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Gratia271

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Everything posted by Gratia271

  1. I agree. We have had friends whose kids had similar poor results taking the test after honors chem or "pre-ap chem" at private schools.
  2. Sorry to reply late. I was out of state with my son and had limited access. Historically, I have only outsourced advanced Calc and beyond and the advanced science courses. Oldest DD self-studied and worked with me for the other courses. In our experience with my biological kids, some of the AP courses are rather easy, so spending a year (or even a semester) with an outside teacher would be a complete waste of their time and our money, e.g., Psych, Govt, Econ, Language and Comp, Stats. So much is busy work- at least for them. I am sure it will be a very different story with my adopted children years down the road.
  3. DD received a 5 on APUSH with Mrs. Richman this year. She took AP Chem with Moskaluk as a sophomore (revised exam) and received a 5.
  4. Yes, that is true in some cases. It isn't in ours, so I forgot to mention that possibility.
  5. In terms of our approach to AP/DE work, my attitude has always been to provide the most challenging and engaging academic opportunities across all disciplines for my older children for the sake of education itself. That said, each of my older three children (18, 15, 15) have different personalities, proclivities, and goals. Below is what we have done or anticipate doing with a view toward competitive admissions. In addition to APs, they spend multiple years in at least 2 languages with 2-3 years of college level work. The plans for my younger two are tentative. All three of them want a balanced transcript, so they pursue advanced course work across all disciplines. DD18 (graduate): 10th grade AP Chem, AP Language and Comp, AP Latin, AP Calc BC 11th grade: AP Physics C, AP Stats, AP Psych, AP Comp Sci, AP Lit and Comp 12th grade: AP Econ, AP Govt, APUSH, AP Bio DS15: entering 10th grade 8th grade: Calculus 9th grade: AP Stats 10th grade: AP Latin, AP Lang and Comp, APUSH, AP Comp Sci, AP Govt 11th grade: AP Euro, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP Micro, AP Macro, DE computing classes TBD 12th grade: AP Comparative Govt, AP Bio, AP Psych, DE Russian, DE computing classes TBD DD15:entering 10th grade 10th grade: AP Latin, AP Language and Comp, AP Comp Sci, AP Govt 11th grade: AP Euro, AP Stats, AP Chem, AP Micro, AP Macro 12th grade: APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP Psych
  6. We had a similar experience with PaH for AP Bio. My daughter took the class there, and the teacher uses old materials that do not reflect the new exam. BUT my daughter and other students got together, pooled their resources, and DD scored a 5. I have no doubt her peers who were experienced with AP tests like she is or who listened to the advice of experienced students also did well. She and several other students helped their classmates locate materials on the web, provided google docs etc. A few students stuck with the teacher's lousy advice, and I would not anticipate good scores for them. The teacher didn't even provide the most recent tests accessible to AP teachers. She used the old test questions and format. I could be mad at the fact her teacher was rather sub-par, but I am not because this is sadly the real world which my daughter is now part of at age 18. She and her peers networked with each other and pooled their resources to pull off great scores despite poor instruction. Shame on the adult, and kuddos to these young adults for their initiative and resourcefulness.
  7. DD has a secured credit card in her own name as well as is an authorized user on one of our credit card accounts. This time next year we will be buying her a car to have on campus, and she will take out a secured loan she pays back from an investment account. She will also be title holder on the car, so that provides another asset in her own name. In essence, she uses her own money to pay back the debt on a monthly basis over a period of several years. Our financial adviser said that is among the best ways to establish credit. At least in her opinion, it is superior to co-signing loans because parent and child are both involved in credit as opposed to DD being the only one involved.
  8. It depends on what you want to do and what schools your student applies to. On the college board here, the weighted-unweighted gpa discussion has gone back and forth on what to do. Given where my DD applied last fall, we provided both weighted and unweighted, as some schools would not weight if we didn't and gpa factored into scholarship consideration. Any college level course work, including APs and other course work, was weighted in accordance with what our local HS here does.
  9. Thanks! Congrats to your daughter!! This fall, DS is taking APUSH with Susan Richman (DD loves her!!!), AP Lang with Maya Inspector, AP Comp Sci (either self-study or Edhesive), AP Latin with Lukeion, and AP Govt (home). Except for math and science, oldest DD and I did most AP work together. One of our favorites we did together was AP Lang. I am actually rather sad that I won't be doing as many courses with my now 15 year old twins, but it simply isn't feasible with our adopted kiddos and all of the unanticipated problems. But I am going to read the same books etc... so we can continue our Socratic discussions we all love as a family. :)
  10. DD18 got her results on her last set of AP exams this morning and received all 5s. Courses were AP Bio, APUSH with Susan Richman, AP Govt self-study and AP Microecon self-study. Echoing Quark's sentiments above, she is thrilled to have completed so many APs that she can skip courses altogether and credit out or avoid prereqs to move straight to her interests. For my part as her mom, I am proud of all the hard work she has done to complete 14 APs and to achieve 5s on all of them. Looking back three years, she didn't expect it but it was always her goal. :) DS14 received a 5 on AP Stats. I am so proud of him. After bringing home three adopted kiddos, our lives have been very little beside turmoil and sleeplesness. DS really had to make himself stay on task, which is far more challenging for him than academic rigors per se. The course and the test itself were not difficult content wise for him, but holding himself responsible amidst a lot of other course work with Stanford OHS without much time or attention from me is an extraordinary accomplishment on his part. Oldest DD and I did AP stats together on our own, but DS took the class with Carole Matheny. As other have said over the years, Carole provides superb academic instruction. But what sets her apart among the many people my DC have worked with over the years is that she cares so much about each student as an individual. She is truly dedicated to each student's success. She's just a wonderful person, and I'm glad I had my son take her course.
  11. Oldest DD18 would agree. She took AP Chem (revised test) in 10th, AP Physics C in 11th and AP Bio this year in 12th. She said there is not even a close second in terms of difficulty: AP Chem is the most challenging in her opinion.
  12. I'm not entirely sure how we can, but I think being there to listen and to love no matter what is said or done is crucial. Personalities are so different, and reactions to mistakes and tragedy are equally so. Some people (like the woman you described) carry others through the ups and downs. They also tend to carry the guilt and have a sense of responsibility for others that can be crushing. Sadly, it is easy to "miss" what's going on because they seem to be holding it all together on the outside even when it is all falling apart on the inside. Sometimes too I think we as parents try so hard to model the right response to our kids that sometimes it just seems incredible to them and they go underground because they perceive their own weakness or insecurity but do not recognize ours because we are so busy trying to be strong and model the "right" approach. I think it helps strengthen our children when they see our vulnerability. Then, they know it's okay for them to struggle too.
  13. As an attorney who has worked in this area, it is odd. One day, you have a child and the next an adult.. the day they turn 18. Unless people are very forward thinking, they don't contemplate worst case scenario for their adult child. Neither does the newly minted "adult" who in most cases is never going to anticipate something bad happening to them. They don't even stop to think they will need this type of intervention or support. And for most of these young adults, no one is going to care about their welfare in any way remotely resembling their parents. These young people are adults in so many respects and deserve their autonomy. When they can't speak for themselves, they need a voice who gives a da*n about them. We are all susceptible to circumstances where someone may have to speak for us. It should be someone who cares.
  14. You are in my thoughts and prayers. :grouphug:
  15. Echoing what some others have said, we focused on fit and field of study. DD and I started exploring thoughts and ideas around 9th grade. She got involved with a local university during the summers and stayed on campus several times, which actually helped give her a feel of campus life (at least somewhat). Initially, she really thought she would want a smaller school, but as she advanced through high school she became much more attracted to a large university context. Entering her senior year, she and I explored both types of campuses. She enjoyed being with the students at all of the schools she visited but ruled out most schools on the basis of "fit" for her own reasons. We were actually laughing about this recently when DD was telling people where she'd be attending this fall. In 9th and 10th grade, she would have sworn she'd be at a small to middle-sized school research uni. Now she'll be attending one of the largest campuses in the US. So much can change. I have two rising sophomores now, and we are kicking around ideas about what they think and they will be doing summer programs on campuses to get a sense of what they think of it. Depending on field of study as well as honors cohorts, students can have a close community within a very large context.
  16. Thanks, everyone! Ohio State's program was her top choice, and this is just an amazing addition!
  17. This!!! DH failed an advanced Calc class in his Engineering program and worked his butt off to pass the second time around,.
  18. This completely depends on the students involved. DH and I have a friend who partied all the time at Harvard. The world is a big place and you have serious students and party students at most schools. Some students work hard and party hard. There's a lot of diversity out there. :)
  19. DD just received official notice that she was named a Stamps Scholar at Ohio State. They select 5 students for this, all out of the ~25 chosen as Eminence Fellows. I am so proud of her; I just had to share! :)
  20. I wouldn't either. :) I told my daughter I didn't care what people thought. She decided to do AP Physics C anyway. They ditched AP Physics B the year after she took AP chem with AP Calc BC. She had the choice of taking 5 APs sophomore year to work Physics B in before they switched to Physics 1/2, which she decided was a bad idea. She felt like she need to continue AP science progression, so she took Physics C and finished with Bio. I let her make the call.
  21. I don't know if this has been mentioned, but part of the success in learning depends on what context your student learns best in. Live classes are great for some students, not others. They are too slow for some, too fast for others etc.. Some have onerous participation requirements that some kids think waste their time, etc. DS15 had a live class at a "prestigious" school, which stunk. Same kid along with his twin sister did exceedingly well with Derek Owens approach. Oldest DD18 did most of her math with me until Calc and beyond. Foerster's worked great for oldest DD and DS 15--only problem with DS15 is he needed accountability to someone beside me. DD15 thrived with Derek Owens materials. None of my kids like Lial's texts. However, there are great schools (JHU, Jann in Texas) who use it effectively and have students who like it. I'm just throwing this out there because one person's experience with a school may be vastly different than another's for a myriad of reasons. Same goes for the books. There are a lot of potentially great books and programs. We loved Foerster and Derek Owens materials here, and got great results.
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