The friendliest of the campuses we have visited. We plan on visiting the socal UCs over Christmas break I wanted to go earlier but S26 didn’t want to skip class so we will be visiting them after he takes his SATs.
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Found a couple of additional recurring volunteer options which are close to where we live (like 7-10 min away), so that’s promising. D26 is going to contact the organizations this week. Animal shelters are not going to happen. They’re either all full for volunteers or are 45+ min drive from where we live.
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I hope she finds something she loves.
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Dropped a few neighborhood kids off the for the PSAT this morning (amid some grumbles about the early wake up) but got rewarded with beautiful sunrise colors on the way in and a gorgeous rainbow on the way back!
Curious, do they time the tests so that most kids are taking it simultaneously across time zones on the same day? Or can be any time during the day that works for the school?
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Our HS is doing the PSAT tomorrow morning.
Oh, I know that the whole of October is the testing window, but my understanding is that kids who write on the same day get the same test - so i was wondering if everyone who writes on the same day does so at the same time. (Or my understanding re same test could be wrong too)
D26 contacted and heard back from Univ of Tulsa re: an in person visit question for April. The date we were thinking of going (Good Friday) isn’t an option since they won’t be doing campus tours that day because of some event that day for seniors.
So D26 signed up for their Preview TU day on Fri 4/4. I need to go make some travel arrangements for that!
D26 submitted a volunteer app last night for an animal care technician position at a local city park (tending the reptile & tortoise habitats).
Trimester 1 ends this Friday, so this week is full of tests & quizzes across all of her classes.
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Most schools start the PSAT between 8 and 9 am local time. Some schools in my area ask students to be at school by 7:30 am to complete preliminary instruction (and computer troubleshooting) prior to 8 am. Does your school have an unusually late start time?
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We were so relieved that our HS managed to get it together and finally did offer the PSAT for juniors this year!!
D26 hasn’t been practicing for the PSAT / SAT, so she did two practice PSATs over the weekend (scoring 1370 and then 1460), before taking the test on Monday. She felt OK about how the test itself went… we’ll see… in any case it’s good practice for the SAT, which she will take in December.
On another note, it’s quite dramatic how much D26 has improved her organizational / study skills over the past year. Last fall there was a point at which she was really struggling to keep up, and we were worried! This year she has everything under control, even though the volume of work is much higher and some of the classes are quite challenging. Good work, kid! 
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Ours were also check in at 7:30 to start at 8. In CA, so all high schools have 8:30am start time. It was still pretty dark when we left home at 7, so probably “felt” particularly early to them.
Our PSAT started at 9:00 AM local (CDT), which is also when school usually starts. D26 has been studying for the PSAT for awhile and was well aware of the need to show up promptly this morning so as not to miss the entire freaking test. And indeed, I saw her up and around by 7:15. Fast forward to me getting back from my morning run at 8:45, only to find her JUST NOW LEAVING. The school is only five minutes away, but there’s a walk from the student lot, plus a security check at the door, plus the testing room is upstairs… 
My son took the PSAT this past Saturday. It started at 8am. He normally starts school at 6:45, so we got to sleep in an hour. He thought it went well except for the last question on math he knows he made a mistake and has since figured it out. He has been getting math all correct on practices so that was a bummer. He said English was about the same as usual. He starts in the middle with grammar and then goes back to the beginning.
He is signed up for the November SAT as well.
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So C26 said the R&W section was “easy” and math was “hard but in a good way” but is worried that what they thought were easy math questions were trick questions. I said, some of the questions have to be easy!! Anyway will be interesting to see what the outcome is, they did one practice test a few weeks ago so not really much prep.
Then we also went today to get their passport renewal in, I got the reminder a few months ago (it expires in Jan) but we waited till they turned 16 (2 days ago!) so they can get a 10-year one.
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Sounds positive! Mine did a few SAT practices and we went over the English a lot and tried different methods to improve. It seemed it was going better, but he was still missing 2-3 on each practice test. Hopefully he got them this time.
Happy birthday! We’ll do a passport next summer I think.
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We are waiting for both SAT and PSAT scores, S26 did both this month, SAT score will be released tomorrow and then we can decide if it makes sense to take it again in dec or not. I am hoping we will be one and done, he doesn’t like studying for the test in addition to his normal classes. I thought about getting him a tutor for some of the math sections he struggled with but we’ll see.
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D26 took PSAT today at school. Met w/counselor and kid after school. Counselor had some good suggestions for extracurriculars that D26 is going to pursue.
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We are in exactly the same boat here. S26 did both PSAT and SAT, and thought the PSAT “way easier,” which was interesting but unsure what that will mean for the SAT score. He’d love to be done.
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And nope we are not done, he actually did worse than most of the practice SAT tests he had taken before, not sure if the exam was harder or he was nervous. He is registered to take it again in Dec and I am thinking I might need to register for one more after that, one of his friends is registered to take the SAT 7 times this year which is ridiculous imo but the parents are treating each test as practice. Keep taking the test over and over again until you get the score you want is their strategy.
Wow, that seems insane, especially as it seems there is diminishing returns after a third time.
Have heard a lot that people who don’t do all the practice SATs on blue book get surprised by the exam as it seems the practice tests get harder as they go along, and that test (6 I think?) is the one closest to the actual. But that’s anecdotal.
C26 is signed up for one SAT at the school and one backup in case they want to improve their score. That will be enough, but they’re not aiming at highly competitive schools (though for their own satisfaction I know they have a pretty competitive score as their personal target…)
That is correct S26 did way better on the early blue book practice tests, maybe it’s meant to boost their confidence but in this case it gave him a false sense of security and he stopped practicing thinking oh I got this.