Roget's International Thesaurus. This is a true thesaurus in the sense that it contains an index so that for every word, you can find any nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs related to that word. It only takes a few minutes to understand how it works, and then you will be rewarded that a reference is truly a joy to use. I bought my 4th edition when I was in high school, and I stick with the 4th edition. According to Amazon reviewers, the most recent eighth edition has a new inferior indexing system (and a different author). I would stick to the older editions, especially the 5th edition or earlier with Robert Chapman as the author. I recommend that you do not purchase a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms as it is a less powerful tool than a true thesaurus. Plus, they are freely available online. Likewise, I did invest in a paper dictionary as I find my phone apps and websites (as well as the online etymology dictionary to be sufficient.

@lewelma DH mentioned someone "escaped" from NZ quarantine and now there are 100 new cases as a result? Aren't people under armed guard in those hotels?

So, as somone who lives in the Covid Wild West, where anything goes...how does it work? If I buy a plane ticket for NZ, do I need to show proof of a quarantine reservation as well? (Also, God help you if you need gall bladder surgery in Texas right now.)

I actually think you've done an excellent job already of thinking everything through. For others who are just getting starting organizing group learning activities I recommend: Be relentlessly focused on the needs of your student. No democracy with other parents' input. If you are doing all the work, then you decide what it's going to look like, and let everyone else decide if they want to join you. (Sounds like you have this covered.) Post a list of books in advance so everyone is clear on what will be read. (Not everyone agrees on what is high school level or what is appropriate.) Are there multiple copies of the books at the library? Do you want to include the cost of books in your tuition? Do you have a plan for sick days? But honestly, it looks like you are off to a great start!

You might ask your student to look at How to Prepare a Standout College Application by Chisolm and Ivey. I especially liked chapter 3, which has some nice exercises to prompt some introspection and give the student ideas about what they would like to communicate about themselves. It's probably similar to what a consultant might do. Maybe think about what he will write on the rest of his Common App (short answer questions) and consider what else about him remains that he wants colleges to understand about him. And to take the pressure off, remind your student that the essay is just one part of his application, not the whole part.

My library doesn't have a copy and Amazon is selling some copies "Superior Mind" for close to $1000! I'm curious could you drill down on what you like about his math curriculum or maybe share some photos?

We are big fans of AP classes. My kids love 'em, and the exams at the end aren't a big deal if you've been studying all year and keeping up with the work. However. Even before the pandemic, depending on your location, it may or may not have been easy to find a place to take the test. Enrolling in an online class typically does not provide your student with a seat in a testing location. Now with the pandemic, high schools (which is where homeschoolers typically take their AP exams) have even more reason to exclude students who are not full time enrolled there. IMO your first step in your decision tree of AP versus something else is to determine if you can identify a location where your student can test: check local private and public middle and high schools or after schooling centers or Chinese schools. You should do this early in the school year, like September. If you can not guarantee a seat for your student in May, then I recommend looking at alternative ways to show mastery of the material.

Risks: Frankly, I don't think admissions readers are really interested in learning yet another take on an already widely read and discussed best selling book and movie. Like PPs I often hear that readers use this essay to learn more about your student as a person. Does this essay serve that purpose? Benefits: Your student's attempt to write about herself will give the impression that she is a worse human she actually is. Another benefit is she will save herself some time.

Yes, similar, except I took the next step of making "Year" it's own column with 9,10,11,12 as choices. (Notice at the top are her math classes taken in year 12 because I was positioning her as a technical applicant.) But yes, otherwise very similar layout. My student had enough technical courses (other than math or science) that we could justify a "Technology" department that included AP CS, machine learning, AI, algorithms and a EE course. But I think including AP CS in electives or math is fine.

I agree with PPs not to include semester grades, especially since in every single case, his semester 2 grade is the same as his semester 1 grade. He did earn 2 different grades in his physics classes, but I consider those to be 2 different classes, so 2 different grades for that year. This will also save you a lot of space. Remember, your document will also need to include a heading that says "Official Transcript" and all that stuff, plus a signature box at the bottom. Did he self-study all these at home? Or did you outsource to PAH or elsewhere? I found it helpful to include a legend with abbreviations of our "Educational Partners" where there was impressive branding, like MIT OCW and Stanford OHS. (I've heard colleges like even Harvard are familiar with PAH, but not really sure. @Farrar do you think PAH is well known among adcoms?)

Nice work so far! Since you have a STEM student you want to highlight his STEM coursework. I would move the Math and Science sections to the top. I would also put the most recent courses (and most advanced) to the top of each section. So fourth year ASL will be at the top. I would rewrite your course titles to have AP as a prefix, not suffix. (I think that's more common.) So: AP Calculus BC, AP Computer Science A, etc. As PPs have mentioned you have a lot of wasted space with all those empty squares. Condense it all so you have one column for grade leve (9-12) and now you have room for other things like a legend if you need one or test scores if they are high. Think about what is most impressive and make sure that's the first thing they see.

My dd was admitted to Stanford a couple of years ago. I did not include PE, but I did include a performance art, mainly because it was a UC a-g "requirement" (in quotes because not really sure how required it was) and also she actually took a cc, so I didn't have much choice. It was also a pass/fail class and despite the rumors that P/F classes are translated as a "C" it didn't seem to hurt her. I would not include swimming as a class or as a PE, but should be included elsewhere as an EC. If he did something that looks like a class w.r.t. his theater and voice (did he train with a voice teacher?) I might turn that into a class. Otherwise EC is fine. My dd took algebra and geometry in middle school. We included geometry because UC. We went back and forth on including algebra and ultimately went with including it on the transcript. I don't have strong feelings about whether this was the right decision but ultimately we felt like we wanted to include it for any box checkers in admissions. She did not have much meaningful foreign language before high school. We reported weighted GPA because it was higher than unweighted, but not by much. We weighted anything that was AoPS, AP, or Honors. 0.5 credits for mech and 0.5 credits for e&m.

You never know! A smart kid with quantitative skills AND majoring in communcations/arts may find interesting opportunities that others aren't qualified for. Good for her!

There's a lot of wasted space because for every class taken (every row), there are only 3 square used. I didn't break it out by semester grade, just a final grade at the end of the year. So for each row/course you have: name, year (9-12), credits, H/AP, Grade, and "partner" like MIT OCW or OHS or PAH or Coursera.

I used them. Nice people who will respond promptly to email inquiries. I ordered near the start of the pandemic and they warned me they were severely delayed, but I wasn't in a rush. It took so long for the order to fill, that I had moved in the meantime! So I emailed to let them know, and my document was delivered to the correct address. I'm happy with their work, their honesty regarding timelines, and their communication with me.

This is a good reminder to me to check my own spam. Sadly there are no gems. Only: "READ MY PROPOSAL BELOW GET BACK!" and "Hello Dear Very Confidential" and "BUSINESS OPPORTUNTIY (sic)". I could really use a business opportunitiy (sic) right now.

Thanks for posting this, @Arcadia. Am I reading this table correctly, that a student earns twice as much credit for Physics 1/2 as for Physics C? (8 quarters versus 4 quarters)

Homeschoolers can not be NSCs. Only students who are enrolled in a regular school which does not have a MathCounts team can compete as an NSC. But! The good news is that homeschoolers can compete as individuals, though it's infinitely better if you can have 4 students at a minimum on your team, so you can participate fully in all the events. If you have 1-3 homeschooled students, they can still compete as individuals, but won't be able to fully compete in the Team Round. Since all the schools showing up at chapter competition typically have 10 students on their team, it's nice as homeschoolers to show up with at least one other friend, and preferably more. Good luck this year!

I'm not familiar with CBE, so grain of salt. It sounds like she was really close. Does she know which problems she missed and why? Was it a silly mistake? Or does her low score reflect a lack of mastery of the material? Is it possible the other students have access to a practice test that maybe your student did not? Since she was close to passing (and it seemed like she would have qualified in previous years) I would have her take it again next year. I can't speak to advantages or disadvantages, though keeping up with high achieving kids is a big one, but only if she has mastered the material. But I agree with @kirstenhill that if calculus in high school is on your radar, that usually means algebra in 8th grade.

I'm not sure where you are getting this information about the grading curve for physics 1,2. If it's from the score distribution, that might appear to be the case. In 2019, 6% and 14% of students taking physics 1 and 2 scored a 5. 43% of BC Calculus students and 37% of students taking either Physics C course score a 5. Does that mean BC calculus and physics C are easier than physics 1 and 2? I think it's the weaker students who are self-selecting for physics 1 and 2 who are also doing poorly on the easier exam. This may be unfair, but I group physics 1,2 with computer science principles in the category of easy and not college level classes designed by the college board to offer dumbed down versions of their regular classes so they can increase revenue. (If you disagree I'm eager to hear your arguments.) It is good advice to make sure you'll be able to take the exam locally if that is your intention, especially during another pandemic year where campuses may continue to be closed to outsiders. Data from before the pandemic showed approximately 2000 schools offering physics 2 and physics c e&m, compared with 7000 schools offering physics 1 and physics c mech. Between 11,000 and 14,000 schools offer calc ab, English, APUSH, and biology.

Yes, I was fairly shocked that a school would actually object to a MathCounts team being formed, even if there was no cost to the school. I did learn a few things volunteering for MathCounts this year: (i) During the pandemic, some schools dropped all ECs completely as a matter of policy. (ii) Some schools only allow for some number of ECs at their school. Adding MathCounts to the mix would mean some other EC would need to be removed. (iii) There have been instances where a school lacked a MathCounts team, and 2 parents at the same school would form 2 separate teams in the school's name. The chapter would tell the parents to sort it out so one school fields only one team. (iii) You can't compete as an NSC if your school is fielding a MathCounts team as well. Also there can be no more than 12 NSCs attending the same school. It sounds like if you are the 13th students to register you are out of luck. I'm glad to hear your student can participate! Did her school offer a reason for not particpating?

Where are you reading this?

I've found just the opposite. A question will be posted, the student solves it, and then nothing for several minutes. It's hard to know what's going on, sometimes we think the computer has frozen because it takes so long to move to the next line in the script. I suppose there are so many confused kids it just takes that long for TAs to respond to all the questions or address all the wrong answers? Your student should have a pad of paper and pencil ready to solve problems in lecture.

If your student is already taking AMC, then MOEMS is going to be too easy. It's 5 questions in a half hour, monthly exam, for elementary (grades 4-6) and middle school (grades 6-8). It's terrific for elementary students or students who have little experience with math contests. If you register officially, the exams are monthly Nov-March, and you get certificates, patches, pins, and a trophy, but it's expensive (>$100). A cheaper more flexible option is to use their books of old published exams and you can meet on your own schedule with a group of homeschooled students, print off your own certificates and have fun with it. We did Math League one time. It's like a scrimmage for MathCounts, very similar format. We didn't do CML.

What about point slope form for lines? My sense is that students lean to slope intercept form, when really the point slope form is what they should use by default. Am I wrong to emphasize this form?