Reading about all this AP stress is making me happy my kid is IB! Too much stress.
AP stats today. No problems whatsoever. Now, just 4 more weeks of school 
@havenoidea that just sucks. Iâm sorry. I agree. The kids are ready now and theyâll have to regroup in June for another test. Thatâs such BS are they important for them to take? Are they using the score for credit? We decided that, if Dâs tests didnât send, we might have had her just bag it.
As for ACT Iâll go out on a limb and say there will be zero testing. I donât think it matters if a state would allow it. I think schools wonât host them. They wonât have enough proctors. They wonât want to be the first place in the state to figure out the details of how it could work. Sounds like the owness is on the school not ACT to figure out the details and I just donât see schools taking the risk. At our school, itâs the head of counseling in charge of organizing standardized tests. Itâs kind of a big job. Is there anyone in these guidance offices now to even figure it all out? Maybe, maybe if there is school in person in the fall we will get some tests.
@homerdog â I agree hosting a standardized test is a low priority for any school now. I just hope if the both June and July tests are going to be cancelled they tell students sooner than later. Right now, theyâre only saying next week they will give info on June tests.
My prediction is they will happen in some rural areas, but thatâs mostly it. I bet most cities and suburban areas will cancel.
Does anyone know if schools get compensated for hosting the ACT/SAT?
@havenoidea Sorry to hear about your D and S having to take tests again. I was nervous prior to testing and fortunately all of Dâs tests were able to send. I was already thinking of what I would do if she had to retest. I think for your Dâs math AP, she should now be able to email the results if the test does not submit like students were able to do for the second week. Or, if there is a concern that that would not work, I would ask CB if D could take the test and have someone at the school proctor her so if it did not submit, it could be vouched for by a teacher/principal, etc. Iâm not familiar with the language exams, but I wonder if he was able to record the test while at school/library or some location with school staff nearby to vouch for him so if it does not upload, they could submit via mail? Iâm just brainstorming some ideas so the second attempt would have a little insurance to get to the right place and receive credit.
My D turned 17 yesterday and I went for the surprise zoom call idea shared here. I got her BFF to coordinate everyone sending me pictures and I made a slide show. At the end it lead into the zoom call. She was touched and had a good time.
She had a Reagan/Kennedy prompt and felt really good about it. Has one more week of Dual Enrollment math and then is done, except the AP Chem retest. Sheâs competing in late June in a 3 day virtual HOSA International competition and can pick two National Geographic Learning Academic tests in addition to her qualified event (sheâs taking the Physical Therapy exam). She decided to take Physics and Chemistry since she just wrapped up those APs.
Took Feb ACT cold and has a 31. Math was quite low (she wasnât prepared for the pace) and pulled down her composite. She was seriously preparing for April and was consistently getting the composite 3-4 points higher, so she REALLY wants another shot at it. Signed up for July- but I remain doubtful.
So interesting the wide differences in school systems approaches to distance learning. D21 would have had nothing were it not for her 4 APs continuing basic review and DH math. My D '22 has done absolutely nothing since our Gov. announced very early on that VA schools were done. Nothing new could be assigned and grades could only go up, not down. She had all As, so zero motivation to do the repeat busy work. Still get weekly emails that there are optional assignments available- what a joke! Disappointed she got a B for the year in Spanish 4- Bs first two quarters, A 3rd quarter and a definite upward trend as she got her groove- but no opportunity to bring it up. Oh well. Sheâs so glad to have Spanish done!
No summer jobs here. We bought a dinky better than nothing inflatable pool anticipating the community one wonât open, but no official word yet.
@Rue4 our grades could only go up too but the catch was this - if kids didnât complete all assignments and take the tests, theyâd get an incomplete. So they at least had to do the work. This little change was, I think, added by our district. Not state wide. The kids all have chrome books. I imagine, if there were extenuating circumstances, a student could bypass that rule and keep their March 18th grade.
If they arenât going to have the ACT at all in June Iâm ok with that but I wish they would make the announcement. Right now she is preparing for it but I hate to have her spend her time test prep if it is for nothing.
Iâm sorry this happened to your kiddo, too! My son had 5. Calculus AB was no issue Tuesday the first week. Physics 1 was our trauma. Part one submitted fine. Part 2 wouldnât submit despite plenty of time remaining. US history on Friday wasnât a prob. This week Bio and Language werenât problematic. All browsers were updated. Photo format was consistent. The only difference was something happened during physics and it wasnât tech issues on our end. Each day the rest of the family got off wifi and went on cellular LTE. My sonâs laptop was even hardwired to the internet with an Ethernet class 6 cable.
The CB really messed up this time. For all the money they make and their senior execs make (obscene for a non profit), itâs just not acceptable. I told my son to bank on part 1 of his physics submission and see if he will get a 3. I am a chemical engr and I wouldnât want to retake the test again. No friggin way. Thereâs a good story to tell the admissions people if they ask about not having a physics score. I told the law firm that filed a class action lawsuit in federal court that I wanted to be part of the client list. We are done with school next week. Luckily, my sonâs ACT score is in the bank. Just hoping having the ACT will help despite UCâs being test optional.
Junior year is wrapped up here. Last assignment turned in 7pm last night. Weâll try planning out some summer courses this weekend. D21 wants to take a writing course and an art course.
Iâm surprised at the UC decision. Itâs going to be that much harder to stratify the hundreds of thousands of apps they get each year. In our house, the essay requirement was actually a blessing in disguise - had D21 not bombed the SAT essay, she might have been one and done with her Aug SAT. Instead, she took ACT without essay in February and got a better relative score, so she wonât be submitting her SAT anywhere. And UCLA has fallen in the âunlikely to be affordableâ category with layoffs in this household.
@havenoidea That stinks! Are your kids wanting to retest or are they resisting? I could see the point for Calc but Spanish? My kid took that one yesterday and itâs so short - I think the actual test minus instructions and uploading is around 20 minutes! How does that assess a yearâs worth of learning?
@dadof4kids There are going to be so many kids that donât have a test or only one test that I think that a 32 ACT is going to be much more competitive than in previous years. Definitely worth submitting. If she canât retest, that is not a bad place to be, which may not be much comfort to her if sheâs confident that she can do better.
Junior year is in the history books now with a successful upload of S21âs differential equations final⊠all 16 pages of it whew⊠I think the teacher made it more difficult than usual since it is now the equivalent of a âtake homeâ exam.
Now we are going to have to start bugging him to think about starting some essays for college.
We hired S19âs AP Lang teacher to edit his essays and are doing the same for D21. Heâs an amazing teacher and also teaches the honors writing seminar at our school. Graduate of Michigan and the Iowa Writers Workshop. I watched how he edited S19âs essays and he never came close to doing anything unethical - he would push S19 where he thought anything was unclear or comment on wordy sentences. He taught S19 to be his own good editor and how to only write sentences that had to be there - if they donât bring anything to the essay, they need to be deleted. We also use a book called âWrite Your Way Inâ. Iâve suggested it to so many people and all have thought it was super helpful.
D21 is zoom meeting with this teacher next week. She will start with the Common App essay and then she has three schools that have some version of âexplain one of your ECs more in depthâ question. Two are 200 words and one is 400 words so sheâll do those. Wake Forestâs prompts will be confirmed in June so those will be next up. They have seven (!!!) prompts. After that, Iâm hoping that more AOs get back to her to confirm their essays will remain the same for this coming year and she will have more to work on. We will likely only have her write essays in the summer for the schools on the top of her list (maybe the top four) and then she can write the rest on her own without the teacher. Sheâs a strong writer and I feel like we donât need him to edit her essays for matches and safeties and some of those schools donât even have supplements.
As for SAT, we will sign her up for August and Oct and supposedly the school will do one in Sept. She wonât start looking at that stuff again until late July.
Thanks @homerdog, @1Lotus, @mamaedefamilia and @MommaLue
Both are planning to retake, or in Sâs case, take! (If it works). The issue with his is that heâll have to keep speaking Spanish until the June 5th date or he says heâll be out of practice. I agree that speaking for 3 min tests couldnât show a yearâs worth of work. And D said she finished a question and there was silence, so she started rambling, and she hopes they donât grade that part,lol.
Neither has been able to speak to or communicate with CB at all. If you call, youâre told they have limited reps due to corona virus! (Why canât they work from home?) and to go to their site, which just allows you to ask for a makeup. So, thereâs no way to suggest alternatives (which I have 0 faith theyâd do).
For D, CB started the process of allowing you to ask them to grade your unsubmitted work the week following her exam (I think thatâs what the lawsuit is about), but even if she could do that, she doesnât want to because she got behind in the second question and had to rush due to our WiFi shutting down for several min and then her first question not submitting, so her 2d question was delayed.
We decided CB probably has limited staff normally, and certainly no tech whizes on staff just waiting to help you. If you put out a tech product, you need technicians so they can fix your problem. If i have a problem with my internet provider or netfix(!), I call, they walk me through the fix. CB wasnât set up to do this. When Sâs link wouldnât work, he should have been able to call and they would reset it. As everyone saw, it was like 3 min of talking! Why should you need to wait until June 5?!
Anyway, I donât know if they âneedâ the score for credit, because weâre not sure if theyâll go private or public. But, our older S placed out of the foreign language requirement in college with only a 3, and S just wants a good score to confirm his year-long participation and grade. And, D wants that score because she thinks sheâll do well.
Oh well. Things could be worse. But 75% success rate on APs in our house doesnât bode well for CB. Or, maybe we reside in a vortex or something!
D21 took the SAT in December 2019 as a sort of âpracticeâ test and got a mediocre score that was not good as she is capable of doing. (She had an excellent score on EBRW, but didnât work quickly enough on the math section, which brought down her overall score.) She was scheduled for a second test in March 2020 that was going to be her ârealâ test, but that, of course, was cancelled.
Iâm hopeful that sheâll get the CB email this week allowing her to register early for the August or September SAT and that one of those tests actually happens. October testing would be really hard to prepare for because of her course load, plus working 15-20 hours per week.
Drew University announced their plans for the fall, which I think may set the stage for what other schools do. Granted, they are not finalized, but they spell out nicely what their intention is.
Incoming first-year students and transfer students will move on campus during a staggered three-week period beginning August 16. This will help create a transitional period to adjust to the new normal of life on campus. During these three weeks, residential life and other campus activities will be face-to-face." In-person instruction will begin September 14. On-campus residency will end Thanksgiving week, and the academic calendar will be adjusted to accommodate a staggered move-out of campus housing during that week, prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. To complete the semester, post-Thanksgiving classes and the exam period will take place remotely.
More can be found hereâŠ
http://www.drew.edu/stories/2020/05/23/drew-university-intends-to-begin-fall-semester-on-campus/
Would a plan similar to Drewâs be practical for other colleges? Drew has only about 1500 undergraduate students.
For LACs, I think yes (depending on location). LACs are usually in the ballpark of 2000 students (500 for each graduating class).
D21 took the week off and wanted to have a blank schedule. Next week she will start on the common app essay. After that Georgia Tech has posted the supplement so that will be next. S19 did not love writing and he spent maybe a week on his essays, having it reviewed by one teacher and his college counselor. D21 has more selective schools on her reach list, so I am hoping she does not dwell on it all summer and not get the others essays.
That quote from Drew is a little off. All kids will move back to campus. Freshmen and transfers first and then everyone else with arrivals staggered over three weeks. Not sure why they would move kids out in a staggered fashion. And what do they mean by move out? Just go home? Kids wouldnât move out of the dorms I donât think.