This is the first time I have heard about students who have priority registration or better registration spots registering for popular classes then selling them to students trying to add the class when the class is full. Here is an article on the subject. https://stack.dailybruin.com/2024/02/04/course-selling/ A co-worker was telling me about it because her daughter was frustrated she couldn't get into the classes she wanted. Some of the popular courses that students are selling include: Physics 5A, 5B, and 5C (physics for life science majors) and several Psychology classes, math classes, and others. Has anyone heard of this at other colleges?

Thanks for the info. NOLS seems really interesting and they have summer programs for 14-15 year olds. Maybe he is interested in boarding schools because he went to a swim meet at a boarding school and ended up talking to a boarder who really liked it. He is easy going, gets along well with others, is outgoing and is an adventurous eater so I think he actually would do fine with a host family. On the other hand he likes to be active and doesn't like being cooped up at home, so sometimes it is 9 at night and he says he wants to take a walk around the neighborhood which is fine with us. Sometimes he will go out with a friend and ask us to pick him up after a movie or concert at 8 somewhere and then call and say he and his friend prefer to walk 2-3 miles home or to go eat something instead of getting picked up. So I can picture a host family might not be so tolerant of this. I hadn't really thought of the academic expectations if you go to a non-English speaking country- he might actually like the option of taking "only the occasional academic class".

My son is currently in 9th grade and is interested in dong a study abroad in New Zealand or Australia or anywhere else that is English speaking. He doesn't really want to stay with a family and prefers a boarding school type environment or outdoor type school. I found "semester schools" that are primarily for students who are already at boarding schools or private schools to study in interesting places for a semester. He would love doing something like Maine Coast Semester (https://mainecoastsemester.chewonki.org) but it is $36,000 for the semester. There are other "semester school" programs in Colorado, North Carolina, Chile but they are all really expensive. Anyone know of any boarding schools in Australia/New Zealand that take students for a semester or year? I thought I had read there were outdoor type semester or maybe it was year long type programs but maybe it is only for students from certain schools or maybe it was somewhere else.

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Yes he is a junior and is NOT taking math this year. Thanks for this info. I had never heard of Schaums workbooks but they look promising. The only issue is that when I read the reviews of Calculus book someone commented that it doesn't exactly line up with AP calculus since most of the workbook is based on solving problems without calculators and some of the topics are different. Not sure if it matters or not for dual enrollment Calculus Yes he took geometry. He has taken: 1. Algebra 1 (year long) 2. Geometry (year long) 3. Intermediate Alg (Community College semester which the UC's/Cal states consider a year long high school course equivalent) 4. Trigonometry (semester Community College) 5. College Algebra (semester community college) 6. Statistics (semester community college) He finished statistics in 10th grade. If he choses a non STEM-major then there is a chance he will not have to take another math class to graduate college. However, I think 10th grade is too young to never have to take another math class again in your life. He needs a refresher if he is gong to take Calculus next year. I am wonder if it is better just to have him start studying Calculus this summer and then go back and review anything that he missed as he is taking Calculus or would it be better to review pre-calculus topics this summer. Note: I tried to post this a few days ago but my post never went through. Not sure what happened.

I would like my son to take Calculus senior year even though he doesn't really want to take any more math. By the end of the first semester of 10th grade at our community college, he had taken Intermediate Algebra, Trigonometry, and College Algebra. Then took Statistics his second semester of 10th grade. He realizes if he doesn't major in anything STEM that he won't have to take any more math classes if he goes to a Cal State or UC. I would really like him to take Calculus either at the community college or online but by the time he takes the class it will have been a while since he studied math. Is there a workbook or worksheet with an answer key that has worked out problems to review for Calculus? Or something online that would be good to review and has practice problems? The other option is that he studies for the digital math SAT. He wasn't planning on taking the SAT since he is looking at applying to Cal State/UC, which doesn't look at test scores, but now he is thinking it might be a good idea.

My husband teachers 7th grade in a public junior high school. He just got a new student this week who was homeschooling and had been in public school pre-pandemic. It wasn't a big deal at all. Kids move and enter the school all the time. He got a student who just arrived from another country last month. I think it is absolutely a great idea to try it now. Teachers and other students will know she is new and be more understanding. At the start of 8th grade teachers might not know she hasn't been in school besides homeschool and not be understanding if she doesn't understand some procedure or way of doing things. The only time my husband really dislikes getting a new student is when they are a massive behavior problem and are getting transferred into his classroom from another class or school due to a disciplinary event. I really don't understand why some people are being so negative. It would be so much better for you guys to figure out this spring what you will do next school year.

He really, really needs to learn how to use Desmos before the test. Here is the link: https://www.desmos.com/calculator Try plugging those problems above in and see how easy they are to solve with desmos. Then watch YouTube videos on digital SAT and desmos. How you study for the math SAT is going to tremendously change. My 9th grader is finishing algebra 2. Even though I discourage it he uses desmos and other online problem solvers as a shortcut to finishing homework instead of working out problems. He also makes careless mistakes. I was thinking he wasn’t going to take the SAT and just apply to no test schools like the UC’s but now I am going to have him study for the psat. I had him do some sample problems by hand, using only a calculator, then also using desmos. He did great on all the problems you can solve using desmos. Any system of equations, inequalities are graphed for you in desmos,etc. Some if those problems solving even with a calculator take a lot of time but took him seconds with desmos.

I can see how intuitively knowing the answer saves time, but if you don't then Desmos still lets you solve the problems really quickly. Here are sample problems from the college board: (x − 1)2 = −4 How many distinct real solutions does the given equation have? A) Exactly one B) Exactly two C) Infinitely many D) Zero So intuitively it is quicker to know the explanation (from College Board) Any quantity that is positive or negative in value has a positive value when squared. Therefore, the left-hand side of the given equation is either positive or zero for any value of x. Since the right-hand side of the given equation is negative, there is no value of x for which the given equation is true. Thus, the number of distinct real solutions for the given equation is zero. But if you don't it only takes about 10 seconds to plug in the equation too see there are zero solutions. Here is another easy problems using Desmos: In the xy-plane, a line with equation 2y = 4.5 intersects a parabola at exactly one point. If the parabola has equation y = −4x2 + bx, where b is a positive constant, what is the value of b ? The College Board explanation is: The correct answer is 6. It’s given that a line with equation 2y = 4.5 intersects a parabola with equation y = −4x2 + bx, where b is a positive constant, at exactly one point in the xy-plane. It follows that the system of equations consisting of 2y = 4.5 and y = −4x2+ bx has exactly one solution. Dividing both sides of the equation of the line by 2 yields y = 2.25. Substituting 2.25 for y in the equation of the parabola yields 2.25 = −4x2 + bx. Adding 4x2 and subtracting bxfrom both sides of this equation yields 4x2 – bx + 2.25 = 0. A quadratic equation in the form of ax2 + bx + c = 0, where a, b, and c are constants, has exactly one solution when the discriminant, b2 − 4ac, is equal to zero. Substituting 4 for a and 2.25 for c in the expression b2 − 4ac and setting this expression equal to 0 yields But using Desmos it takes less than 30 seconds (and if you type quickly less than 20 seconds) to figure out it is 6 using a Desmos slider tool. You just move it up and down until you can see the answer. This seems like such a huge change. Am I missing something? There is no restriction on using Desmos?

Being able to use Desmos on the ENTIRE Digital Sat Math section seems like such a big change. So many problems can easily be solved by plugging equations into Desmos. It will be interesting how students who are using the Desmos math curriculum end up doing on the Digital SAT. Right now Desmos Math is only available for grades 6-8 and Algebra with plans to expand to higher levels of math.

I had to quickly decide whether or not to take it Thursday night when I tested positive. Quickly researching I found it is effective in reducing serious complications and might be beneficial against long Covid and might lead to testing negative sooner. Last time I got Covid it took a month until the brain fog went completely away. Another consideration is that since it is currently free in the US I decided there was no downside so I called my doctor's office first thing Friday morning and they squeezed me in for a televisit. My doctor recommended and sent in the prescription right away (so glad my 16 now drives and could pick up the prescription at lunchtime!!!!). However, Paxlovid is NO longer going to be free in the coming weeks or months for everyone in the US as the stockpile the government bought dwindles. It looks like if you have Medicare or are uninsured you will still be able to get it but it is going to go into the commercial marketplace so I predict if you have insurance it will be harder to get since Pfizer is pricing their five-day course of Paxlovid at around $1,400. So the copay hopefully will be reasonable but I think insurance is going to make it harder to get so easily. Overall, I am so glad I took it because I am feeling better (besides the absolutely disgusting aftertaste that doesn't go away). I am curious when I will start to test negative. Last time it took until around day 14 or 15. I am hoping by taking Paxlovid I might be somehow less contagious sooner so no one else in my family gets Covid.

Tested positive Thursday night started Paxlovid Friday morning. Felt awful Friday but so much better Saturday. The only drawback (and I don't think that everyone gets this reaction) is the incredibly awful taste in my mouth that won't go away. No amount of brushing my teeth, gargling with mouthwash, or chewing gum makes it go away. It temporary gets better for about five minutes after I do that but then it comes back.

That is really surprising to hear. Perhaps it depends on the dual enrollment class. My older son has around 30 units of dual enrollment and he says that none of those classes are as hard as his AP high school classes. Besides being easier the dual enrollment classes are more straightforward that the AP classes. In dual enrollment you get a syllabus at the beginning of the semester, so know exactly when the tests are, what all the assignments are for the semester, how many points everything will be worth, where to submit assignments, etc. so it is really easy to figure out what to do and when it is due. AP classes at his high school have many more assignments, surprise quizzes, surprise essay tests, homework assignments that need to be submitted different ways (sometimes you hand them in, sometimes you submit them on canvas, sometimes you have to go into a blog and submit them, sometimes you have to go to google docs and share the doc with your teacher), group projects, etc. It requires vastly more executive functioning than dual enrollment college class. On top of being harder, AP classes at his high school do not have grade inflation. It is hard to earn an A and even though the top students are in AP classes at his high school (the school discourages students who haven't been on the honor track from enrolling) many students earn C's. In dual enrollment classes my son has all A's and has easily gotten final grades of over 100% in a few classes from easy extra credit.

He was hired at Spelman first then went back to UC Irvine (I think he might have gotten Ph.D from there.

THIS!!!!! It is so incredibly helpful that the CB and so many other outside sources have prep material. It makes it easy to figure out what you are supposed to be learning. My son took an honors Chemistry class. Neither my husband nor I could help him at all. His teacher was known as being a very nice teacher but a hard grader. Around three weeks into the class my son had a homework assignment he couldn't figure out on a Friday night that was due Monday morning. He tried watching YouTube videos, reading the book, etc. The friends he asked didn't really understand it either. So I found an online tutoring company (Wyzant). The first tutor majored in Chemistry and had just graduated. My son sent her the homework and she responded he needed to send her the other handouts that he was given to solve the homework. But my son wasn't given anything else and there was nothing online. Thinking maybe this tutor wasn't very good, I contacted another tutor who had a Ph.D in Chemistry and was a retired AP Chemistry teacher. My son met with him and they guy said you cannot solve this homework with what you were given (I think he needed a solubility table- I don't know much at all about Chemistry). My son showed me the recording (the tutoring sessions are recorded) after the session. The tutor also was confused at the order he was presenting material. He didn't come out and say anything negative about the teacher to stay professional but reading between the lines it was obvious. Later I asked a mother with a very strong chemistry background whose child was in the class how it was going and asked her about this homework. She said she had to help her because there was missing information. A couple of weeks later my son asked about getting review material for an upcoming test. The teacher handed him another copy of the homework he had already completed. That was it. The teacher did not post anything online that students could refer to and did not hand out any notes or study guides.I signed my son up with another tutor and he basically was puzzled at how little was being explained. So maybe I just don't know enough about Chemistry to know what was going on. Perhaps the teacher is brilliant and there is a method to his way of teaching. I told son we were willing to pay for weekly tutoring, but my son decided that since there is no AP chemistry at his school and students who were straight A students were getting D's and C's, were studying for hours, and were still confused that he didn't want to stay in the class. He said he thought some of the kids who were doing well had parents who could help with chemistry (the parents are doctors, pharmacist, chemical engineer, etc). So he dropped down to regular Chemistry where there were so many disruptive students which was unfortunate. On the upside he had time to take three dual enrollment classes over the school year instead of spending time doing honors chemistry (and his GPA ended higher as well). This is why I think AP classes are so great. Students have more resources when parents can't help them.