I asked D19 to enter an essay contest that was due at midnight on 12/31. I told her about it months ago. I reminded her periodically, and once she was on break last week I reminded her about twice a day. She always claimed to be working on it but would never have a draft ready for review. You can guess what happened. She submitted it right at midnight and I never got to see it. In the last 15 minutes she enlisted the help of D15. They were having a little trouble uploading it and D15 started to call me, and D19 shouted: āNo donāt get Mom involved!ā Lol. I dread the process of college essays. One of the ways D19ās ADHD manifests itself is as an inability to start on a project until the last possible moment when she has a surge of adrenaline, which of course leaves no time to proofread and revise something. This drives me nuts because I am a big plan ahead type person.
@Corinthian Iām big on planning ahead too and usually S19 is right there with me. Iāve been chicken to ask him to work on some things during this break. Itās so nice that he has nothing he HAS to do. That being said, Iāve nagged him a bit about getting on some essays for summer programs. They arenāt due until 3/1 but I know when he gets back to school, he will have very little time and it will be worse to do them after break. I feel like he can tell when Iām about to ask him about them and he throws on his coat and runs out the door. 
@evergreen5 Yes, heās planning to sit for both in the Spring. It was his first sitting for both tests. Eng was good (35/720), Math was not so good. He hopes to do much better with Math prep.
Heās also applying for Questbridge CPS in Feb. Chances are slim, but weāll try anyways.
Happy New Year! <:-P
Welcome to the board @romns116 ! :-h
Anyone have suggestions for Math prep (both SAT and ACT)?
Heās at 590/25, hoping for 680/30. Eng seems to be fine, but S19 isnāt improving much with Khan Math. Iāll try reading suggestions on the Test Forum also. Thanks everyone!
@romns116 For ACT we have the For the Love of ACT Math and For the Love of ACT Science. We havenāt started on math yet but sheās done two chapters of Science. Iām hopeful it will help her. She took it cold as a freshman and got 22ās on math and science but 33 on English so I know we need to shore up math and science. Being in college Algebra currently ought to help.
@romns116 My impression is that it helps to have finished algebra 2 to score particularly well on SAT math. So if that is his current course, perhaps he will do better next summer or fall. I donāt know about the ACT.
Hi 2019 parents! Parent of a 2018 dropping in here. Hard to believe that exactly a year ago we were taking about what schools she might like to visit for her spring break, and now she will be off to college in 8 short months. She has done so much changing and growing this year - they really do transform so much!
It has been so exciting to watch her explore schools and really get to ask herself who she is and what she wants. I got to learn so much about her watching her go through this process. These boards were incredibly helpful for me to read and learn from this year as well.
I wish for you low stress and lots of joy as you go through your processes this year with your kids. There are a lot of great and very different paths out there.
It seemed to take so long, but now that she has found a school, I canāt believe this part of it is over.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year and the best of luck on your parental journeys through this next year and a half or so!
thanks @bjscheel Iāll look for those books. He seems to do okay with science using the āanalyze graph, skip reading, jump to questionsā method 
Iāll look for the math book though!
@evergreen5 Algebra 2 is his current class. His teacher said the same thing. Thank you!
Iām also looking at the ACT Math Test Practice (on the ACT site). Is this the practice test I hear people mention on this site? Iād like to time him and get an estimate score.
@romns116 - My kid did Khan Academy all last summer and it helped him not one bit. Weāre studying together for the ACT. He is strong in everything except math. Thereās a bunch of threads in the SAT/ACT sub-forum that talk about the best test taking strategies, but they all boil down to practice, practice, practice. My kidās problem is that he took a lot of this math 3 and 4 years ago and apparently didnāt learn it very well back then (his 7th grade math teacher was atrocious, the 8th grade teacher caught them up a bit but obviously not enough).
Another bit from the effective SAT/ACT practice threads is the best way to study is take a test, look at what you did not get right, and figure out why you didnāt get it and how youāll answer it next time. Iām putting together a study plan of 12 minutes of questions each night (timed, because ACT timing is brutal) Iām desperately trying not to spend money on tutors, because we donāt have that sort of money lying around.
The one on the ACT test is a real test. There is also a book from the ACT test company that has 5 real ACT tests in it (one is a duplicate of the online test). There are a bunch of other test books out there but a number of them are riddled with errors and ambiguous questions, so look a book up on this site before you plop money down for it. We bought one from Barronās that was awful.
PWN the Math book was super helpful for S19 when studying for SAT. It reviews all of the concepts and has questions very similar to the test. S19 did all of the problems in the book. Went from a 730 to an 800.
Back at school today, bleh. Temp was 3 degrees this morning, itās been so cold here the last few weeks, record setting cold.
At least track was indoors! Son19 posted some excellent results in a big state wide meet the other day. He is getting faster every race and his times are now sufficient for recruitment to some D1ās. I donāt know if heāll end up exploring that path or just sticking with his current plan. Pretty cool either way, as he has been training hard and has been focused on getting better.
Things start getting busy again as school work will pick up to end the second quarter, robotics competition will kick off soon, track ramps up thru mid February.
@RightCoaster Wow. Congrats to your S!
Cold is insane here too. -10 regular temp this morning and I donāt even want to know the wind chill. Some of the dumber track kids are still doing morning runs outside even though we are on break and official coach-sponsored running doesnāt start until Jan 30 for winter track. S19 went once this week. I think it was 3 degrees that morning. Stupid. I tried to tell him that experienced runners would never run in this. Run inside for goodness sake. These kids all have access to some sort of fitness center. I think they are looking at running outside in the sub-zero temps as a bonding thing but itās still a bad idea.
Weāre limiting outdoors exposure as much as possible. Itās not quite as cold here as @homerdog reports, but itās cold enough. Kiddo is happy that heās got enough extracurriculars to keep him after school until my husband or I are available to pick him up and take him home. Maybe thatās the secret of creating a kid enthusiastic about ECs.
We give one friend down the street a ride to school every morning, but I still see others walking. I feel like shaking the kiddo, making him make friends with these other kids so we can ferry them too. Itās dark when theyāre walking to school. The school system wonāt bus them if theyāre within a mile. Weāre just under that limit.
40 degrees here in ABQ. No snow, no winterā¦
Thanks for popping in and giving us perspective, @Jensmom27! Youāre right that the view from the front window looks long but the back window looks short!
Welcome, @romns116!
@CharlotteLetter, good for you for wanting to develop healthy habits. If you establish them now, I bet youāll keep them for a lifetime.
The more I look at college admissions stats and trends, the more freaked out I become. Most early applicants ever, most selective class ever, highest test scores ever, blah blah blah. Thank goodness we have a little more time and should have stats from class of 2022, but making a wise list is daunting considering the increasing uncertainty.
And I need to plan a spring break college tour for my kid - my first attempt at an itinerary is overly ambitious, too many schools, too much driving (2+ hrs per day for 5 days, in the late afternoon?). Kid needs to sit down with some college websites and course catalogs before we plan further.
@Corinthian Lol, D16 was the same. She didnāt let me look at a single one of her college essays though I did convince her to let a family friend (good writer) help her. D16 has dyslexia and struggled with spelling and grammar so help was really needed. She also procrastinated to the last minute. It was torture. But hey she got into college, and then shocked me by applying to an honors 2-year āGreat Worksā program at her school that was extremely reading and writing intensive. I thought she was nuts. But she has become a very good writer. Itās amazing how they grow up and change.
S19 is thankfully the more methodical and āplan-aheadā type though he did not want to do any SAT studying over break. Instead he was teaching himself a new programming language and guitar. He was also training hard 2-5 hrs a day, but weather was good. Only 20 deg.
Happy New Year everyone! We just got home from our trip up north. D says she hasnāt completely ruled out going to school in the cold weather. Once we left my momās house (where we basically just sat inside all day) and went to our friendās house in NH she was able to tolerate the cold a little bit better. She realized once you are hanging out with friends (especially one who has a license and takes you to Starbucks/ Dunkin Donuts/ the dollar storeā¦) every day it wasnāt so bad. I had to remind her we did not have all of the best gear either, if she ever ended up somewhere cold she would upgrade her jacket, boots, etc.
We donāt go back to school until next week. This week will be filled with appointments, homework and hopefully at least a few beach days. D21 is working on hr online driving permit test and has her appointment for that next week. Pretty sure she will be driving before D19!
Sigh D16ās (age 20) still does not have a driving license. She gamely went and took the driving test today at my suggestionā¦and failed miserably after 2 years of no driving. She was in tears. Sigh. I really hate this process. Will it ever end? She doesnāt have much chance to get practice, so I fear it may well go on a long time.