<p>My son is still in school also. Finals are this week, thank goodness.</p>
<p>I have a question for those of you with kids taking the Chemistry SAT II. What kind of background do your kids have for the test? My youngest and I are trying to map out a master test-taking plan. Next year he will be taking a year-long chemistry course. It is just regular chemistry. The school doesn’t offer an AP option. Does that sound like enough background for the SAT chem subject test? He could supplement it with some self-study I suppose. It would be hard to do very much self-study, though, as our school year lasts so far into June.</p>
<p>Kitkat, congratulations to your son (and his mom!)</p>
<p>2 blue - my D took the Chem SAT II this year after completing Honors Chemistry. Her teacher told me that this class (in her school) prepares them well for the exam. I don’t thing the same is true for the regular chem classes in our school though. D told me that her teacher gave the class three practice exams last week, and that most kids in the class scored over 700, so it sounds like they were well-prepared to me. Since every school is a little different, you might want to discuss this with the dept. chairperson or his chem teacher. Good luck with your master test-taking plan.</p>
<p>Hola! Hubby and I are celebrating 29 yrs of marriage today!!! We have been celebrating…can you tell??? Really…we have been out on the deck enjoying a bonfire with some champagne. Nice evening. Back to the daily grind tomorrow. Night all!</p>
<p>He did great. I was so nervous for him - he speaks very quickly, rapid-fire and doesn’t always enunciate clearly. Graduation is at a huge venue - he has an enormous class and there are like 3000 people there…so I was very worried…But he pulled through. </p>
<p>I cried, I admit it! Whole thing went well though - no crisis, no ex-husband issues…now to plan the party!</p>
<p>Happy Anniversary to North Minnesota and congrats to Kitkat’s son.</p>
<p>Speaking of SAT II’s, my second S who is in 10th grade is considering taking one of the two Math SAT IIs. Do any of you have experience with those? He just finished Geometry and has had Algebra and something called Math A prior to that (NYState terminology, perhaps?). </p>
<p>I know that the Math II is perfect AFTER precalc/trig and BEFORE Calculus. In our school district the sequence is algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, precalc/trig, calculus. Typically a 10th grader wouldn’t be ready for Math II unless they were a year ahead in math, about to take calculus.</p>
<p>Acme, my son is planning on taking the Math II test at the end of his junior year. As is the case at Denise’s school district, he will take precalc/trig his junior year.</p>
<p>So far as the tests themselves go, I’ve read that while the Math I test covers easier concepts it has an incredibly brutal curve. You can miss quite a few on Math II and still pull off an 800. Some schools say that if you are going to take a Math test, they would like you to take Math II. I know Stanford falls into this category. MIT, on the other hand, doesn’t care which one students take. If he has any schools in mind it would be worth checking their websites to see if they have a preference.</p>
<p>Denise and 2blue, thank you, this is very helpful! He’s not an MI kid, but Math is more a strong suit than, say, History, so he is planning on a Math SAT II. He will take trig in junior year so sounds like he should take the Math SAT II rather than the SAT I.</p>
<p>I thought life would calm down after graduation, but no such luck. This is the first chance I’ve had to check CC in awhile, so it’s interesting getting caught up.</p>
<p>We leave on Sunday for orientation and my D is very excited to sign up for classes. She’s not heard another thing from her waitlist school and it has become a distant memory…she’s really moved on and I think ultimately will be happier where she’s going.</p>
<p>2forcollege, I hope you enjoy the orientation. I’m glad for your D that she completely engaged with the school she chose. “Everthing happens for a reason” is such a cliche, but I guess that’s why it also seems so true. The same could be said for my S, who has already signed up for a pre-orientation program and I think he would laugh if his waitlist school called and said “you’re in!”.</p>
<p>acme, I’m glad to hear your son is also looking forward to his college. The whole waitlist thing was torture. I think at some point my D just said, enough and moved on.</p>
<p>It’s nice that your kids are looking forward to starting at their colleges, even if the college they will be attending was not their original first choice school. Congratulations.</p>
<p>I have often repeated the gem, “bloom where planted” that I learned here on CC. Acme and 2forCollege, I’m sure your children will embrace their colleges and have amazing experiences. My D is finally finished with finals and coming home tomorrow. Her dad said to her, “Can you believe you’re 1/4 of the way finished with college?” To which she replied, “This is supposed to be the best 4 years of my life…should I be happy that 1/4 of it is gone already?!!” And I do believe it will be that amazing for her. She has loved everything but the winter weather. But hey, it’s Chicago! 1/4 gone or not, I can’t wait for her to get home.</p>
<p>And our wandering boy called from the Tashkent airport. He has been gone just short of 5 weeks now and is on his way to Israel via a 7 hour layover in Istanbul. When asked how he was he replied, “Great, so great!” Now off to meet his best HS buddy in Israel, 9 days there then off to Greece. Can I be my kid? We had dinner in a local Greek restaurant tonight… in 10 days he gets the real thing. Fair!!! Oh well, can’t wait to hear his stories and see his pictures.</p>
<p>For those still awaiting graduation (probably only those in NY at this point!), good luck, and for those awaiting (with either dread or anticipation) the impending departure of their children for college…hang in there. It’s actually a good thing.</p>
<p>Runnersmom, I guarantee that your son will never forget his adventures! My H still talks about his college trips abroad, and they happened many moons ago!</p>
<p>The 2008 graduations in the Bunsen family are officially over. HS had a wonderful ceremony, and they managed to hand out more than 600 diplomas and have all the speeches and yadda yadda in 2 hours! I did not have a chance to shed a tear - D put me in charge of videotaping the event. I got scolded for not capturing a few things (I was trying to consereve the battery, which is 8 years old but is still good for a full mini-DV tape - yay, Sony!). When D is done partying with her buddies, YouTube will be filled with new videoclips.
We skipped the big ceremony at UW and went to the departmental graduations last night (shhh, I’m not supposed to be talking about it on CC!). The professor who read the names of the graduates in one particular major had a funny-sounding German accent, and he managed to mispronounce such simple first names as Kyle, Heather and Kelly! We were all quietly ROFL, and so did the rest of the audience!</p>
<p>Congrats Bunsen…2 in one year! That was us last year. Last year’s HS graduate has returned home (finally) from her first year of college and judging buy the fact that she’s ready to go back…tomorrow…I’d say it was a successful one. Me, I’m happy to have stuff strewn about the house and the washing machine going non-stop! I know I’m going to love having her here, but I think returning to HS friends and activities may lose its lustre in quite short order. She was one of those kids in HS that had a small circle of friends, and now some of those friends have boyfriends who take up much time. It’ll be an interesting summer and I suspect just a bit too long for her taste. Add to that the fact that a school that ends finals on June 13th doesn’t return to class until September 29! But mama’s happy. And happier yet that the wandering son has settled in Jerusalem for the next few days where he has access to a computer and he can receive free incoming calls on his international cell. For those following my saga, his experience in Uzbekistan was, in his words, amazing and unbelievable.</p>
Really…we have been out on the deck enjoying a bonfire with some champagne. Nice evening. Back to the daily grind tomorrow. Night all!</p>