I would love for my S21 to do some serious SAT or ACT prep, but so far he has had full days of online schoolwork. Its kind of crazy and has been really time consuming so far. Part of it has been emailing back and forth with teachers as they work out how to best get material up online. Maybe in another week or so, things will be more streamlined and take less time. Its still seems like a lot. During an actual school day, the kids would have 6 out of 8 classes (they’d drop two each day). Now, it seems like all eight teachers are assigning work every day, which is proving hard to keep up with.
He’s not worried about extra AP prep. He tends to overstudy, but he feels like the teachers have prepared them pretty well so far.
@inthegarden I believe that you can download retired SAT tests from the college board website. They are the same tests that are in the big blue SAT review book. We had bought the book because it seemed like less hassle than printing them out. The answer keys/scoring sheets are also available through CB.
D21 has her first day of online school yesterday. She said she has a lot of homework but slightly less than if school were in person. I opened the door to her room around 11am to say hi and she was on zoom with her English teacher.
I looked at her portal and she has a grade for an assignment that was due yesterday, so it looks like there may be grades. We also haven’t heard anything about class rank or grades officially. I hope for equity’s sake, given the varied approaches in Texas school districts, that they stop after 1st semester this year to calculate.
I am back at work. I’m a physician so essential. Thankfully I am not a hospital physician so my duties have been telehealth related and I’ve been drafted to staff a call center to answer employee questions and do phone screening for COVID. I feel for my colleagues who are calling and waiting for test results. There’s a lot of anxiety in all of the staff.
Nothing much has changed for my teens regarding schooling. D23 is online this year, and next year she goes to our local CC for in-person dual credit for 10th, 11th, and 12th. She registers for next year’s courses today through the CC with a phone call.
D21’s three college courses (at two different colleges – one a CC and one a state university) transferred to online fairly smoothly last week and all assignments etc are the same. Her two online APs continue almost as always – one gave a spontaneous spring break this week so the teacher could redo the upcoming lessons to better fit the new AP exam format. The course content was completed last week, with from now until the exam designated for review. Normally they’d be doing practice test after practice test now – so the teacher needs a bit of time to redo the practice tests to hopefully better fit the new exam.
Both miss their extracurriculars (the ones around tons of people) very much. Both have arranged virtual social get-togethers with their friends for multiple times a week. Other than that, morale is good.
@TVBingeWatcher2 D is “in” Earth Science right now. School days here are no joke! She’s jam packed with online school and homework until 4:00 each day. Let us know what you D thinks of the AP reviews.
D’s AP reviews don’t start until 3pm today. I need to remind her to check them out. We’re scheduled to donate blood today around lunchtime (her first time; totally her idea to sign up!), but should be back in plenty of time.
S21’s (small, Catholic) high school is the only one in our area providing instruction. The school is using the “flexible instruction” snow day model that replaced the once beloved “no school” snow day model. A few modifications have been added to make it work on a more sustainable basis.
His APUSH class has already covered what will be on the test. So, the teacher is now pivoting into prep and practice. I’m thinking that should be fine. But will be interested to hear how the review sessions go!
@TVBingeWatcher2 I do think my daughter will watch the AP reviews after the fact, just not live. She too is doing regular school work now.
My daughter is doing a lot of AP study on her own. I’m not 100% sure why. I think some of it counts as homework for school, the rest is out of the review books we bought her in December (she used them to help study for 1st semester finals).
Quite frankly, I think that she’s bored and studying for APs makes her feel productive. School is busy, but when you are used to activities and friend time as well, it doesn’t feel like it. She isn’t even working this week - she works at a frozen yogurt shop (like a Red Mango, but mom and pop one) - and she was given one three hour shift this week, which she gave to a college kid that actually needs the money. They are open so few hours these days that there aren’t enough shifts for everyone to work their normal hours. She really doesn’t need the money, but this girl has rent to pay.
S21 is self-studying for his APs because they are on spring break with nothing to do (we were supposed to be touring colleges, and our state’s locked down) and he wants to make sure he gets 5s. Some teachers at their school are not as good as others. S’s chem teacher last year wasn’t so hot, and he reviewed just through school and only got a 4. So, this year, he asked me to buy him study guides. He has 4 AP tests, with the Electricity and magnetism part of physics C probably being the hardest one for him.
D21 asked for the guides for her classes too, but there’s not much studying going on there. She’s a procrastinator and really has trouble making herself self-study. She too has 4 tests, and I think the guides would really help her because CS A and Bio have been hard for her, but I can’t make her study.
It’s really interesting to see how many kids here are studying for APs outside of class. S19 didn’t do that at all and D21 doesn’t plan to either. Their high school has a very high rate of 4s and 5s in all APs.
I am going to have D look at the CB AP stuff just because she’s got time and we are curious but I can’t imagine it’s going to help if the student hasn’t been learning the material all year long.
We have a 43% pass rate for APs in our school- if you don’t study outside sources, you probably won’t pass. Our IB rate is much higher- over 80%. Luckily we had covered all the units, but there is always review in our house.
Most schools in this area teach such that a 3 is the goal for most APs. If you want to do better than that it is necessary to study above and beyond the classroom.
Interesting to hear all the variations in online school demands and approaches. My daughter is busier than ever as each teacher tries to outdo the others in finding online content, AP prep sources, and enrichment. All her AP’s are covering the non-tested units. Honors English is doing podcasts and multimedia online presentations of various types of content, AP Stats is doing epidemiology supplements plus lots of AP prep, and multivariable calc is keeping up with UC Berkeley’s format, so no streamlining there. AP Spanish is the most ambitous, with online speaking/listening drills, AP prep, writing assisgnments, etc. Thank god wifi is keeping up with her, plus 3 others working from our home.
Our private high school just made all AP tests optional for this year only. Ordinarily school policy is that the kids have to take the test if they take the class.
The rush to go test optional for high school class of 2021/college class of 2025 is beginning. Who does this help/hurt, if anyone? Does it make test scores (for those who are happy with theirs) more or less valuable?
For those not submitting scores, presumably there’s a huge weight on grades/GPA. For those who do submit scores, presumably there is less weight on GPA than for those not submitting. But a different question, would the weight on GPA for the submitters be the same as it is currently, or would some colleges be thirstier for scores?
Our school system just announced today (finally!) closure for at least the next four weeks. They are trying to work out what they will do. Meanwhile my kid has finished most of her assignments and has been on the phone for the last two hours with her boyfriend. I will put a stop to that soon and have her watch the AP history review that was live at 11 AM. Meanwhile, I have two loaves of whole wheat bread rising and H is home already from work…putting some kind of stew into the slow cooker. If we’re going to have to hunker down here, we may as well try to enjoy it.
Kudos and good wishes to all of you health care workers on the front lines. I do feel guilty knowing you are doing the heavy lifting. In comparison, the shelter in place sacrifice hardly seems a sacrifice, with a comfortable home and a stocked pantry. My biggest job these days is reminding my restless daughter how good she really does have it! She asked again if she could see her BF “before things get really bad and I won’t see him for months or a year.” Nope, nope, double-nope! If it’s months or a year it will be because of people finding such excuses to socialize.