@3SailAway Good luck. For ACTs DD was so busy in the month leading up to it. We made a few compromises and deals. For instance, the night before I asked to just look at a math test, not sit down and take it, but just check out some of the ones she didn’t understand. She jumped on that deal 
(For her freshman year ACT her prep consisted of glancing at the red book on the drive there, mainly to understand format.)
@momtogkc
Check out campflix.com a Summer Film Camp at Emory that’s much more affordable ($1350 residential).
It really is useful to look at an ACT before you take the test, because it’s pretty tightly timed and any time you can save reading the directions can be spent working on the questions. For the SAT, it’s so close to the PSAT that it shouldn’t matter.
So… driving. S19 is on the young side for a junior (birthday is late August), so is just now in the final stages of getting his driver’s license. I figure most of your kids have gone through it already, or have older siblings who have, so I’m looking for advice. Big question - does the sheer terror ever go away?? LOL. He’s doing well (now that he’s gotten over the “drifting lazily to the right” issue), some issues with parking still, but he can always park in the very back of wherever. BUT… we have bad traffic around here - being near the largest naval base in the world, we get all 50 states’ varieties of “bad driving”. I’m assuming this anxiety I’m experiencing is normal, but “normal” doesn’t make it any easier to deal with lol.
@parent2one My S19 will be 17 in late September. He’s had his permit for almost a year at this point, but still needs more hours and the formal behind the wheel training. I guess the goal is to get his license by mid-June when school gets out. His dad is responsible for this project and I’m rarely in the car with him. So far, I would classify it as “mildly less terrifying” than D16’s driving was. (Her driving is still kind of scary - that’s her, not me!)
He keeps driving the same routes over and over and I think he probably needs more heavy traffic time and some more branching out. I’m afraid he’ll get lost if he ever goes anywhere other than the school, certain stores, and his bass teacher’s house.
@parent2one D19 is also on the young side (though a little older than yours or @eh1234 's) – she’s had her permit for maybe 3 months but has only maybe 10-12 hours behind the wheel. It’s still a little nerve-wracking for me, and we’re still on city streets (and, for the most part, the same city streets). She has her first driving lesson at her driving school tomorrow, with a parent – me – sitting in the back seat. That will be an interesting experience.
@parent2one – my D19 is a similar age (early August birthday when she’ll be 17) and she passed her road test over the summer. She is driving with her temporary license now and we go to court in 2 weeks to get her license. (In Virginia, the new drivers go with one parent to court, and the judge gives the license to the parent, who gives it to the new driver.) D19 drives on the Beltway and can maneuver Tysons traffic, but I am usually filled with “some terror” instead of sheer terror.
D19 also a young one with a mid September birthday. But she has had her license since December. The fear does subside, but the worry does not. She still hasn’t driven alone on the highway, but has a few times with me. She has driven through the snow a couple times. I do breathe a little easier when I see her car pull into the driveway, and I know I can stop tracking her on the phone
It does become less terrifying but it takes time. I didn’t even want my son to get his permit last year but he’s done very well. Although he got his license in October, we continue to use every opportunity we can as a learning experience. For example, one night where it was warm and raining and the windows steamed up on the inside? He didn’t realize the defroster works for that too, he thought it was just for actual defrosting on cold days so he stopped the car every couple minutes and wiped down the inside of the windshield with his sleeve. You don’t always realize what you need to teach them until the moment arrives!
DD is young, another late August birthday, but she’s been driving for 2.5 years. Here you get your learners permit at 14. She took drivers ed the summer she was almost 15 and then she could have a school permit and drive directly to school and back home, alone. It does come in handy when you live 11 miles from school, and no bus available (we live out of the district). She drives on the gravel, highway, and small town streets but hasn’t driven in a city yet- project for this summer. And as mentioned upthread, I did recently get the hysterical call when she hit a pole on a 100% ice covered street. I’m just so happy she didn’t hit anyone else.
I saw a lot of mention of ACT-taking last month, but is anyone’s kid taking the SAT tomorrow? Or did I just miss earlier discussion?
I think a few are planning to take it.
Good luck to the kiddos taking the SAT in a few hours! :)>- >:D<
and hoping for no weather cancellations for RightCoaster, et al!
Good luck to all SAT takers today, especially yours.
Kiddo has not yet gotten his learner’s permit. We went to get it once and he failed the written test. It’s the only test he has ever failed in his life and I think he was slightly traumatized. Some day when there isn’t a play we will go try the learner’s permit thing again.
The school play is enormously funny. Last night the local review organization (cappies) visited to consider the play for local area awards. Of course this is the night that everything goes wrong with tech. Curtain not opening on time, closing over the final bows, feedback on the microphones, mikes not working. The band sounded excellent, though occasionally they drowned out the lyrics.
I have to grudgingly admit that the guy who played lead was outstanding. Since my kid really wanted that part I have been looking at him extra hard to find fault and I just can’t. The leading lady was a risky casting decision since she has forgotten her lines on stage in two prior productions, but she seems to have worked extra hard this time around and if she forgot something she is now good enough to glide over it as if nothing happened.
The girl who plays the crazy ex-girlfriend was the standout performance, I thought. She has two songs, and she just killed it. Incredible voice.
My kid had two very short scenes. He put he put his heart into them and he was quite funny. He was also in most of the dance spectaculars. Those were great, very crisp, very fun.
So I have hopes of the kids winning a bunch of theater awards for things other than tech. Which is a shame, but I guess sometimes you just have an off night.
My D19 is taking the SAT this morning, which is why I’m already up. I wouldn’t normally be up so early on a Saturday, especially the first day of spring break! I hope she does better than the last SAT so she can be done with this test. I don’t think she studied enough, so hoping by luck it happens. A friend of mine, who lives in the next school district over, said their kids took the SAT on Wednesday, for free during school. That is annoying to me, but her school district seems to do things better so I shouldn’t be surprised. No worries about snow here, it’s supposed to be 90 degrees today, even though it’s only supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow. Gotta love south Texas.
My S is also taking the SAT this morning–for what I suspect is his one and only time–I really don’t think I could persuade him to take it again as he is already looking at a number of test optional schools. So if he tanks it, I’m sure his response would be to focus on those TO schools and forget the rest!
If he does as well (or better) as he did on the practice test, I think it might open him up to considering a few schools he currently thinks are impossibilities.
When do results usually come in?
I lifted this directly form the College Board website:
March 10 Test Day
If you took the SAT with Essay:
March 23–29: Your multiple-choice scores become available online during this window.
By April 3: Your SAT Essay scores become available.
Within 10 days after you receive all scores: We send colleges your scores, and we send your paper score report if you requested one.
If you took the SAT:
March 23–29: Online and paper score reports become available during this window.
Within 10 days after you receive scores: We send colleges your scores.
My S was supposed to take the SAT today but thanks to the storm that hit earlier this week it’s been postponed. We got hit hard with over a foot of heavy snow. There were lots of trees down and power outages. There was no school both Thursday and Friday because half the schools in the district had no power. I think the high school finally got power back last night but they had already postponed it.
Good luck to this morning’s SAT test-takers! I think results are typically in as early as 10-12 days.
I’m up because S19 has to play in a jazz combo outdoors (with temps in the 40s) for 6 hours as part of a band fundraiser. Not his usual Saturday routine (he normally sleeps until 12:30). He should be a joy later today.
Congrats on a successful opening weekend @ninakatarina.! My son is playing in the pit for our spring musical and this is the show the school has decided to submit to the Cappies this year. He enjoys the pit, but man, does our theatre teacher have tragic taste in musicals.
@me29034 Ugh - sorry about the storm and the SAT cancellation. Hope you have power and heat! My son had a weather-related cancellation in December (a whole 1/2 inch of snow!) and was able to take it the very next Saturday.
Just dropped S19 off to take the SAT (then hit the grocery store ). Good luck to all the testers!! He didn’t prep at all unless you count having taken the PSAT, so I’m thinking he’ll probably end up taking it again if he doesn’t get the score he’s looking for. We’ll see, I might be surprised.
@eh1234 S19 has had his learner’s about a year as well - but really started hitting the hours in the past three weeks when we bought a newer used car (he’d been practicing on our 18 year old Camry, complete with shocks gone bad and check engine light blaring lol). Definitely has been more enthusiastic now about practicing :). Same thing here re:routes- he’d pretty much done the same routes over and over again (to school, to/from Aikido practice), but we’ve started varying it up AND those particular routes are very heavy traffic.
@BorgityBorg He’s mostly done city streets as well, I’m not brave enough to take him on the highway lol, Will leave that for the formal behind the wheel. That’s scheduled for 19th - 27th, then I guess he gets his temporary license (as long as he passes). That’s interesting that you are in the car with her for the driving lesson!
@OrangeFish We’re in VA, too, just the southeast corner :). We have bad traffic, and the tunnels create some excitement, but it’s certainly not Beltway traffic! If she can maneuver that, she can handle most anything :).
@toomanykiddos good to know the terror piece fades. I wasn’t expecting the worry to ever go away, that’s our job after all That, and hiding said worry from the kiddos!
@mindatwork I never would have thought of that, but I don’t think we’ve gone over how to handle fogged windows when it’s not “frost” (and S19 is so literal… I bet defrost to him means just that and only that unless we tell him otherwise). Thanks - will definitely cover that!
@bjscheel Wow your state allows driving early - VA they can get learner’s permit at 15.5, then have to hold that at least 9 months before getting license (after 45 hrs behind the wheel practice with parents, then formal behind the wheel with DMV approved place). It’s changed so much since I was 16… I remember the pole incident - so scary and like you said, glad no other car was involved!
@ninakatarina Congrats on the successful performance for your son - hope, like you said, they get some awards on non-tech stuff!