<p>I’m curious to know how many of your college students had comprehensive final exams in high school. If so, do you (or your kids) believe that h.s. finals prepare students for college finals? Not sure if finals are customary throughout the country. </p>
<p>Our h.s. is considering discontinuing the practice of giving comprehensive finals for a variety of reasons. I’ve heard various parents say finals shouldn’t matter at the high school level while others believe it gives kids an idea of what to expect in college if their finals are comprehensive and have serious impact on course grades. Thoughts on the merit of high school finals?</p>
<p>I’m solidly FOR h.s. finals and believe they should be comprehensive. I cannot imagine my kids going off to college never having had to ‘bust a gut’ for a good grade.</p>
<p>AND…yea! Just spoke to ldgirl. She finished her toughies and was giddy with relief. Said she had been preparing since Thankgiving and pulled an allnighter last night and feels she did well. Her three remaining exams should not be a problem, so she is very happy.</p>
<p>seems that looks like a good thread title for another discussion…</p>
<p>AP exams have brought cumulative exams (finally) to our HS, and sometimes I think the old style HS finals are not always in sync with the APs…and do somewhat duplicate the same study requirement hours needed spring term to master the AP exam.</p>
<p>I’m chuckling over the parent whose daughter has a melt-down every semester. I have a similar kid. I’ve finally learned that those moments pass and the next day everything is usually fine. I just told her to back up and she said, “Yeah, I do, usually every few hours.” I myself could learn a lesson from these back-up warnings.</p>
<p>the every semester melt down girl called yesterday giddy with exciting news…the mentor on sabbatical next semester emailed asking her to TA for next Fall 08 for her intended dissertation topic area…women in Music. So giddy, absolutely no mention of the earlier meltdown/I’m leaving academia call.
By now I’m a wise old soul so I know not to backtrack or bring anything up,.Just say how lovely for you and your future, and I can’t wait to see you for the holidays.</p>
<p>On the subject of comprehensive high school finals: I am LOUDLY in favor of them!!! I preach this to all who will — and would rather not — listen! </p>
<p>I went to what was considered to be an excellent high school. If a student had an A or a B in a class, that student did not take a final. I don’t know if the finals that C & below students took were comprehensive or not, because I never had to take a final. Boy, did that ever lead me to being NOT prepared in college! I had very high SAT/ACT scores, a near-perfect high school gpa, top of my graduating class, etc. — and I bombed my freshman college finals. I had no idea how to organize myself for a final. I was not used to keeping my notes, old tests, etc. I did not know how to prepare. Of course, I figured it out quickly. However, I think comprehensive high school finals would have eliminated a lot of stress & a few not-so-hot grades.</p>
<p>I find many teachers and parents disagree with me. They seem to want to reduce high school stress. That is very short-sighted, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Just stumbling into this thread. So sorry, MOWC-- Seriously SUX. Any update on the laptop or the prof’s willingness to give an extension? As an aside, Ds#1s backpack was stolen when we were in Cancun several yrs ago. It had his brand new TI 89 calculator in it, amongst other things (CD player and ced-- this was before IPODs). In addition to losing all the valuable info on WC’s laptop, there is such a feeling of invasion when s/o breaks into your home and steals stuff. So yukky. So sorry. </p>
<p>Zoos (re post #53) 2 hospitalizations?? I must have missed something. Is Zoosdau ok?</p>
<p>DS#1 used to keep me posted about exams, papers and such, but that seems to have faded away. Latest phonecall was “I am buying my college ring. It costs $XXXX. Which credit card should I put it on?”. My response “Put it on XXXX. Happy Chanukah”.</p>
<p>DS #2 has serious HS exams. I too think this is a good thing. The bummer, tough, is that one subject/day exam. He has 2 sciences, so will hve to take a “makeup” exam on the Sat morning after all the other exams are finished (officially the first day of winter break). That stinks. He will have a day at the beginning of exam wk with nothing, but since the science exam is after that, they wont let him take one of his sci exams early (on that empty day- Monday). Its a pain, but he will deal wit it. He is not a complainer (well, at least not about that stuff- just complains about my nagging…)</p>
<p>WildChild is in the process of re-writing the paper and then will begin re-creating the research on the next few papers. He gets to move out of this particular slum housing on the 15th, but says he can’t stand it another day and is looking at options to escape for reading period. (has to be someplace that will accommodate the pedigreed Ragdoll kitten he and his girlfriend acquired…) He moves into different slum housing for next semester, but at least it is his OWN apartment with no house mates. He said he may still get shot, but at least the kitchen will be clean.</p>
<p>I purchased one of those slanted bar/attach to the doorknob jam things for my son when he was living in a dangerous major city last summer with another student…drove to Lowes the night before he left when that little light bulb went off in my head. Worked when they were in there sleeping of course, but we hadn’t counted on someone with deadbolt keys entering the place when they were at work. (Nice of them to lock up again before exiting with two laptops with two years of college work in it and with the TV and sunglasses).</p>
<p>Commenting on backing up work - if the student is often on the internet (yeah, right, who isn’t?), then you can get a subscription to backup services with offsite backup. For just data stuff (papers and research), it costs about $150-250 a year. When you close out Windows or log off the computer, it prompts you to hit the backup button.</p>
<p>This is great for those kids that forget to email/backup or are prone to losing things like flash drives. Just something to think about.</p>
<p>If you have a gmail account (which anybody can have now, you don’t need an invitation anymore) there is something called “Google documents”. You can upload your excel or word document to it. You can also create it right on google documents, but it’s not as easy. I periodically save my document there.</p>
<p>I even accessed a word document when I was travelling in Europe that way. Much easier than carrying all information around with me.</p>
<p>You can do the same on yahoo docs. The problem is that students that forget to take the time to email themselves documents aren’t going to do that, either. But for those who are willing to take the time, google and yahoo docs are useful.</p>
<p>D’s school offers a service for backing up work. It isn’t very expensive. I don’t remember the details, because it doesn’t work for Macs & so I didn’t pay much attention. I do remember that it seemed worth the money. You might check with your kid’s school it see if they offer such a service.</p>
<p>D uses a Mac application that allows her to access her documents from any computer. That way, if anything happens to her computer, she isn’t out of luck. Of course, if someone stole her computer & deleted her files she’d be out of luck.</p>