JeanM
-
Posts
1,334 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by JeanM
-
-
I've had these talks regularly with both dc. Right now my 16 year old is doing reasonably well with his work ethic, although he could do better with his pure homeschool stuff. My 14 year old definitely needs to crack down more. Maybe we need to have another talk...
-
1
-
-
Actually I meant the two sittings, on the 14th and 28th. They want to make sure the tests are equally difficult, and there wasn't an advantage for one sitting or the other, and I could see that being complicated.
Thanks for clarifying. It makes sense that the tests should be equally difficult. I do think they should have thought about that in advance though!
I think she means old and new. Although they have changed the score so much with going to a lower high score and back to just two sections from three, they may have wanted the curve by percentile to look similar.
I'm disappointed that once again they have not made plans in advance for whatever the issue is. I have watched this with some of the AP revisions. They seem to play a lot of catch up, which doesn't build confidence in a megalithic organization that serves as a major gatekeeper to college entrance
:iagree: No joke. I really am stunned that they didn't make better plans in advance. I think my older ds is going to try to avoid the new SAT (and possible headaches related to the roll-out of the new test) by taking the ACT. Hopefully by the time my younger ds needs to take the test (he's a current 9th grader), they'll have figured things out.
-
1
-
-
I am also wondering if the issue is more about correlating the scores for the two tests. There should be a very similar curve between the two tests, and they might be finding that hard to achieve if there was a difficulty level difference. And since they had so little data beforehand they could have easily ended up with unexpected differences in test difficulty.
Are the "two tests" you're referring to the two seatings of the PSAT? Or the old PSAT vs new PSAT? Sorry, I'm having trouble following.
-
Wow. I guess the scores didn't fit the model they predicted.
-
7
-
-
Just FYI in the SAT vs ACT decision, if your student may be in the running for a National Merit Scholarship, he will need to take the SAT at some point.
If you don't want to wait until the spring of 2017, why not take a test (either SAT or ACT) the fall of 2016 first?
-
1
-
-
The CDC doesn't have funding to do research, but it does look like we've got lots of data that is being analyzed. You must not have seen the part where they were able to say the reasons they thought less people were being shot -- police, computer use by the police, less alcohol, less lead, better economy. I'm not even against the CDC doing research, but I've got to say if people aren't even interested in the information we've got, what's the point? I guess if a study was done to pinpoint which gun regulations have helped in which states, I'd be interested in that, but the bottom line is that I have very little trust in research done government-run organizations or anyone with an agenda. I mean, the recent petition by the CDC seems like a political stunt now that I now that gun shootings have massively decreased.
If you look at it this way, highway deaths have also massively decreased. We still have a *lot* of people who die in car accidents. We also, as a country, are still collecting and analyzing information about car accidents. We're researching ways to make cars safer, roads safer, etc. Should we stop all research on that since the number of deaths per year is lower? I personally would prefer to continue research. I'm personally very grateful that our country didn't stop doing research after seatbelts started saving lives. I know more than one person whose life was saved by an airbag. So even if gun homicides are down, I think we still need to investigate who is dying and why. And who is injured and why. Look for patterns. See what works.
Also, while gun homicides have decreased, the number of gun suicides is still increasing. Maybe if the homicide rate is so low, we should look at ways to address that?
According to Pew Research, 85% of Americans support expanded background checks and 79% of Americans support laws to prevent people with mental illness from purchasing guns. It seems like a lot of people here are also supporting both of those too. Congress needs to get that message.
-
1
-
-
That's both aggressive and rude of you.
https://mises.org/blog/mistake-only-comparing-us-murder-rates-developed-countries
My last contribution here is a reiteration of this link and the data. False premises lead to false conclusions.
Is your point in showing this link that our gun death rate is acceptable? That we have done everything possible and lowering our gun death rate is not achievable? Should we really say wow, our gun deaths are lower than those of Mexico so we're just fine?
Setting aside the data, I think (could be wrong here) that the majority of Americans think that the number of gun deaths (accidental/suicide/homicide) here is unacceptably high. The majority of Americans support some steps towards gun control - background checks for all gun purchases for example.
-
8
-
-
Are you willing to give up the right to drive, in order to prevent motor vehicle deaths?
Will you give up the right to have a swimming pool or to take your kids to swim?
If your answer to either of the above is no, does it mean you care more about your liberties than the lives of your kids?
I'm not willing to give up the right to drive, but I am willing to take a test to get a driver's license before I can drive. And I'm willing to register my car and pay for insurance. And I'm willing for that information to be collected such that if a car is in an accident, they can trace it back to me via the registration.
I'm not willing to give up the right to have a swimming pool, but I am willing to put a fence around it. I am willing to restrict who is allowed in the pool and what supervision is required. And I'm willing to pay the extra home insurance cost, if necessary, to have the pool.
-
17
-
-
I still haven't finished planning this year! This thread is motivating me to look ahead though. Next year I'll have a 12th grader and a 10th grader. Some of the things I thought were going to work for 12th are clearly not going to work though. Putting my planning hat on....
-
2
-
-
My 9th grader is doing a mixture of homeschool and public high school.
At school:
honors Spanish 2band
AP European history
honors English 10
At home:
biology
health
math - Life of Fred plus Lial
computer science - kinda sorta - not much has been getting done
Extras:
jazz band
orchestra
swim team
debate team
maybe model UN (hasn't started yet)
-
Perhaps, then the best approach is to have him ask an admission counselor, either on the phone or (probably better) in person at a campus open house or info session (ideally with you hearing the question/answer at the same time, so there's no confusion over what they said, and you can ask a clarification or follow-up question if needed). That way, the answer is coming from an authority from the school in question, and is likely to give you both a better sense of how to proceed. (If he's reluctant to ask, then you can ask, but the idea is that the answer comes from the school, not from you.)
Exactly what I told him! Thanks for the backup.
-
JeanM, my daughter took the SAT in 7th grade, and now in 12th, her reading score went down some too. We had the same thought you did, that she is overthinking the questions. The first time she took it with no prepping before the test, and didn't really know what to expect. She's taking it one more time, and doing lots of practice questions first.
Wow, that sounds exactly like my ds. The 1st time he did zero prep. This time he mostly prepped for math and writing. And his math and writing scores are both more than 100 points higher than his 7th grade scores. He did two practice tests for reading and he seemed to be scoring on target, so he wasn't too worried about it.
-
Did he request that College Board keep his 8th grade scores? Typically they will delete scores prior to high school. I also agree with a previous poster that trying to use scores that old is probably does not reflect positively on the student. When schools superscore I think they are expecting to use junior and fall semester senior year scores.
Yes, fortunately (or unfortunately) we did request to keep his 8th grade scores. He used them to get access to a community college class, so it was worth while. And I also agree that the old score probably isn't helping him. What he thinks is another story...
-
I'm not clear what grade your ds is in now, but I would be concerned that even if he would be allowed to tell it, the story told by "his reading score was higher when he took it in 8th grade" is not a story that would benefit your ds. (I'm assuming here that there was no intervening TBI or other issue that could put the scores in a different light/context.) I would encourage your ds to retake the SAT (with some prep effort towards upping the reading score). He might also want to try the ACT. Standardized tests are no fun, and they effectively suck up a whole Saturday. It is what it is. You can, of course, go nuts on re-takes, which isn't good emotionally and tends to have diminishing returns.. So, yes, there is a time to accept one's score and call it quits, but I'd advise your ds that he isn't quite there yet.
He's a junior now. I really don't think his reading skills have gone down, it's more like he's overthinking the questions.
We just talked about trying the ACT. I think that's an excellent idea, thanks. He's going to try a practice test and see how it goes.
We're also going to see how his PSAT scores look - since that is more similar to the new SAT. If he did better on the PSAT that he took in October than the SAT he took in November, he may wait and take the new SAT next spring.
ETA: His reading score did go down by 90 points, but his writing and math both went up significantly. So his total score is higher than it was in 8th grade.
-
I'm not sure that YOU superscore anything; that is something the schools themselves may opt to do. You just report your test scores to the schools and they do with them what they want. Some schools do superscore, but some do not.
Eta: I would report both sets of scores to the schools.
You're right, I phrased that badly. This is mostly me telling ds that he really can't count on schools using a score that old, and ds really not wanting to re-take the SAT.
-
DS just got his SAT scores from the October test and was a little disappointed in his scores. To be honest, his reading score was higher when he took it in 8th grade. He thinks he can superscore his 8th grade test. I'm going to have him ask his top choice school if they will do that, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with superscoring old scores. I'm guessing that he won't be able to use scores that old.
Now we wait for the PSAT scores...
-
My son is volunteering at the registration desk today. Maybe he will check in a Hive student.
My dc weren't at your son's table (different letters), but they did check in this morning. I've told them that they should volunteer for splash when they are in college since they've enjoyed it so much.
Matryoshka, good luck to your dd!
-
I haven't read "Radioactive Boy Scout," but you could check out "Science Fair Season." We read it out loud years ago and both of my boys enjoyed it.
-
This year is the first year that both of my kids will be at Splash. Last year younger ds went to Spark.
-
Good luck to her and anyone else taking it tomorrow!
-
My ds liked Calculus for cats. I think someone on these boards recommended it.
-
Are there practice tests of both online somewhere?
We bought a prep book that has practice tests of the new ones. Where would I get the old ones?
Also, I can I get clarification on scoring? If she takes a test and scores poorly, then takes it again and scores better, is the first score still "out there"? Also, if she takes ACT and SAT and does better on one than the other, can we choose which one we want to submit to a college, or again, are both scores already out there?
Here is one practice test of the old SAT:https://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-practice-test. I know there are new SAT practice tests out there too, probably both at the college board and at Khan academy.
I'm not totally sure about the answers to your scoring questions. Maybe someone else can answer them. I'd be curious to know the answers too. Actually I'm pretty sure if she takes both ACT and SAT you can choose which one to submit.
-
It's a hard call. My ds (also in 11th) is signed up to the old SAT in November. Then if he wants to take it again, he can do so in January. For my ds, I'd like him to have a chance to take the same SAT for a second time, if he isn't happy with his score. We visited a reach school for him a few weeks ago, and the admissions person said that they'll accept either old or new SAT scores. They also said they superscore, but they won't superscore across old-new. So if he took the old one once and the new one once, they won't superscore that.
Does your dd know what schools she is interested in? Do you know if they superscore? Does she have a preference for the old vs. the new SAT? If she's not sure, taking a practice test of each might be a good idea.
-
My ds also thought the math was easier than the practice math test.
-
1
-
ACT vs SAT
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
I don't know of any ways other than taking practice tests. Taking practice tests right now for the SAT is tricky too, since the new SAT hasn't actually been administered yet so it'll be hard to know how to score the test.