Our guidance counselor just got back to me after I sent her a nutty email asking what’s going on with tomorrow’s test. Kudos to her because they aren’t at school today so I’m glad she responded. Basically said they have the tests but might be too late for them to find spots for all of the kids and get the tests to those centers. I told her I’m available tomorrow to run tests all over Chicagoland. Kidding, not kidding.
March Madness was just cancelled!!
I know my teens wouldn’t mind not taking their AP exams. That kind of cancellation wouldn’t sadden them a bit. The SAT, on the other hand…D21 is proud of the gains she’s made and actually looks forward to Sat (provided this is just a 24-hour stomach bug she’s dealing with).
She also needs one more SAT2 and was hoping to get that out of the way in May. Have a feeling that’s not going to happen though.
Ugh, @homerdog. So sorry.
S21 has been studying this week…he isn’t going to ace the SAT, but I feel as if he’s in good shape to at least pick up some points over his October score, and I am so hoping he gets the chance to give it a shot. He’s already signed up for an SAT2 in May and another in June, so if he needed to switch to the regular SAT for one of those, I’d have to cancel the SAT2…and that’s if he could even get a seat for that SAT since he tests with some accommodations and those seats fill up faster.
We haven’t heard anything yet about his test center being closed…it’s in a county that doesn’t have school tomorrow (not related to coronavirus…this was always planned to be a day without school)…maybe that helps our chances of the SAT there on Saturday going on as planned. Who knows ?
@JanieWalker so sorry about your D. Hopefully it will be a very quick bug. S21 would agree - he’d rather have his APUSH exam cancelled than the SAT.
Not sure if this is the state that was referred to in an earlier post, but I saw that Ohio is closing all K-12 schools. A friend in NYC said her kids’ two private schools (K-12) have closed as well.
Out of all the school visit cancellations we received from the 2 kids’ scheduled visits, Vassar had the nicest one. It told the student not to worry about not being able to visit, potentially not being able to take standardized tests/APs, or continue their ECs, the school would not hold this against the kids and that their safety mattered most. I don’t know a lot about the school (and probably never will now!), but it made me like them.
Meanwhile … everything for both kids has been cancelled: SAT, youth in government, guitar tour, sports, you name it. Haven’t heard about the journalism conference in Nashville in April, but I’m guessing they’ll cancel that too.
I’m hoping the April ACT will happen, though I’m not holding my breath!
I agree public health is the most important concern. I just really hope this doesn’t extend into the summer.
My kid came home and said some teachers have been in contact with college board and that AP tests might not happen this year.
Not sure how much weight to place on this, but I am sure that the teachers said something like that for our kid to say it.
D still hasn’t received an email from CB about test being cancelled so just a warning to those who think their center is still open. I definitely know it’s cancelled but College Board was told so recently that no one on the phone knows about it. I told our guidance counselor she may want to send an email out to all junior to tell them since stupid CB seems overwhelmed and doesn’t have updated cancellations.
Our governor just announced all MD public schools are closed for two weeks. My two high schoolers go to two different private schools but I’m expecting they may follow suit soon. We got an email today from my son’s school with very detailed information about the move to online teaching. I’m really hoping it doesn’t last long - S21 has a learning disability and the entire reason he goes to this school (which we pay a crapload of tuition to) is for the daily hands-on program they have. We did get a separate email from his counselor noting that kids in the program will have daily checkins with their counselors. And fortunately, the teachers are pretty responsive for any kids in the program that need extra help, so I’m hoping they continue to be accessible.
My other concern like everyone else, is the SAT/ACT situation. He was scheduled to take both the SAT and ACT in school, with accommodations, in the coming weeks. He has yet to take either test at the recommendation of his counselor. Because of the accommodations, he really needs to take them at his school so if school is closed for long term, not sure what will happen. He was most likely mainly going to apply to test optional schools, but we wanted to at least have both tests done before summer so we can determine if it’s worth it to do test prep/tutoring over the summer.
Ah well, I guess we aren’t in as tricky a spot as those who are really shooting for high test scores to determine what schools to aim for. I feel for you guys.
@homerdog, thank you. I wish I could call the school where ours in happening (it’s not our school), but they’re gone for the day, and they have no school tomorrow…the school website has a calendar that shows a few things cancelled but still shows SAT as happening. Confirmation would be nice, though!
It looks as if our governor, this afternoon, told school districts (which are county-wide here) to make their own decisions and to close if they felt they should. So I don’t think we’ll see a statewide closure before Saturday…two major counties have decided, (after the governor’s statement) to close as of Monday (using tomorrow at school to get people prepped for being away for however long), but no such word from our county yet…with a built-in day off tomorrow, they may delay making that call until sometime over the weekend? It’s minute by minute, I guess - things changing so quickly.
@homerdog - Ohio.
I was supervising robotics team yesterday (b4 season cancelled!) and they are all praying no AP tests this year, lol! Rumors were flying!
Of course, they say that but then they will have to take some classes in college they wouldn’t otherwise if they go to publics at least…
BTW, I tried registering D for a future SAT and there are no available dates for any test locations in the SF Bay Area or nearby for the remainder of 2020. For now at least.
Thankfully, I did get May and June test dates earlier in the week.
D21 is at soccer practice, so she doesn’t yet know that Prom was just cancelled. Her (relatively new) boyfriend is moving halfway across the country as soon as school is out, so she will be pretty bummed. Also all games/tournaments through the end of March cancelled, but they are still having them practice for now. Classes are on, but everything except classes and practices cancelled.
S19 is a bit of a mess right now. He talks to me usually about once a week, maybe a couple other quick calls or texts. He has been calling me a few times a day the last few days. This was going to be an overwhelming week for his classes anyway, and now he’s worried about all of this.
He has a teammate on the wrestling team who is a senior. I think this was his first time qualifying for the national tournament. Not expected to make varsity, but worked his butt off all year and took a spot everyone thought would go to someone else. Hasn’t been out on the weekends, just practicing and studying and taking care of his body. He was really looking forward to his last couple months of college to go out with friends and make up for all the things he has missed out on this year. They found out last night that classes are moving online. S said that lots of guys were angry last night, but this kid was really quiet and just really sad about the whole situation.
They just announced a couple of hours ago that the national tournament next week is cancelled. So even that got taken away from him. I feel bad for my kids, but some of these college seniors have it much worse.
@sushiritto great. Maybe I should actually sign D up for August and Oct test now or at least try. Not sure how far the dates go out for someone to try to sign up.
@homerdog If the $50-$65 won’t hurt too bad, then I’d do it.
And our county just declared “digital learning days” (which we’ve done before - the county started this 2-3 years ago so that snow days wouldn’t have to count as missed days) for next week. The recorded message we received said that all extracurriculars including facility rentals are off starting at 6AM tomorrow, so I’m thinking this means the SAT although they didn’t name it specifically.
Oh my gosh! Just got a school blast…1/2 tomorrow then online until March 30 at least. All weekend activities are cancelled… EXCEPT THE SATURDAY SAT WHICH IS STILL PLANNED TO GO ON AS SCHEDULED. I’m shocked! Now I just hold my breath one more day!!
I agree @homerdog - fine to go school all week, including tomorrow, but can’t take a test with a smaller group hours later. Maybe a lot of parents complained.
Our district just cancelled school tomorrow and then extended spring break by 1 week. So the earliest they’ll go back is March 31. No idea about whether they’ll have to make up days at the end of the year (when we are supposed to do round 2 of college tours!), but D21 was sent home today with a ton of AP homework and even the classroom use books for AP Lang.
@homerdog - I hope they are able to find seats at other testing centers. This happened at D’s school, which also has cancelled all activities including sports, standardized tests, state and national level competitions for any and all ECs, and needless to say, classes. D21 had a big competition coming up that she had prepared very hard for but the kids seem to be taking it better than the parents. In any event, they were able to reseat affected students at other testing sites within a 20 mile radius. On line instruction has begun and will continue indefinitely. D17 is packing up and coming home for the rest of the semester and will be doing on-line college classes.
I wouldn’t get too worked up about the fate of AP tests just yet. In theory, they’re supposed to sit six feet apart to take the test, right? I hope that would be enough!
Stay healthy everyone!
Who proctors AP tests? That will be an issue with our HS. They’ve enacted restrictions that pretty much bar anyone who is not student or staff from being in the school. No speakers, no performances, no in person parent meetings (504/IEP, etc), no facility rentals. So if AP rents the space or brings in their own proctors, it would be a problem for our HS.