits for us on tap anytime soon, but S19 did visit a couple of schools with his sister. He will take the PSAT in the fall and a mock ACT test, too. D17 worked with a private tutor about 6-7 sessions on ACT prep with good results and we will likely follow the same course with S19.
@homerdog I like your āplan.ā I need to print it and post somewhere for the summer. 
That is basically what S19 is planning. He will self study - take practice test section by section and review incorrect answers. We will see how it goes. 
@payn4ward I actually tried it myself. Did the math section. Then went through the PWN book to āstudyā and re-worked my problems. Total took about four hours. Not too shabby. Never took a second test, though, to see if I could do better the second time.
Made me think that if he scores high enough on the second practice test early in the summer, we may want to wait until the end of July to start studying again. Thatās the tough part. I donāt want him to burn out. I want him fresh for Aug test. And I also donāt want to run out of problems since he may need good questions to use for practice between an August test and an October test for a second round. Iāll post updates!
Soā¦
FWIW.
April 7th is the deadline to sign up for the May SAT Subject tests. June doesnāt work for S19 (band trip) and I am thinking either may or skip it as Iād rather have summer prep spent on the ACT or SAT itself. Basically either take it while itās fresh or probably skip it in my mind as Iām not sure there is much overall value. Not totally sure there isnāt though.
Which means the poor kid is going to take a diagnostic test on each (Chem and Math 2) between now and the 7th so we can decide if itās worth it to schedule at all.
Heās so happy with me right now.
Not.
BUT with his GPA these āmayā be worth adding to his app mix to supplement things. Guess we will see after he takes the diagnostics.
@eandsmom Well that just opened a can of worms! I never thought about S19 taking subject tests in May. I think that might be better than June if he does not need to study much. Thinking maybe just Math 2. I was planning Math 2 and Chem for this year but Chem will take more studying. I have a feeling he could knock out Math 2 without as much work.
Finals arenāt until first week of June so May subject test might be better! He absolutely hated taking SAT 2 Bio last year in Juneā¦three days after finals.
We decided to wait on the subject tests. Whatever gains we have for taking math 2 right after finishing precalculus would probably be lost by a lack of confidence.
I think next year she will be more mentally and emotionally prepared for it and since she is taking AP Chem next year, she could do that one then too. I think there is only one likely school on our potential radar that even would want the subject tests anyway and we will have a better idea next year if that one is still even a contender.
He has a conflict in June (marching band trip) or Iād do that. IF he takes any. I donāt want to detract from AP World studying so Iāll only have him take them if the diagnostic comes back decent. We will see how the diagnostic test goes and then decide if it is worth bothering or not. He will take one tomorrow night and one on Thursday.
How did your S do on Bio @homerdog?
@homerdog I think 4 hours is more time than my D16 spent on serious test prep, haha! I probably canāt do even half of the SAT math at this point in my life.
Iām still thinking S19 will just take the SAT in August and maybe in January if a second test is desirable. Hopefully Khan Academy and maybe the worldās tiniest SAT prep book will be sufficient. He really just needs to work on reading a little based on PSAT scores. I donāt see him taking an SAT subject test (or even being aware of their existence) unless his friends start talking bout them towards the end of the year. Heās taking honors pre-calc next year so I guess that would be the time to take Math 2 if the topic comes up.
Heās decided that he really likes chemistry and thinking about switching from AP Physics 1 to AP Chem for next year (or trying to take AP Physics 2 and AP Chem at the same time senior year).
@eandsmom Eh. He got a 700. Not so great. I donāt know. He was only a freshman and took it after Bio Honors. Wonāt get to AP Bio so it was the only time to take it. Didnāt study. We had a Barronās book but he barely cracked it, He did notice that there were chapters in there that they didnāt cover in his class. I think those are probably most of the ones he missed.
I donāt even know if heās going to need these. They will mostly be for any reaches (if he even applies to any). He wonāt be an engineer so they wonāt be used for placement anywhere. Every school on our tentative list will take them as extra info but does not require them. A friend of mine who is a college coach suggested he just take each one as he finishes the corresponding class at school. If he scores well enough on any given subject test, just send those. Thatās our strategy for now.
And I hear you about AP World. S19 has AP Comp Sci on May 4th (I think) so the May SAT 2 is the same week. Like I said, I think Iāll get a Math 2 prep book and have him look at it. If he knows the material then maybe itās ok to just take it in May. He is so drained after finals in June.