What a wonderful pet to have been a member of 2 families at the same time! My brother built a "catio" so the family cat could get some outdoor time. You can DIY it or buy one already made. Meanwhile hugs to you.

There's an old NY Times article from 1994 on the topic: Mr. Quin said they were making the change so students would have a better sense of what their scores mean. When the current scoring system was established in 1941, 500 was the average score for each test, the math and verbal. Those scores have been declining for nearly four decades. The average verbal score today is 424; the average math score, 478. So the College Board officials have decided to "recenter" the scale, changing it so the average student will once again get scores of 500 on the verbal and math tests. That means by answering the same number of questions correctly, typical students will get about 80 extra points on the verbal test and 20 on the math. For over half a century, a raw score of 35 on the verbal test of 78 questions has translated into a 430 score; now a raw score of 35 will mean a score of 510. For the raw score, students get one point for each correct answer; they lose a quarter-point for each wrong answer. "This way a student will know if he gets a 510, he's a little above average. A 490's a little below average," Mr. Quin said. ... In 1941, when the current norms were established for scoring the S.A.T., the world was a very different place. A small group of middle- and upper-class Americans attended college. Just 10,000 students took the S.A.T. in that year and 40 percent of them attended private high schools. Today, 1.2 million take the test, 82 percent of them from public schools. In 1941, fewer than 1 percent of the test takers were members of minorities and 40 percent were women; today, those numbers are 30 percent and 52 percent. As colleges diversified in the 1960's, opening their doors to more poor and first-generation Americans, S.A.T. scores began a steady drop. By 1969, the average verbal score was 462; today, it is 424.

I also made this chart based on the scores in the above linked table: I think you can interpret the slope to represent the granularity of the scoring. The higher/steeper slope at the lower scores shows greater resolution of scores. You can see an area of greater slope in the math scores between 650 - 750. You can see that with the exception of a 250, 550, 600, 700, 750 on the SAT math, the 2 curves are above y=x, so the scores are inflated at those points. At 700, the new math score is actually slightly lower. There's more info in this College-Board produced article, but it's too dense for me to read.

This is a good question. Why so much resolution at the lower end of the scale? The only information I can add is that the SAT was renormalized in 1996, raising the average SAT score. Now my old score from 1986 is laughably low in my dd's estimation, while at the time it was considered a respectable score. With everyone's score now inflated, those with the highest scores are "bunched up" on the high end of the scale. That's how I see things, but I wonder if that is the entire explanation?

8-Minute Meditation. I like that it's short and to the point and secular.

I tutor students locally in a high COLA. I charge at a minimum $80/hour, but when I get really busy, I've had parents pay $120/hour. I teach using AoPS materials exclusively (BA through calculus), and I prep students for MathCounts and AMCs. A few AoPS Academies have opened in my area, so I'm less busy this year. 😮

Pointy is great! Failure is great! Especially if she can take some time to reflect on what she learned from her failure. What would she do differently in retrospect? (Sounds like a great essay topic.) Not all students at top colleges faced hardship. In fact, hardly any of them did.

You, then, would really appreciate this bit from John Mulaney about college costs and donations. (warning for language) "In their letter they were like, 'Hey, it's been a while since you've given us money.' "I was like, 'Hey, it's been a while since you've housed and taught me. I thought our transaction was over.' "

I would personally buy the minimum tickets and be done with it. Unless the event were legitimately terrific, I can't see making anyone other than close relatives pay money and then waste time at an event they don't want to attend.

In a perfect world these student would get justice in the form of teacher LoRs and counselor letters.

Their help desk is very responsive. You might try contacting them.

Consider me "woke"! 😉

I was unaware of this fact. Is it common knowledge or a more recent study? New to me was the notion that schools are penalized for reducing their spending because that impacts their USNWR ranking. I also was surprised to learn how impactful a slightly lower rank is on admissions. It seems like a lose-lose situation for Trinity if they can't boost their revenues somehow. If they've been admitting such wealthy students, why aren't they turning into generous alumni donors? I wonder if we're going to see more colleges like Trinity disappear in the next decade?

Do you have a link to the Tanton video?

Another thing you can do it to identify any BM schools that offer the AP music theory class. I did a google search on "which high schools offer ap music theory" and I came up with this (incomplete) list: valley view milliken stuyvesant zionsville This is NOT a complete list. I just stopped after 4 schools. But you'll need to contact them to see if they will allow outsiders to take the exam. The good news is 2 of them are actually in California, but the others are in NY and Indiana. If it were me, I might be willing to travel to So Cal or maybe Reno, but if it requires flying any further away, I'd skip it. Particularly if your student is taking any other AP exams the same week, you could be setting yourself up for a lot of unnecessary stress. I wonder if it isn't a better option to take MT with a favorite teacher or at cc?

This list has a bunch in Northern California. According to this prepscholar post, Music Theory is one of the least popular AP exams (<20,000 versus a half million each in English and APUSH). Be prepared, you may need to travel, maybe even to So Cal or out of state. You may want to even reconsider this course, and perhaps show competency some other way.

I've been collecting a list of testing sites for AP and PSAT. You can check this smaller list and see if it's helpful. If you find another site that's friendly to homeschoolers, you can PM me or post in that thread.

I just took a look, and I realize I am incorrect. It doesn't look like you have the option to upload a pdf. Please try the other suggestions in this thread.

Does he have the option to save his work in a separate document, then save/print it as a pdf, and then upload the document to the Common App? Instead of copy/paste text into the form?

In addition to my main transcript with all her courses documented, I also had extra unofficial transcripts from Stanford OHS, PAH, and the local CC. I appended those into one big pdf and uploaded it separately. I believe there is space in the Common App to upload more than one transcript. Later after she was admitted I had an official transcript from the CC sent directly to the admissions office.

I believe I have a responsibility to provide colleges reasons to admit my student, and to that end present my student in the best light. So yes I provided a weighted GPA because her schedule is full of honors type classes. I grouped the following as honors (and described it in my school profile): AP, AoPS, university level or as described by the instructor. I would have a hard time calling it honors if the vendor does not, but then again, I can see why you, as the principal of your school, are within your rights to do so. It would certainly be helpful if there is something in the course description that would buttress the assertion of honors level content and pacing. Something objective that could act as trigger that you could point to that would bump it up to honors level.

I like these free customizable printable calendars: https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/create.html?typ=2

Thank you for clarifying. In that case I would go for the PSAT 9, or whatever the other 9th graders are taking. There is value in getting some familiarity with the school where subsequent testing will happen, and in knowing what the routine is at that particular school. When he returns for the SAT subject test, the whole experience will be less stressful. At the local high school where we do SAT subject testing, it's kind of a mad house, with tons of drop off car traffic, 100s of kids milling around the yard, and lists of students and room numbers posted in various places on the walls, outdoors in the cold morning air. The administrator came out with a megaphone it was so chaotic. Our first go at this was fairly stressful, but after that first year we knew the ropes. (We also learned to stand clear of the business end of the megaphone.) The only negative I can see is if they have any test taking anxiety. Barring that, you can assure your student that the score doesn't really "count" and this is all about learning how testing works at this particular school.

This is not a hypothetical question. Many students enroll full time at Stanford OHS and graduate. They are high school students who have graduated from high school. There are a few "university level" classes offered, but they are not taking the same classes as actual Stanford undergraduates, although the syllabus may be the same or similar. They are not receiving college credit from Stanford. It's just more advanced coursework that one might typically see in college, but it's still a high school course. Most Stanford OHS courses are not "university level" thought many are very challenging. HTH.