JeanM
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Posts posted by JeanM
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Anyone have any idea how critical a calculator will be on the calculator-allowed math section? Is it critical for doing certain problems? Or is it mostly to save time?
I haven't encouraged my oldest to use calculators. They've used & are familiar enough with the relatively uncomplicated TI-30Xa. However, that one is not on the list of PSAT-approved calculators. Last year, I bought them fancy TI Inspire calculators (which are approved) for a class, but they ended up not using them at all. The TI Inspires are so complicated that they might be more of an obstacle than a help at this point.
Do you think they could use the simpler TI-30's or are the test sites absolute sticklers about only calculators from the approved list?
Is the TI-30 a scientific calculator? It looks to me like all scientific calculators are ok:
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I've got a quesiton about the "no penalty" for guessing. So if a student answers only 5 quesions in one section and gets all 5 correct, they get a perfect score? Does the score somehow take into account the questions left blank? Thanks
Yes, the score takes into account the questions left blank. The number of correct answers is your "raw score." So if you only answer 5 questions correctly, the raw score is 5. Then you can use the college board's charts to convert that to a section score and total score. Previously, they started with the number of correct answers, but subtracted out a fraction of the number of wrong answers. Now there is no subtraction for wrong answers. Therefore it is beneficial to the student to fill in an answer for every question, even if it is a random guess. This explains more:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/scoring-psat-nmsqt-practice-test-1.pdf
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My son has flat out refused to prep at all for this test, saying that it would "skew the results" for baseline purposes, lol. Oh well, I mainly want him to see the new format, next year is the year it counts. Sigh.
My ds refused to prep last year (10th grade) too. At the time I told him that was fine, as long as he agreed to do some prep for his 11th grade PSAT. And he is actually doing some prep right now!
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My ds took AP Physics C without a prior physics class. He did have a very strong middle school science foundation and participated in physics-related Science Olympiad events for years before he got to an actual physics class.
My ds also took AP physics C without a prior physics class. We are, however, spreading it out over two years. He did the mechanics part last year and is doing the electricity and magnetism this year.
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The public high school where my dc attend part-time gives the PSAT to all sophomores and juniors. My older ds took it last year with no prep (10th grade). This year he's doing some prep since he's hoping to get a high score. I know the school does a little bit of prep because younger ds is in a 10th grade English class, and they did some practice questions.
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How are you getting the scores for each section with a maximum of 38? The score report in the practice test I used has math conversions scores with a maximum of 760, so even if I take off the zero it is higher than 38. There are also three math subscores but those are 15 points each.
I think this page (http://blog.prepscholar.com/national-merit-semifinalist) explains it reasonably. You need to use the numbers from the reading, writing and math sections. According to this (https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10/scores/structure) those numbers should be in the 8-38 range.
Personally I think it is impressive to see just how confusing they've made the scoring. My ds's high school (part-time) has an annual pizza night when they hand out PSAT scores, explain the scores, and the kids get free pizza. I think this year they're going to have to spend a *lot* of time explaining the new system.
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We are going to ACT route with our junior. I am expecting there to be quite some confusion and adjustments as colleges sort out how to handle the transition in the SAT scores. This way, we don't have to worry either way.
If he were a strong National Merit candidate, I'd hedge my bets and have him do both versions of the SAT. Since DS is not very likely to make NM, we are skipping the entire PSAT/SAT thing.
DS is hoping for NM, but it is not a sure thing by a long shot. He will not be very happy if I tell him to take both versions! I think for now we'll stick with the plan to take the old version in November. If he does take the new version, it won't be for a while, obviously, so he can see what his PSAT and old version SAT scores are before he needs to decide whether to take the new version. If he weren't trying for NM, we'd definitely do the ACT thing!
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My older ds is currently a junior, and we had decided that he'll take the new PSAT next week (no choice really), and then he'll take the old SAT in November. We were at a college info session last week for a reach school, and they clearly said that for class of 2017 they'll accept either the old SAT or new SAT. They did say that they do superscore, but they won't superscore across old/new.
Anyway, I heard today that VA tech is requiring class of 2017 to take the new SAT or the ACT. I checked their website (http://www.admiss.vt.edu/apply/what-we-look-for/), and it does seem to be true.
Luckily ds has no interest in VA tech. Has anyone heard of other colleges not taking the old SAT for the class of 2017?
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Just a word of caution: some colleges require auditing students to pay full tuition. Professors may not be allowed to let any student audit who did not formally enroll as an auditing student, because of liability.
This is a good point. Our local (highly ranked) liberal arts college allows local high school school students to audit classes for no charge. This may not be true everywhere.
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Is it possible that your ds could audit university classes without actually being enrolled? That is what my ds is doing now. His professor is not under any obligation to grade papers or exams, but he has told ds that he will do that for him. When he applies to colleges, we'll list it on our homeschool transcript, but he won't have an official transcript from the school. For my ds, it's working really well so far. He's in a very challenging class, and the discussions go beyond anything we could do at home with him.
Not sure how it will work out for college admissions, we'll have to wait and see (he's a high school junior now).
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Wow, I had no idea that was how they were doing the scoring. I had been thinking that they were adding the two scores (verbal + math) together. Thanks for the info!
As far as test prep goes, my ds also hates Khan academy. Actually he hates doing practice on the computer. He worked through one new PSAT prep book and now he's going through SAT prep. Our tentative plan is to have him take the old SAT in November after the PSAT in October. So he's kind of prepping for both the old and the new right now. Not sure if that's a good idea or bad idea, but hopefully it will work out for him.
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I mostly agree with you. I just wanted to note that even if one isn't aiming for elite/top, APs can still be the way to go. If there isn't a good (which will mean different things to different people), inexpensive college of some sort nearby, or if the student's age or extra -curricular schedules prevent attendance, I'm not sure how else one would fulfill the need for challenging, outsourced classes. Some high school students need other teachers and classmates for challenging input, pressured output, feedback, and discussion. APs can possibly provide much of this, although in imperfect ways. Finding those in non-AP classes is, in our experience, quite rare. When we do find it, we sometimes choose those over AP. Much boils down to the class texts, teachers, and expectations.
ETA: Some students have lots of APs because they are trying to fulfill their own needs, not complete a checklist on a far off college application.
I would add that some homeschool students have lots of APs because it is a way to demonstrate the level of the class. For instance, my ds did physics at home last year. Both he and dh would have preferred to do physics a little differently, but it made sense to aim to take the physics AP exam to "prove" the level of his homeschool work.
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E coli is only a concern when cattle are fed corn.
Water is consumed but not used up, it just gets recycled through the ecosystem endlessly.
I grew up in Florida where there are very few "prairies" but the land can still sustain wild, grassfed cattle. They do taste stronger when lean and grassfed, though.
Actually they've shown that e. coli are found in grass-fed cattle as well as corn fed cattle. I'm not promoting feeding cattle corn, but just trying to correct facts.
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My oldest kids both have an app on their laptop that lets them enter all hard due dates and keep track of class times. The app links to their phones to give alarms for class times, etc. Both also have a binder that holds all their syllabi for the year so they always know where to check for assignment details.
My oldest (12th ) uses a paper planner to break those assignments into daily work. (She has a color coding system that allows her to track each class.) She also fills in application information, appointments, errands, sports practices, girl scouts, logs volunteer hours, etc.
What app do they use? I'm trying to help both my dc find a system that works for them.
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My ds is also prepping for the PSAT/SAT. He's taking the PSAT in October and tentatively thinking about taking the "old" SAT in November. He's worked his way (very slowly, maybe too slowly in my opinion) through one PSAT prep book aimed at the new PSAT. Now he's working through the "blue" SAT prep book. I think he's going to work on that for a week or two and then take the official practice PSAT.
We're definitely not planning to assign any credit or grades.
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I judged debate last year too. I mostly judged public forum, but also did some Lincoln-Douglas. We don't have policy in our region anymore, so while I've heard a lot about it because my son's coach really liked policy, I've never actually seen it. Public forum and Lincoln-Douglas are very different. Public forum is two against two, while Lincoln Douglas is one on one. Public forum is much more grounded in reality. Lincoln Douglas is more philosophical. My older ds has done Lincoln-Douglas for two years and really likes it.
I think they're both very interesting to watch. In our region, the public forum topics change every month, so you move through a lot of topics.
Edited to add: I think debate is a wonderful activity. And while I do complain about the time commitment (for me as a judge), it is definitely worthwhile. I fear I'll be judging for a long time, since my younger son is a freshman this year and thinks he's going to try debate.
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I would say that 3-6 hours covered the time for readings, written responses, forum posts and the video chats.
I would count the research and writing time for the final paper as beyond the 3-6 hours. The paper was in the 10-12 page range. There were deadlines through the final portion of the course for a thesis, then rough draft, then peer reviews on other people's drafts, then the final paper. The final paper was due a few weeks after the end of the regular class assignments, so there was time programmed in to finish writing.
Asia topics are commonly occurring dinner conversation at our house, so it's hard to parse exactly what was for class and what was just normal discussion.
Thanks, this sounds great!
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This looks great! They say 3 to 6 hours per week. Does that sound like what your son did?
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When I googled the article, I actually got a critique article instead. The critique version pointed out that Harvard has a much smaller percentage of homeschoolers then the general population. Which means it doesn't give you a leg up for Admissions. But, that girl took ... I think it was Harvard extension classes, and also classes at 'their' community college.
This happened to me too. This:
https://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/homeschool-got-me-into-harvard-the-missing-facts/is the article that I started reading.
I'm wondering about her numbers, since she says, "Yet homeschool graduates make up far less than 1% of the students at Harvard, despite the fact that as of 2011, 3.4% of students were homeschooled." If 3.4% of all K-12 students are homeschooled, I would bet that a significantly smaller number are homeschooled for high school. At least where I live, the number of homeschoolers drops when the kids hit middle school, and drops much further when they hit high school.
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Does he need to take both AP Physics 1 & 2 tests or if he takes and gets a good score on just the Physics 2 is that considered obvious that he mastered the material in Physics 1?
My understanding of the new Physics 1 & 2 is that physics 1 is mostly mechanics, while physics 2 is more electricity/magnetism/fluids. Physics 1 & 2 are both algebra based, while physics C mechanics & physics C electricity and magnetism are both calculus based. So no, getting a good score on physics 2 doesn't mean that you've mastered physics 1, since they cover different materials. Physics 1 and physics C mechanics are overlapping. So getting a good score on AP physics C mechanics would make a physics 1 score unnecessary. Really, the physics you can take is mostly limited by where you are in math.
FWIW, my ds took AP physics C mechanics last year without having taken prior physics, and he's doing AP physics C electricity and magnetism this year. Some people do both in one year, but we are spreading it out since he has not had prior physics and because he would rather put more time into other subjects, like history. For my ds, who plans to major in history in college, it would be nice if he got college credit for his APs, but it's not really a big deal.
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I would say that allergy shots made a significant difference to me. I had shots once a week for about 5 years. It was easy when I started because it was a 5 minute walk to the clinic. I ended up stopping mostly because it got really difficult since I was no longer working nearby, and I had to bring ds with me. I haven't had any shots for about 14 years, but my allergies are much more manageable now. I used to take antihistamines daily for months, and even in the winter I would have issues sometimes from dust or animals. I don't take antihistamines at all now, unless the tree pollen gets really bad in the spring.
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My ds took the PSAT in 10th grade and did no prep at all. However, he had taken the SAT previously for a talent search, so he was familiar with the test. This fall he'll take it in 11th grade, and he is (will be) doing prep since he is borderline for national merit. At least he was borderline on the old PSAT. It's hard to say where he is with the new PSAT.
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Which book do you have? I've bought two PSAT books, but neither are from the College Board. I've got one Barron's and one Princeton review. The Barron's book is the only one ds has looked at so far, and it did have a way to calculate the score. I assumed the Princeton review was the same way, but I just looked and it does not have any way to calculate a score. I was wondering if we'd be better off buying books aimed at the new SAT, rather than the new PSAT, but maybe not.
I will say that the score calculation is probably fairly random because there is very little data out there. And since it is impossible to know what the cut-off for National Merit will be with the new PSAT, it is hard to interpret what the scores mean anyway. I'm just assuming that ds needs to do as well as possible.
By the way, does anyone have a clue as to why they would change the number of multiple choices from 5 to 4? In conjunction with eliminating the penalty for guessing, it seems like they're making guessing more rewarding.
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You fill out one Fafsa for each sibling. The form asks for the income of the parents and the student. It does not ask about sibling income. The two are independent for that. Child A getting a job (or scholarship) will not affect Child B. The form asks how many students are in college (for the family) at the same time and that sometimes needs to be officially verified (other times not). Tax forms verify income.
Thank you! That seems very clear.
PSAT - next week
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
They're starting late here because school starts late on Wednesdays so they haven't started yet. DS left at 8 am, but I think he said the test is starting at 8:40.