S19 managed to pick AP classes with no summer homework. He is still thinking about making one change to his schedule (and might be forced to make a change if there are any conflicts), so he may end up having to cram a bunch of AP homework into the last days of summer break. That will be fun. He has to read literally any book by an American author for English 11 HN and even that seems like too much. He did, however, spend an entire day researching various parts he wants to buy to build his next longboard. Priorities!
I’m going to force him to take another SAT practice test this weekend even though I don’t think he got around to practicing the things he needed to work on (he’s been doing -sort of - daily practice on Khan Academy, but he just does whatever the website gives him, rather than focusing his practice). I know I should make him take a paper test, but the scoring looks like a pain. (He did his first one on-line).
@eh1234 Scoring a paper test is easy peasy. You just find the list of answers on the College Board website and then check them. It takes ten minutes. S19 taking a paper test tomorrow. Hasn’t taken a full test all at one sitting in a month. He’s been doing questions on Kahn and taking full section tests at one sitting but we need to get him used to the four hour test again.
I read a post about an SAT boot camp where kids did one section a day each weekday and a full test on the weekend for three weeks right before the test. I’m not sure we’ll be able to be that dedicated but I’m shooting for that. S19 will be in school the week before the test and have XC as well so, depending on homework, I’m not sure if he’ll actually do a whole SAT section each night. I am going to try to do the simulated full test, though, for the three Saturdays before the test.
Good Morning! My son has been using Khan w/PWN,Metzer books daily since mid June after we linked his CB account. Had I known about Khan, he would have started much sooner! He also starts a SAT small group class that meets every Sunday starting 4 weeks leading up to the Oct. 7th date. So far this summer he has only taken the PSAT practice test #1. He takes an SAT practice test with Princeton Review next Saturday. His class will use 2 more practice tests. I am hoping he meets his goal on this first administration Oct 7 (wishful thinking!), but know that it may take more studying and more administrations. My main concern is balancing SAT prep with his classes & football once school is underway…
For Khan users: My son took practice PSAT #1, I scanned/scored his test using the CB app and his Khan acct/study plan automatically updated based on the results. I thought the same process could be used for the practice SATs or the results could be entered manually. Am I mistaken? I’m a little confused since some are hand grading the SAT practice tests while using Khan.
For everyone that wants to do a paper test, you can either buy the College Board SAT book (which has the first four practice tests) or print them out from the College Board website (which has all eight). And, seriously, it’s not a big deal to score it. Both the book and the website have all of the answers and you gather up how many questions were correct and then use a table to convert the raw score to a real SAT score. I’ve been doing it all summer.
@4MyKidz I would just be careful about using PSATs at this point. They are much easier than an SAT. I would use only SATs from here on out for practice.
For Khan users: students can take the paper test or online test, then enter their answers in Khan, the test is scored, and their Khan study plan is updated based on the results. That’s how it worked when my son did the PSAT #1 practice test…just in case this may save time/help any Khan users
@homerdog Thx for that reminder. I had a distinct purpose for giving my son the practice PSAT #1. After 4 weeks of daily Khan practice, I needed to see an apples to apples comparison (his original PSAT vs. PSAT #1). From there, I analyzed his strengths/weaknesses amongst both tests, then rank/prioritize the top 2-3 weak standards in each section. From there, I designed a curriculumn that specifically addresses these particular standards while incorporating review of other standards, which serves to supplement Khan. This same process will occur for and after each of the SAT practice tests. This is how I design spiraled standards based curriculum for my school district. The main difference is that I must also keep in mind my son’s specific needs as a learner.
So what is the general consensus on sending the free scores on the first official SAT? Too risky?
Eh, I guess I’ll have a better sense after the prep class D begins next week…it goes until the night before the August SAT. They’re taking, I think, three practice tests during the class. D didn’t prepare at all for the PSAT and got a mediocre score, so I’m hoping for major improvement.
As an aside, the teacher for this class sent a stern introductory email saying that students can have no more than two absences, and more than 15 minutes late = absence, and that not doing homework will also get the student kicked out – my husband is already annoyed with the guy.
@Gatormama My guess is that they have those rules because, if they can’t get students to be 100% on board with the program, the kids’ scores don’t improve. And then the company can’t publish how much they improve students’ scores!
We aren’t sending any free SAT reports. I’m not sure what we would do if money was a consideration. Perhaps, we would think about it more. I just don’t want to risk any bad scores sent. It’s all such a racket!
We did do the free SAT scores when D19 took the SAT in June even though she didn’t do any practice ahead. My theory is I’m not giving any more money to college board than I have to. Plus I do not think competitive schools will hold an early bad score against a student who demonstrates strong improvement especially if that is matched by strong improvement in grades. Schools understand that anyone can have a bad day. It’s not like a class in school where your final grade is the average of all the tests you have taken.
I think of it this way. Imagine a kid who takes the SAT twice and gets a 1400 and later a 1560. The school does not look at it and say “Oh, this kid is a 1480 SAT student”. The school says, “This is a kid who can score 1560.” Or maybe, “This is a kid who was disappointed in her first score and buckled down and really increased her scores. That’s the kind of hard work we want to see at school x.”
This is all just my opinion based on my research, conversations and guiding two kids through this process already.
Yeah, money is a consideration with us, but I know what you mean about risking bad scores. Ugh.
BTW, the class is happening at Muhlenberg, which has a pretty well-regarded theater program. I asked D if she wanted me to set up an official tour since she’s gonna be spending so much time there – and she said no. “It’s so close,” she said.
lol.
I can’t argue with her. I went two states away for college - couldn’t wait to get away.
I would send SAT scores to the NMS people if I thought that there was a possibility that S19 was going to get a near perfect score on the PSAT to qualify as a semi-finalist. Seems highly unlikely. If he surprises me and gets a 222 or whatever is needed, I’ll happily cough up the $12 later. I think at best, he might score well enough to be commended.
I feel like he’s still 12 months away from assembling some sort of list of schools to apply to so no scores are going out yet.
@Gatormama No, we are not using the free scores on son’s first SAT. As much as I hope his score will meet his goals, I’m thinking his first score will serve as a baseline. Also, we do not plan on him applying to more than 6 schools, so the cost is reasonable for our family.
I was talking with a friend last night who has a S18. They just came back from a trip seeing some of his reach schools (including places like Harvard). Super bright student but they understand the chances of admissions at the HYP-type schools. Earlier in the summer, they visited schools on his list that are more in the match category. He loved his match schools after those visits but, now that he’s seen a bunch of reaches, he’s not particularly interested in them anymore. Whether it was the programs offered, the campuses, the students he met, he sees the differences and his parents are very worried that his application season will be a drag.
They are now going to play the ED game. Now that he’s seen these dream schools, he wants to apply to a super reach for ED. His parents want him to apply to the top 10 university where he’s a legacy and ED makes a big difference. If he’s denied by the HYP ED school, then his chances of getting in this university are definitely lower in the RD round and he’s more likely to be shut out of the rest of his reaches…and end up with just his safeties as options.
Lesson to be learned? Don’t visit reaches if you think it might throw off the search. My friend is now looking for other safeties but knows they won’t compare to the schools they saw on this trip and their son is already saying that he’s worried he won’t get in to a school he likes and will be “stuck” at a safety. We don’t have any true reaches on S19’s list although I have a few in mind if he wants to apply to some. We won’t visit them though!
@carolinamom2boys exactly. I just think it’s also our job as parents to make sure kids understand that they truly can find a happy place at many different schools.
Completely agree @homerdog . Too often parents and children get caught up in the notion that there is only one right school and that their success depends on attending that school . That’s far from true .
Did drive-bys of Juniata and Susquehanna – Juniata moved down the list due to the “remoteness” factor, but it really has a lovely campus. Susquehanna moved up both due to its campus and the surrounding area. This is the first college stuff my better half has participated in so far, so it’s been fun and not stressful which makes it better for all.
@carolinamom2boys my friend started saying things like “she works so hard and deserves to go to a school she likes”. I cringed. I know it’s hard for high stats kids because they think they fit at the highest ranked schools (and maybe they do) but the reality is that there aren’t enough spots so parents have to be in charge of managing expectations.
I agree @homerdog . With my oldest son , he had high stats, but we also knew that everyone else applying to superselective schools also had high or higher stats than he did. He didn’t even want to apply to any. He said " I’m not going to go even if I’m accepted , so why apply just so I can say I was accepted if I’m lucky enough to be accepted?"
