Do you think it would be wise to switch our June test center to the ones where March 14th testing happened? My junior boy couldn’t take March 14th and he has June Sat also at the same center. I tried to switch to another test center where my neighbor’s kid took on March 14th, but unfortunately, there are no spots…
@JanieWalker Per this video, recommender invitations will not rollover. https://commonapp.wistia.com/medias/i7ju9ptshn
@Suave123 I’m doubting there are any seats available at any June SAT locations at this point. If schools are closed, there will not be an SAT there. Sounds like NY is out of luck but, honestly, I’m really doubting there will be any June SAT anywhere. College Board is now saying they are preparing for the possibility of online testing in the fall. I think they see the writing on the wall and they’re just going to lose a ton of money if they don’t get the tests online. I’m betting they’ll already lose a lot of money since so many colleges are going test optional and, if it becomes impossible or a giant pain to take a test, some kids will just bag the idea and apply to college without a score.
This is most problematic for kids applying to big universities who may be more unlikely to go test optional and/or need testing for merit.
For us, D21 is signed up for June. I will keep an eye out for when August registration opens sometime in April (they have no exact date) and then I’ll sign her up for anything that pops up between June and August too. At this point, I’m thinking Aug will be the earliest with the most likely outcome being that her only option will be online starting either summer or early fall.
I do not understand how kids take it online and D is freaked out about that. She annotates for both the English and Writing section and marks up the drawings on math. Neither of us even get how you can take the test online.
Well, Cuomo said the decision to close schools is not DeBlasio’s to make (not sure DOE has been in the mix) and no decision has yet been made. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/11/us/nyc-schools-closed-trnd/index.html
My S21’s school just came out with how they are going to do grading this semester. They said that a 75% - 100% will count as an A, so therefore it will be a 4.0 for GPA. A 60% - 74% will count as a B, so it will be a 3.0 for GPA. The rest will count as a C and will represent a 2.0 GPA. I personally think that these numbers are ridiculous. A 90% is nowhere close to a 75%. If they were going to implement a system like this, they should have made it an 85% for an A instead of 75%, to make it fair for the high-achieving students and be true to everyone’s capabilities. Now the students who get an A+ will be in the same pool as students who get a C!
AT this point, I don’t know how AOs will even consider spring grades. High schools are all over the map, even worse than colleges, on how they are deciding grades.
It will be interesting to see ED decisions. Will schools have more deferrals because they wait for first semester grades? Or do ED acceptances increase because schools just want to get kids in the seats to protect yield?
And what if next semester is remote too? Ugh. College is one thing but these high school kids have to go back!
We just finished 3rd semester with regular grading, but for 4th semester if you get between 60-100 it counts as 100 for the fourth semester. Below 60 you get the number.
Of course only the final grade is reported and they add all four semesters point together to come up with the final grade. My guess there will be very few points given in the fourth semester. So as to limit the unfair nature of this for the top students. D21’s UW 4.0 is now in the bag although it basically was already. AP English was the only one she was sweating out a bit as she got an 86 the second semester. First B ever. But now she knows A is in the bag.
@VeryFishyFish won’t some of the students’ transcripts look a bit odd? What about the B students (or even C students) who now get all As for spring? That will look “fishy”!
Our first 3 six weeks compose the first semester grade, which is already recorded on transcript and those first 3 six weeks will count as 3/4 of the grade for the 2nd semester with the first 6 weeks of the second semester comprising 1/4 of the 2nd semester grade. D knows her lowest 2nd semester grades are 96 in both AP Lang and AP physics 1, keeps her unweighted 4.0 with 100s in all the rest. She still has her nose to the grind stone as that is the only way she knows how to study.
Thank you!
That’s just it. I don’t think that all these various grading schemes are going to wind up making much of a difference for the vast majority of kids out there.
In my experience, the kids who start out on top in 9th grade typically stay that way throughout the four years, while those kids who really turn it around and excel start doing it before junior year. Otherwise, for the most part, kids seem pretty consistent, at least enough that the absence of one semester of meaningful grades shouldn’t make a big difference for evaluation purposes.
At the margins, no doubt a few kids will be helped or hurt relative to their classmates, but I am not going to get too stressed about all this. The bigger deal I think is for those high performing kids who are now going to miss out on all sorts of competitions and summer programs, and of course for athletes who were counting on spring season results in their all important junior year. My own junior was selected to represent the school at a few state (and potentially national) math and science competitions and received merit scholarships to attend summer programs (not cancelled yet, but it’s not looking promising), so this hits home for us. But again it is nothing worth getting too stressed over - everyone is in the same boat.
One unexpected bonus to our school basically going to only two hours a day, four days a week is that our kid has had the time to start a business related to the pandemic that has actually been extremely successful, with most profits going to charity. Also, they picked up an online tutoring gig helping advanced and gifted elementary school students that is sponsored by one of the most well known math circles, with the option to donate the time or to be paid. With all the teachers out and everyone scrambling to maintain some semblance of the curriculum, there are apparently a number of kids who have fallen through the cracks and could use some help. In the long run, I am sure that the lessons being learned in this period of crisis will be much more meaningful to the kids than one quarter’s or even semester’s worth of in person class time.
@OneMoreToGo2021 Good for your S. D21 has been doing her homework, researching colleges, taking bike rides with her brother and learning tic tock dances. Lol. Not starting any businesses or doing any online tutoring. Guessing your S will do just fine.
@homerdog As much as I wish, I don’t want online SAT testing as lot of cheating may happen which may result in higher marks. So a kid who actually did pretty well by his/her own merit and got a score like 1550 won’t be considered at the same level as the kid who got the same score on a paper based SAT testing.
FYI, I just checked, besides one of the local testing centers having seats available for the SAT, there are 5 or 6 other testing centers in the SF Bay Area with seats available, including one in SF.
@Suave123 oh I totally agree. CB says that they have “ways” to stop cheating but I’d love to hear more about that. Couldn’t kids just sit with another student and work on the problems together? So many ways to cheat.
@sushiritto oh good! I really thought the seats would all be taken. I know you said CB adding test locations near you. We also had March cancelled so I don’t know if they’re adding seats here. I also think there’s a 99.99999999 percent chance it’s not happening. I think Pritzker is super close to closing Illinois schools for the rest of the year and our high school, where D would take the test, has been militant about sending emails to get kids off their fields and just away from school campus period. I don’t see them welcoming kids to take a test in early June.
@homerdog I don’t think that students in the same course would necessarily help each other because they’re taking the test at the same time. I’m more worried about parents paying tutors to facetime their kids while taking the AP tests. The students’ teachers also get a copy of the students’ responses within 48 hrs of the test. CB wants them to flag anything they think is weird with the students’ work. So if a student was consistently getting a 3 on AP review problems but got all the FRQ on the actual AP test correct, teachers would flag that and CB would investigate further. As for your previous message about transcripts looking weird, I wonder how colleges will view students who had B’s and C’s and now have straight A’s this semester. It would be nearly impossible to recalculate their GPA before the huge bump from the 4.0.
Wait what? @VeryFishyFish The teachers are going to see the AP actual tests after the kids take them? What a mess. Good luck with that. CB is going to wait or all teachers to respond with a flag or no flag? And then what? Where did you hear that? I don’t think D’s teachers know that.
The school superintendent closed our schools for the year 2+ weeks ago. Everything has been distance learning for a month or more already. But the CB having back a couple of hundred kids for the SAT to a school that normally schools 2,500 kids on a large campus seems quite doable in June.
Currently our local HS district has asked parents and kids to fill out an online survey in order to help decide between a P/NP grading system or a “hold harmless” (only can improve grade) grading system.
@homerdog It was on CB’s website and my S’s teachers sent him an email with all the info.