[Physics SAT2 prep help]

There is a lot of non-mechanics stuff on the test. Actually there are topics that aren't covered in AP physics C even if you take both parts. This link has a list of topics on the subject test:

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/subjects/science/physics

[Thinkwell AP Calc BC?]

Has your son already taken AB calculus? If I recall correctly, the Thinkwell BC calculus assumes you've already taken AB. We thought about using it for my ds, but did not end up using it.

[Can we talk about Apple vs. FBI?]

Unless the government issued the phone to you, the government has no right to the information in the phone.  I'm with Apple on this one.  I'm especially appalled by the tactic the FBI is insisting Apple use to crack the phone.  They want a backdoor program, which they could then, theoretically and practically, use on any Apple phone.  Not cool, Big Bro. Not cool in any book.

 

In this case though, the government did issue the phone. From one article, "The phone at issue is an iPhone 5c issued to Farook by San Bernardino County in his role as a health inspector." I don't agree with the FBI tactics personally.

 

[s/o What should the tax rate be?]

Fantastic post.   

 

I feel like sometimes people just make a lot of noise about inequality, but the substance of their argument falls flat when it simply blames rich people for earning way more than anyone else.  You seem to have reached the heart of what kind of change needs to happen in order to really make a difference.

 

But you said you are in Canada, right? So you already have nationalized healthcare, a much lower Gini coefficient (a measure of equality), and higher taxes on rich people. And I think more affordable college (I'm not sure about that). Would you really want that to go away?

 

In the US right now, it's not the fact that there are rich people who earn more than other people. That has always been true. Right now what I find alarming are the changes that are happening, the middle class shrinking, the ultra-rich increasing in power, food insecurity increasing, etc.

 

[Video about wealth inequality]

My English teacher used to say "revolutions happen when the children start starving".

 

That benchmark would probably do it for me.

 

Sadly it looks like the US is headed that way. According to the NY Times, in 2013 51% of schoolchildren were eligible for free or reduced price lunches.

[Video about wealth inequality]

So - let's just pick on Mark Zuckerberg for a minute.  This guy is not holding any resources (there have been comments about wealthy people hoarding resources).  He created Facebook - out of thin air.  

 

Can someone explain to me how Mark Zuckerberg making money on Facebook has somehow prevented someone else from making money?  

 

Or, how about this - Mark Zuckerberg was able to use something he created to earn more than he ever would have working for someone else.  Consequently, he is now employing many people and he is also paying a *lot* more taxes than someone who didn't create Facebook. Plus, his employees are paying taxes.  As far as I can see, Mark Zuckerberg has done the country a huge favour by making money on Facebook - he is generating wealth for himself and for a lot of other people and he is paying a boatload of taxes.  How is this bad?  How does his accumulation of wealth prevent someone else from becoming wealthy?

 

I have nothing against Mark Zuckerberg personally. I don't even know him. The fact is that he is paying a *lot* less taxes than he would have if Facebook had been invented 50 years ago (impossible, I know). This link (http://qz.com/74271/income-tax-rates-since-1913/) has a nifty tool that you can use to see how the tax rate has changed for various income brackets over time. In 1962 if your income was $10 million, your effective tax rate was 89%. In 2012, the effective tax rate was 34.8%.

 

As far as I can tell, this shifts more of the tax burden to people with lower income. The tax rate has *not* decreased similarly for the middle class. And goodness knows the tax burden is not decreasing. This isn't necessarily stopping someone else from becoming wealthy, but it is making it harder for the average middle class worker to keep his/her head above water.

 

This is obviously a multifactorial problem, and the tax rate is only one of many factors that *may* be playing a role in the increasing inequality in the US.

 

[Video about wealth inequality]

None of it is fair Seeking.

 

:iagree: None of it is fair. Even within the group of people who have MDs, some specialties pay way, way more than others. Some subspecialties that require lots of extra training pay less than other specialties that don't. The pay is not necessarily proportionate to the amount (or expense) of training required.

 

It is interesting that we both find the video important, but what we focus on is so different.

 

I also thought the video is important, but I'm focusing not on a certain segment, but on the change over time.

 

If you look at the fast food industry, according to the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/opinion/andrew-m-cuomo-fast-food-workers-deserve-a-raise.html), "The average fast-food C.E.O. made $23.8 million in 2013, more than quadruple the average from 2000 (adjusting for inflation)." And "Nationally, wages for fast-food workers have increased 0.3 percent since 2000 (again, adjusting for inflation)."

 

The difference between a 300% increase in pay and a 0.3% increase over the same time period is quite large, in my opinion. If this trend continues, how far can it go?

[Can we talk about the idea of free college?]

I'm not sure if I support the idea of free tuition, but I think there do need to be major changes in the system. The increase in tuition is just astounding. This article (http://college.usatoday.com/2014/04/15/study-finds-working-and-paying-for-college-nearly-impossible/) explains:

 

"In 1979 at MSU, a student could work one day for any minimum wage job (8.44 hours) at $2.90 per hour to pay for one credit hour of school. In 2013, the same student would have to work 60 hours to pay for one credit hour based on the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour."

 

I also think that there are big problems in the way that we award financial aid. Students who work hard and save money receive less aid than those who don't. This is so wrong!

[Have you received printed PSAT scores yet?]

DS actually got his paper scores today. He finally got his scores online last week after many delays, so we already knew his scores. He goes part-time to the public high school, and the school handed them out today.

[New SAT testing schedule beginning 2017-18]

In theory, I kind of like the late-August idea. Having summer time to prep, getting scores in well before the early admission deadlines, etc.

 

However, I'm concerned that it would mean fewer testing opportunities locally. The public schools here usually don't open until after labor day, so I'm guessing that they wouldn't offer a late-August date. So they wouldn't have either the August or the January date then.

[SAT subject test for 5th grader]

Just FYI, my dc both took the regular SAT in 7th grade. They were the only non-high school students, and my ds, who was rather short for his age, said he definitely got some funny looks. Maybe a few comments.

 

I know this varies depending on your area, and some places actually have lots of young kids taking tests. My area doesn't, and some kids might find that stressful.

[Have you received printed PSAT scores yet?]

Not here either. We finally got electronic scores earlier this week after much strugle!

[Really interesting experiment on natural vs. other disinfectants. I was surprised at what won.]

This article (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24334094) shows that bleach is much more effective at inactivating norovirus than either hydrogen peroxide or hydrogen peroxide with acetic acid (peroxyacetic acid). Personally in a home with healthy people, I don't routinely use either bleach or hydrogen peroxide for cleaning. If someone in our family was immunocompromised I'd probably handle things differently.

[The Zika Virus]

Show me the proof that such organism exists. I have shared an article in Nature (HIGHLY respected, I know scientists and only know one person who has been blessed with a paper in that journal) that says that if they all died 6 years ago, that the world would go on.

 

Nature is highly respected, but the article you linked is a news article, not a peer-reviewed scientific paper. And within that article there is at least some controversy as to the possible effects of eradicating mosquitoes. From that article, "Views differ on what would happen if that biomass vanished. Bruce Harrison, an entomologist at the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Winston-Salem estimates that the number of migratory birds that nest in the tundra could drop by more than 50% without mosquitoes to eat."

 

It is hard to know in advance exactly how large an effect eradication would have. It's also possible that the act of eradication could have negative implications.

 

This article talks about some of the pros and cons:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35408835

 

[Dual enrollment vs AP?]

Just to share my ds's experience, since he is also interested in history. He took AP European history in 9th grade through the public high school, AP US history in 10th grade, again at the high school. Those are the only two AP history classes that our public school offers. The classes were small - only 9 kids in the AP US history - and had lots of discussions. The big bonus for him is that he now has strong ties to the history teachers at the public school.

 

This year (11th grade) fall semester he audited a history class at a local, highly-ranked liberal arts college. This semester he had planned to audit another history class, but none of the classes that he felt qualified for would fit into his schedule. He did not want to take an upper level history class, even if it sounded very interesting. So our tentative plans (just made today), are for him to take an Edx class or two online this semester. Hopefully he can audit another college class in the fall.

 

Edited to add: I know that not everyone can take part-time public high school classes. It worked particularly well for us because it was free, and ds really prefers in person discussions.

[Taking 1-2 classes at public high school? Experiences?]

Frankly this was a driver for waiting, and just doing dual enrollment. College classes have a predictable schedule and only meet twice a week in most cases. For us, the distance is the same anyway.

 

No joke, the scheduling is difficult. For us, the high school is 5 minutes away and the main campus of the community college is over an hour away. There is a satellite campus of the community college, but very few classes are offered there.

[Taking 1-2 classes at public high school? Experiences?]

My dc are both taking classes part-time at the public high school. My older ds is taking English, Spanish and band, and the younger ds is taking English, Spanish, band and AP European history. The school has basically taken our word on placement. The first year they were hesitant to put older ds as a freshman in AP European history, but they did it.

 

The hardest part for us is scheduling. Because the school uses a rotating schedule, the classes are not at the same time every day. And dc's classes only complete coincide one out of every four days. Luckily we live a 5 minute drive from the school, and if the dc need to be at school when they don't have a class, they can go to a study hall.

[If you do AP exams...]

My older ds has taken four AP tests so far. For two of them, he took the class at the local public high school (they allow part-time enrollment). The other two, calculus and physics, he did at home without an official syllabus. Luckily for us, the school is willing to let him take any AP test he wants, even ones for which they don't have a class.

[PSAT scores]

Has anyone else still not been able to access scores?  I called Monday and was given an access code but am still not able to see this years.  I can see the 2014 scores.  Was told on Monday that the CB representative could also not see my scores and would escalate my inquiry but it would take 5-7 business days.  Meanwhile, I have been checking every day to see if they appear.

 

My ds doesn't have scores yet either. There was a problem with his account and we're also waiting the 5 business days...

 

[PSAT scores]

My ds is still waiting for scores too. The public school where he attends part time says they don't have scores or access codes yet. I just got off the phone with the college board and apparently he didn't get emailed an access code because both his email and his date of birth were incorrect. The email is now fixed, but we have to send photos of IDs with the date of birth to fix that. The guy thought it would take at least 5 days to process the change, so we may be waiting a long time for scores!

 

DS and I just had a talk about the importance of entering information carefully...

[Speech & Debate Moms]

My ds is homeschooled, but takes some classes at the public high school. He participates on their debate team, and the school considers it an extra-curricular, so we're listing it that way too. It is definitely a big time commitment, but definitely worth it.

[PSAT scores]

I just tried, but it is only displaying ds's 2014 PSAT, not the 2015. I'll try later...

[Article: Rush to Calculus is Bad for Students and their Futures in STEM]

The other question is...Am I reading this correctly?  A student can SKIP Calculus AB and just do BC?  Is that correct?

 

In my experience, this depends on the class. Way back when, my public high school gave a choice of AB or BC. Our local public high school only offers AB, but students who are interested can take BC the following year online. The online BC is a one year class that assumes you know everything from AB calculus. I'm pretty sure that I've seen some other BC calculus classes that have AB calculus as a prerequisite. My older ds decided he really wanted to do BC in one year, so he did it at home instead of at the public school.

 

[Big Picture Goals for 2016 with your AL?]

My kids are getting older. For my 16 year old the biggest goal is to finalize a list of colleges and apply to them. Also while his writing/notetaking has improved greatly, it could still get better.

 

For my 14 year old the biggest goals involve organization/responsibility. He has not yet figured out how to work towards deadlines and has a tendency to procrastinate too much and then panic.

[Wondering About Transcipt Grades -Numerical or Letter?]

I agree.  I was just asking similar questions an another thread, and I think I have come to the conclusion that I will probably do what all of the local schools around here do, which is a ten point grading scale with no pluses or minuses.  As you say, I think it's probably a good idea to be able to compare apples to apples with other students in your area.  I am going to keep very good records though, and that way if I decide later to change that for some reason, I will have that information.

 

The local schools around here actually used to use a 7-point grading scale, but have switched to a ten-point scale in recent years.  That makes me wonder, why?  Is it just so that more people will have a higher GPA?  To look better on a rating system somewhere?  Who knows. 

 

I'm not really sure how important it is to be consistent with other students in your area. I think it is likely that the homeschool classes won't be viewed apples to apples with the public school classes anyway.