CollegeBoard sent an email to S19’s “college” email. I created a separate gmail for S19 so that I can also check emails from colleges and schedule college visits, etc. This email will be used for CollegeBoard, ACT, CommonApp, Naviance, signing up for tours, etc.
And get started Spammed by CollegeBoard :))
Good luck to those awaiting scores! I’m kind of glad we aren’t there yet.
Anyone discussing next year’s class schedules yet? Our teachers have started discussions about options and will be making recommendations in the next week or so. My d19 has pretty much decided what she is trying for. The good thing about becoming an 11th grader (gulp) will be less concern over being shut out because a class is too full. Her only stress will be picking gym classes. 11th and 12th graders get to pick 2 half year gym classes out of a list of options. She hates gym, lol. The only one she would have liked was lifeguarding but since she took it over the summer for certification, that’s out.
She is trying for (and should get unless there are time conflicts):
Spanish 4
English 11H/APUSH paired class
Principles of Engineering
Calc BC
Honors Physics with Optics
AP Chemistry
gym
So my plan about her continuing Spanish if I encouraged she drop from honors after Spanish 2H worked!!! She really likes her teacher this year too. And he had some of his Spanish 5 students come in the other day and talk about their class and she said she thinks she might even take that senior year! Our Spanish 4 also has a college credit, so bonus.
She debated taking AP English but decided the writing was just going to be life sucking for her. They do encourage the Eng 11H students take the AP anyway, so she will give that a shot. She does well in English but she is such a perfectionist and the writing causes so much anxiety since so much is subjective.
They are changing our physics line up. Through this year they offered the easier AP physics (I’m too lazy to look it up, but you all probably know which I mean anyway) and most high ability kids who already took AP Chem skipped honors physics for it. They didn’t offer the harder physics AP class. Next year they are only offering the harder one and you have to have taken a year of physics as a prerequisite (either honors physics or the easier AP physics for those who already took it) and they are adding the optics part to honors physics and there is college credit available. So basically, expanding and improving it from what I see. I’m excited for my d19 because she loves math and science, any improvements and expansions are great for her.
Sounds like a rigorous schedule @mom2twogirls - especially with 3 sciences (if Engineering is considered a science?)
The counselors at school don’t start talking about next year’s classes until after semester exams since the kids require specific grades and teacher recommendations to be placed in Honors or AP classes. With that said, I’m anticipating my D’s teachers to recommend her for:
-Honors English 3
-Honors Adv. Math w/Trig (might suggest she skip this and go right to Calc but unsure if they ever go this route. D wants to be a HS Math teacher so I may push to keep her in this class to make sure she has concepts down flat)
-AP Bio
-Theology 3
-APUSH
-PE
-Cons. Econ
-Adv. Chorus
Since she can’t fit Spanish 3 in her schedule, she will taking an Intermediate Spanish class at our local CC this coming summer. Combine that with the mandatory APUSH homework, her part time job and camp counseling, this summer should be interesting!
@ILMom13579 the engineering class is through the tech department. More of an overview of the different types of engineering. It might count as a science or a math for kids who need need it to count, but it’s not a lab science and my understanding is that isn’t much work outside of class for it.
I personally could have never doubled up on sciences or maths because they were my weaknesses. I overloaded on englishes and social sciences because I loved them all. She is so different. This year she doubled up on maths with both precalc honors and AP stats and she is thriving with them. She is taking honors chemistry this year and has so far had a grade in the 98-100% range. I know AP Chem will be more difficult, but I think she has a really strong foundation. As an example, there was some topic she was studying for a unit test awhile back. She was frustrated because she knew what was in the notes as the answer but wanted to understand why it was the answer and they hadn’t talked about it (she was worried she might need to know the why for the test). I found videos based on the key words and set her up with them. She was so into it and completely understood the why. She went to school and double checked with the teacher to make sure she had understood correctly and the teacher said she had but it was info beyond what they need to know for high school chemistry.
How I ended up with a kid (actually, 2 kids since it applies so far to the younger one) who loves math and science will forever be a mystery to me. She looks enough like me and my dh that I know she wasn’t switched a birth.
@ILMom13579 is that advanced math with trig a precalc class? What math is she in now?
@mom2twogirls - Sounds like our Intro to Engineering class - no labs and just a basic intro to each type of engineering -looks like a great fit for your D!
@mom2twogirls - she is Alg 2 right now. They don’t call it a “pre-calc” class, but I’m guessing that is what it is, essentially. Her current math teacher is pretty in-tune with the kids in his classes and their abilities, so I’m hoping he has a suggestion on what my D would be able to handle and what is best for her given her career choice at the moment. I don’t want her to miss concepts just to jump a class, especially since the highest level math at her school is AP Stats and I don’t think that would do her much good. And taking a college level course is not an option due to distance and time.
Here they take Honors Algebra II, then Honors Precalc, then if they have an A in Precalc they can take AP Calc AB or otherwise Honors Calc.
Registration for next year will be in Feb if I recall correctly. Not positive though!
Right now I just need S to survive French 4. It’s a total disaster. Everything else is great but that…OY!
Fairly sure his schedule will be the following
APUSH
AP CS
AP Language
AP Calc AB
AP Physics
Wind Ensemble
Jazz
UGH!
Registration for next year opens in March.
I am kind of relieved that it is not now. D19 is working hard to keep up her grades. Every student in the AP Chem class is struggling because the students and the teacher are not aligned. I want to see how this year goes before committing to the next year’s courses.
She really enjoyed all other classes; APCS in particular. I want her to be happy in stead of a stressed/burned out achiever.
Most likely schedule will be:
AP Eng
USH
Physics/AP Physics 1
AP Calc AB
Spanish 3
VAPA
D19 is not interested in the very limited VAPA courses offered at our school. Looks like we will have to “talk” for a long time before we finalize the courses :-@ #:-S
@collegeandi what’s VAPA?
@payn4ward thanks for the reminder to set up a College Board account for son19. I don’t think we’ve done that yet.
I did set up an email for him, to use for college and testing emails. I did this with son17 and it worked great. It was just a separate email account to be only used for college stuff and son17 and I shared a password for it. It was great to have everything in one place, and easy to search and find info. I could check on it without feeling like i was prying into his personal life. Son17 was happy with that process too.
Looking forward to see psat results next week for son19. I’d like to compare them to son17’s out of curiosity. Not that it matters really just curious. My son17 did not do well on 1st psat, but did OK on SAT. Then he took ACT and did better, and finally did pretty well on his last ACT result. Son17’s 1st psat results put him at about 1100 or so on SAT when you converted scores, but he ended up with a score comparable to the 1400’s with his ACT score. So don’t get freaked out if your kid gets a mediocre score on Psat, there is always time and room for improvement!
@mom2twogirls, Visual Art, Performing Art.
@RightCoaster Well, we got the email best practice settled down 
I am curious about PSAT as well. S17 is naturally better at test taking, but he does not prep and takes tests cold. S19 has the slower processing speed but is motivated and studies. I gave S19 two CollegeBoard PSAT practice sets (from Guidance Counselor office) S17 never touched them. S19 did those, scored them and corrected his incorrect answers. My bet is S19’s PSAT scores will be better than S17’s.
Hi all–thought I’d jump in and join this group as college planning activities for my D17 are winding down (I’m not much of a multitasker). I have a D19 who is starting to think about colleges. No concrete thoughts yet–she did go to the school college fair in October just to check out the scene. Hoping I’ll be able to bring some of what I learned this past year (mostly from CC) to bear for this next round.
Welcome @klinska, happy to have you on board for the 2019ers’ cruise!
howdy @klinska! We have some others with older kids who have been helping us keep our perspectives, especially on days when our D/S19s are driving us CRAZY. Glad to have yours too.
Not really worrying about PSAT scores this year as its only a baseline and will not really change who my DS19 will prepare for next year. He is already taking SAT prep elective at school, so he’s already learning some good test taking strategies. It will be interesting to see his score , but I’m not really concerned about it.
DS19 was inducted into BETA club last night . It’s been good to see him come into his own and become more mature since his brother left for college in August . He is much more focused and organized academically. It’s like someone flipped a switch . So thankful that it went this way because it could’ve easily went south.
DS19 actually practiced his trombone with no reminders last night. I’m counting that as a win. I agree @carolinamom2boys that is is good to see younger siblings bloom as older siblings fly the nest.
@carolinamom2boys - funny you should say that; I’m also seeing a bit more focus and motivation from D19. She’s getting As on chem tests (?!) and says she wants to pursue the subject. Who’d a thunk?
In other news, she’s been accepted at a different private school and made it as a finalist for a full tuition/boarding scholarship. Had the interview on Sunday. I’m wowed. (This is the one where she said “Oh Where Is My Hairbrush” was one of the songs that reflected her life.)
We’ll see if the scholarship comes through and/or we can swing it financially, as it’s quite a bit more money.