Apparently X26 has been asked to be an algebra peer tutor at school. I think they are very pleased to have been asked. D19 was asked to be a writing tutor but didn’t enjoy it and didn’t stick with it so… will see what happens.
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We live maybe 15 minutes drive from Cal, and our next door neighbor is actually a prof at Davis. He doesn’t go in every day but of course it’s against traffic when he does, and it takes him about the same time as it takes me to commute to my office on the peninsula, so….
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My S26 survived his first week at his new high school. I even think he had a good time. Whew! He’s been welcomed into a friend group through a friend he knew previously and he ate lunch with them this week. Fingers crossed it sticks.
His classes are “so far, so good.” He is taking:
Honors Physics (science elective)
Honors Pre-Calculus
Chemistry in the Earth system (required science class for juniors in our district)
Humanities/Science Fiction (English)
Honors Drawing and Painting
AP US History
Japanese 3 (this is off campus)
He gets a 1-point GPA bump from all of the honors and AP classes. This new high school is more “honors” oriented than AP oriented, but it seems that he could take the AP Pre-Calc test if he wanted to.
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Glad to hear he’s settling in well!
Hm..X26 said last week they use the term “AP precalc” interchangeably at school to describe their precalc course (it’s officially honors) - I wonder if this is why. I’ll figure it out when it’s time to register for APs!
My kiddo said they got a problem set worksheet that was labeled “AP Precalc” — which I think is a new AP course, so maybe they’re starting use the materials to teach the honors kids before it’s brought on “officially”? I don’t know.
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Quick google says the first AP precalc exam was offered this year so there’s not much experience with it, and a number of parents online complaining it’s pointless because it’s not a college level course. We have back to school night next week - I’ll see if I can get a minute to ask the math teacher about it.
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AP Precalc was offered by College Board as a new course starting last year. D26 took it. Our 3 in state public universities give college credit for a passing score on the exam.
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Hm, looking at one of the schools X is interested in, so yes they give credit for a 4 or 5 in precalc but it’s not sufficient by itself for the math requirement for the curriculum X is interested in, whereas a 4 or 5 in calc AB or BC would be. For their likely backup, it’s not listed for credit at all even though there a 3 in AB/BC would be sufficient for calculus credit. So I guess the real question is: what the benefit is for a student who would be doing AP calc anyway? (Other than another good score to list on an AP test, which I also get some kids just want to have)
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Anyone’s student take the SAT today ? S26 said second math module was ridiculously hard! In his words “I didn’t even know how to attempt those questions”. This was his first time giving SAT. He is signed up for another one on Nov.
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My D26 also took it. She’s hopeful but also already signed up for Nov!
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Mine took it too. She won’t talk about it, so I have no idea whether she thought it was hard or not. We are also already signed up for November.
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Mine took it yesterday too. Thought it went okay. He’s not currently signed up for another. We’ll see how these scores are and go from there. I think December would be the next one for him.
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Has he tried the virtual SATs before ? they have 5-6 practice ones and the latter ones are supposed to be similar to the real exam.
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Club sign ups started today. Other than NHS, there are zero clubs D26 wants to participate in this year. She’s waiting to hear back about the humane society volunteer thing. She’s going to apply for some fast food jobs this week. There’s a couple of McDonald’s locations near us hiring. Will not have her apply at the Krusty Krab/Chum Bucket McD’s location where D24 worked, though…that one is poorly managed. The other ones are managed better.
Need to pay the PSAT fee by 9/3, according to today’s announcement from school.
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He did try the first two practice tests. They are definitely easier than the actual SAT.
I have heard the same about 4,5,6 being harder. He is planning to do those before the Nov test.
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Yet again, our high school is not planning to offer the PSAT. Parents are encouraged to “call around” to other schools to try to find seats for their kids. Of course no other schools have seats. Looks like there will be no PSAT for D26…
(S23 also was not able to take the PSAT… in his junior year, they did offer it at our HS, but with only enough seats for about 20% of the junior class, distributed by lottery.)
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@tamagotchi
Sorry to hear, I recall reading somewhere that if kids don’t take the PSAT that they can submit a SAT score in place of the PSAT to qualify for National Merit
@sbinaz, my daughter is a little more introverted, so she gravitates towards committees, she is on the superintendents student advisory committee, the AP advocate committee and Principal’s student advisory. Does your school have anything like this ?
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D26’s school doesn’t have committees like that, but it’s a great idea!
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@sbinaz aww sorry to hear
I guess this is one of the few upsides to a very large public school.
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