A parent posted on CC that her son's calc teacher sent an email out to the parents yesterday stating that there were two versions of the BC test - version E and version O. The teacher said that version O was much more difficult than version E and that the students who took the O version are not to worry because the curve will reflect the difference in difficulty. My D also had form O and thought that the problems were more difficult than the problems on the released exams.

Two of my kids have taken AP Chemistry with Mr. M. As other's have said, it is a fantastic class. There is no busy work and teacher feedback is prompt and thorough. The class also prepares students exceptionally well for the AP,Chemistry SAT II, and Chemistry Olympiad exams.

I haven't read the other responses, so my thoughts have probably already been expressed by others. A couple of phrases in your post jumped out at me. One of the phrases was, "our pipe dreams." Please make sure the dreams are solely your son's. My kids are all in high school or college now. I have seen more than one parent/child relationship damaged because the dream was the parent's dream and the child was participating either because he had no choice or he was wanted to please his parents. (My oldest son has a good friend who was pushed by his father. The boy did achieve the lofty goals his dad set for him, but the boy has not spoken to his dad since the boy left for the elite college three years ago.) The other phrase that struck me was, "my biggest fear is that I might push my son too hard" You shouldn't be pushing your son at all. You should definitely provide him with the opportunities, but it should be his decision how much time he devotes to his endeavors. As to your question on whether we think it is possible to reach your goals in two separate fields, my answer would be no. I don't know anything about the musical endeavors, but I do have some very limited experience on the math side. My oldest son loves math. When he was in 7th grade, he qualified for the state MathCounts competition. As a parent, that event was a real eye-opener for me. While the tests were being scored, the head of the event was reading math problems and asking the kids to shout out the answers. The kids around me were shouting out the answers before the question had even been read in its entirety. These kids clearly had spent so much time preparing for this competition that, not only had they been exposed to some of the questions, but they had actually memorized the answers. . You mentioned that your son will be attending a school in the fall that is known for its strong math results in these competitions. There is a private school in my area that publicizes its results in these competitions. However, in this case, the school doesn't deserve any of the credit - these kids who are winning these awards are doing a ton of math outside of school. Years ago on another homeschooling forum, a mom said that her IMO son spent 4 hours a day devoted to math. Now if your son's goal is to do well on the AMC and qualify for the AIME, that is definitely possible without a big time commitment provided your son is learning from a rigorous math program. Reaching JMO, especially if you live in the US, is going to require a big chunk of time. My college kids devoted 20+ hours a week to their sport when they were growing up. They devoted the time because it made them happy. It was always their choice whether to practice or not. My job was simply to drive them around. Over the years, I have had other parents remark that it takes a lot of sacrifice to reach that high of a level. I usually don't say this to the parent who made that remark, but I am thinking to myself that my boys do not think they "sacrificed" anything at all. They were doing what they loved. In my opinion, if the child believes he is sacrificing anything, he needs to re-evaluate how he is spending his time. Good luck to you and your son!