You're amazing Jane! :001_smile: DD knows more about software than hardware but she is interested in both. She's also got the basics of web design down. She's got a collection of computers people have given to her in her bedroom which I don't quite get... :D She owns more computers/laptops than the rest of the household put together. We've bought her 'Networking for Dummies' but I'm not sure if she'll be able to work through it without ordering some parts (yes, I'm not the most technical person!) as she worked through 'HTML for Dummies' when she was a kid by skipping the boring parts and testing the actual coding until she worked it out. She's like a typical man - never mind the instruction booklet! :lol: I told DD about Make magazine so guess what she's doing tommorow? :D Do you also happen to know if it's actually possible for someone to want to be a computer scientist and actually hate ordinary science? It's driving me crazy!

My DD is interested in computer science so we're not really sure where to start looking. Could you suggest anything Jane? :)

Thank you Carmen! I really appreciate it as well as Rionne! :D

You could also try getting hold of the College Board blue book & having her take a practice SAT test. It'll give you an idea of whether she could get some merit aid in future. She sounds like a very bright girl though. ;)

The writing portion tests grammar & asks you to write an essay. Most people's tips on the essay is to fill all of the space, and examples can be personal experiences and they can be complete lies - how's the person reading it going to know, after all? A lot of people choose to remember a few examples they could fit into pretty much any prompt. That's all I can say to help. :) Good luck to your DD!

Are you sure she doesn't understand grammar? If she's getting every question right then she has a good grasp of it. It may just be the terminology she doesn't know. :)

A few years ago my DD found out Whitmore Publishing will publish writers under 18 & I think they ask for a 120 page minimum. Don't know if that's any help Misty. :)

Somewhere towards the back of the WTM book under transcripts or something it's listed as World History I & II, Gov't and something else I think. :)

I think the writing element depends on what you see your daughter doing after high school. Will she go to college or into a career that she'll need to write certain types of papers a lot? I think writing just for the sake of writing is pointless so it should be linked to their other subjects. The same goes for being heavier in lit, history, etc rather than math & science. It depends where you see her going in life & what skills she would need for that. My daughter is undecided on what she wants to do but it could involve a potentially science-y area despite the fact that she has difficulty with it so we're trying to get the basics of bio, chem & physics down first then we can go back and get further in depth if we have time which I think we will. Excuse any typos, errors & the general disorganization of this. I'm tired. :D

Is there something that specifically says ignore the order of operations for this part, or has only part of the order of operations been covered & they're not expecting the student to know the rest of it & so working without it...? Other than that I agree that it's a little odd. :001_huh:

To avoid skipping material and missing out though, you could use chapter tests if you have them (or give him the most difficult questions of each topic as your own chapter test) to have him test out of material he knows. At least then you know he has mastered all of the material and I'd tell him if he proves he can do the material he can move on from it, so he doesn't make the careless mistakes. I don't know if that's any more help to you. :) Edit: And you can be sure many, many people have crossed that bridge! Even search through older threads on this board & you'll find others have had the same problem. You might some other solutions too so definately check back through old threads.

My DD has always done this. She tells me she does it when she knows the material and knows she doesn't need to concentrate on it so she doesn't. :D I don't know either of the programs you're using but could you cut down on the number of problems and if he gets them right, he doesn't have to go over them anymore if skipping ahead isn't something you want to do?

I agree about resuming piano & trying web design. It's something he could keep up long term too - getting into different types of web design, graphics - that kind of thing. You'd think I knew what I was talking about but I don't. DD loves this kind of thing. She recommends, if he's into coding himself rather than using a program to do it, that he starts with HTML, then CSS and continue from there. There's also free graphics programs available instead of photoshop which is quite expensive unless you can find a copy on ebay or whatever. GIMP is a good idea for graphics and is free. You can also try and find an older copy of photoshop. If he's into games he could learn how to make his own, too. He could run a fansite too. Does he have any interests in particular besides what you have already mentioned? I hope this was of some use to you. (:

This was roughly my DD's schedule when she was in school for year 8: Four hours of english, four of maths, two of science, two of history, two of french, two of PE, one of RS, one of art/drama, one of music, two of technology, two of geography & one of ICT.

Thank you both for the replies. I love how you don't get judged on this board. She's done some Algebra before so she's getting through that quickly. Geometry might be a single whole year course since she's never done it before, but then it might not... you both know how unpredictable these things are. :D She wants to take at least one SAT 2 in math alongside the SAT so hopefully, that'll help validate it and she'll also have A-Level math results by the time she applies. She might not have any outside verification other than test scores though... do you think that'll be a problem? We're not in the US, otherwise she'd probably be doing CC courses instead. She'd love that, but not possible. We don't have anything similar over here though. ):