@momtogkc I always thought we would do college visits as a whole family and include D21 but it just hasn’t worked out. She’s at ballet all day long in the summer and my husband doesn’t mind my taking S19 by myself. I thought for sure he’d feel left out but I think it’s more important for him to see schools later in the process after S19 has been accepted. No sense for him to take off work to see schools that S19 may not attend.
I’m taking S19 alone on a road trip tomorrow. I’m excited to have him to myself! It will be weird, though, traveling without D21 and my husband as we usually stick together…
@homerdog I have a D21 as well! She is away at camp (living on a boat in the BVIs - I’m so jealous!) so wouldn’t be able to come on these trips anyway. She will be mad though - she is excited to look at a few places with us next year. Meanwhile S23 has no interest in seeing colleges at all - he keeps telling me he is going to get rich and not go to college - haha!! One side effect of me finding this site is that DH and I have been spending more quality time with D19 - thinking about college makes us realize how quickly she will be gone!
OK - my D is home from her first SAT math tutoring session (which was with her regular math tutor.) She made me little nervous because she thinks the August SAT might have harder grading since most of the other kids who will take it are seniors who have already taken it a few times and will have better scores. Do any of you know how that works - do they scale the scores? If we are doing it just as a baseline should we even worry about that?
@homerdog It really is! It is called Seatrek BVI. They have 3 programs but the main one is where you live on a catamaran in the BVIs and scuba dive every day. You can get certified on the trip (that is what my D21 is doing) or if you are already certified you just work on the next level. They also do things like turtle tagging, learning how to sail, hiking. There is another program that does the same thing but in the Leeward Islands. The last one is in the Bahamas - you need to already be certified and it helps if you are over 15 so you can get your advanced certification as they do dives up to 100 feet. They live on a 65 ft sailboat and do something like 35 dives. They also explore several islands, go hiking, visit the swimming pigs. My D19 did that one last year and still cant stop talking about it - she absolutely loved it!
@momtogkc I thought of the curve of the August SAT. Yes, it does make a difference who takes the test. But…I’m thinking that most kids who scored high junior year are done testing and wouldn’t take it again August of senior year.If there are a lot of seniors, I bet they aren’t the curve breakers. S19 knows lots of juniors taking the August test. What can you do but try your best? Of the eight tests they’ve released, only two (test four and test eight) seem to have a easier curve. For example, on test four, you can get six wrong on the combined math sections and get a 760. On the other tests, six wrong is a 730. I think if you’re just looking for a baseline, though, you could have her just take a practice test and time her.
I’ll now be daydreaming about diving and tagging turtles…
Given that the SAT is scaled and graded on a curve, the timing of the SAT has crossed my mind as well and whether its based on sheer ignorance or just being naive, I’ve comforted myself to concluded that like so many things, it’s just one of those things that are out of our control.
Many of the seniors in my son’s school have already achieved their desired SAT scores during their Junior year and are done with testing. Many juniors are taking for the first time this August and those are the kids that are probably on top of things are going to be the curve breakers.
There are likely plenty of students who actually take their first test in the spring of junior year and retake at the beginning of senior year - they just don’t exist on CC. S19 balked at taking the test in August because he wants to take it in his own school, so October it is!
He’s finally taking his first practice test on Khan Academy as I type this. He must be really bored!
@eh1234 LOL. That’s pretty bored but exactly what S19 is doing too! He’s practicing the reading section and moaning about some literature passage from 1830.
I go back and forth between telling him that this could be one and done if he’s ready…and telling him not to stress to much because he’s got lots of options to take it again later. Not sure what the right message should be.
The approach we’ve been using for all these SAT tests is that you’ve got to give it your best shot because only then will you know what your baseline is. Unlike AP tests, they can be taken again in a few months so there is no need to stress about the score, but you’ve got to still give it your all in prepping and performing on the day of the exam. Of course, easier said than done.
When D19 took her ACT practice test, we did exam conditions, etc., because we wanted to know how much prep she would have to do this summer. She scored so well (with math as her high score – who knew?!?) resulting in a 34 composite, I just HAD to tell her she could be in a “one and done” situation for the September test. My procrastinator post-doc took it upon herself to build out a prep schedule for her lowest scoring area (reading, where she scored a 33) and has been prepping without me even asking about it.
With her heavy theatre schedule, plus 3 AP classes, plus time to further refine her portfolio – I’d love to see her ACT in September and her PSAT in October as wrapping it up time. Spring is going to be filled with too much chaos. (Even she says that.)
Verdict on S19’s first practice test - His vocabulary is suspect and he made some dumb math mistakes. He seemed a little disappointed in his score - 1400 - so maybe he’ll actually do some prep during the rest of the summer. He insists that one of the math answers provided by the test was simply wrong, lol.
I am hoping for a one and done for him and think a 750M/700 RW would be a good goal for the level of school he’s likely to look at. (This seems crazy to me because D16 couldn’t even crack 1200. Am I the mom who insists on a 1450 now?)
@homerdog Totally judge free here. I forewarn all that I type faster than I speak and hit the post button faster than I should, so please forgive all typos.
@OrangeFish Totally on the same boat. The twins have a full plate their junior year and thus, we’d love to be done with this SAT test by winter. With this all in approach, we’ve been lucky to not have to retake any of the SAT Subject tests…hope it holds true for the SAT as well.
@eh1234 I totally hear you! It’s so hard to know how much is enough prep and practice.
Since returning from his summer program earlier this month, my son has taken 2 timed College Board practice tests (5 and 6) and scored 1590 on each. So we could either stop the practice, or order harder tests to make sure these aren’t some crazy guessing flukes. So I ordered Kaplan’s 6 test book and we’ll see how he does not those (I want to save the College Board ones for next month as we get closer to the test date and he can take timed tests with his sister when she gets back from her research program). I’ll let you know how it goes.
Well, my D19 is in Madagascar for the next three weeks, where prepping for the ACT/SAT is…not high on the list of priorities. She’s living with a Malagasy family without electricity or running water for at least part of this adventure. My “Find my Friends” app thing is really interesting to me right now, with my other daughter in Connecticut being a camp counselor, and SHE’S the closest to me? Crazy! (We live in SoCal.)
She will be taking the ACT for the first time in the spring, though, and she will be getting extra time (the paperwork already went through). I think that’s better for her, since she wants to start a club and get it up and running in the fall. Something happened when we toured Georgetown, hard to describe without sounding poetic, but it, like, opened her mind. It’s too late for her to be a good candidate for admission there IMO since they look at freshman and sophomore grades, and who knows how she’ll do on the ACT, but the tour seemed to wake up a desire in her to do more with her high school experience than just mess around with theater tech, come home, watch Netflix and Facetime with her friends all night.
@JenJenJenJen Watch Netflix and FaceTime all night? Hmm, sounds like someone I know. Maybe I should take S19 to Georgetown sometime - it’s about 9 miles away from our house and I’ve never seen the campus! That’s great that your D was so inspired.
I thought about visiting GW with S19 to give him a sense of an urban campus, but he has walked by it so many times without noticing that it’s there, I don’t think he’ll be impressed. (He was born in GW’s hospital).
@ThinkOn Have you used tests 1-4 yet? There are eight tests out there now. S19 has taken test 2,3,4. We are using the Ivy Global book now and Kahn online for a couple of weeks and then going back to test 5 and 6 right before the test. I kind of want to save tests 7 and 8 in case he wants to take the test again in October.
1590 is insane!! S19 really hoping to score above 1520. He’s getting close!
@eh1234 yes. The college board has eight tests. You can google them and print them out. I’m not sure how many are on Kahn. My understanding is that the tests on Kahn are official tests and match up with the ones that college board releases. I just don’t know if Kahn has all eight.
I’m going to try to get son19 to start doing some sat/act test prep. He took the SAT Math 1 test and did pretty good, but not great. He was surprised he did not get a higher score, he was very confident that he had done super well. So that’s good in a way, because he knows he should prep now. He just assumed he’d breeze right thru it. I think he just has to get used to to the actual test taking, like watching out for “trick” questions and overall strategy. He took a practice SAT Math 1 test and aced it,so maybe just an off day for him when he took the real one. Who knows, no biggie.
He’s got a little while until he takes unior year PSAT and then he’ll start in with the real tests late fall/early winter.
Good job by your kids who have already studied/practiced and done well. That’s great news. It would be a relief to get a solid score right out of the gate.
took it upon herself to build out a prep schedule for her lowest scoring area (reading, where she scored a 33) and has been prepping without me even asking about it.