07.07.08
Posted in COLLEGE, The nuts and bolts of it at 2:40 pm by Meg
It’s watch the mail time again in our household. Why? because Boy took the AP microeconomics exam last May and the grade should be coming any day.
Keep your fingers crossed. He needs a 4 or 5 for Trinity to count it.
We could pay Collegeboard and get the score over the phone, but we’ve already sent more money to them than I’m happy with. We’ll wait.
And it’s not fun waiting. After them losing Boy’s statistics test last year, I’m sitting on pins and needles waiting for it to happen again.
So, while I’m sitting here watching the days tick by, JoVE had to send me a link to an article by a guy that graded the AP US History test. (BTW, it’s the Chronicle and I don’t know how long there will be free access to it.) It’s interesting reading his tale of the experience.
But what caught my attention was a passage about AP courses in high schools.
I had always thought of AP as an honors program, so I’m mystified by how many dismal essays we endure. I ask around and get a range of answers. Some say that entire school districts now put all kids into AP classes. Others say that students elect to take AP classes for the extra point it adds to their GPA. Others blame No Child Left Behind. One describes the test as a “cash cow,” implying that fee revenues encourage the College Board to allow anyone to take it. …. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Advanced Placement no longer necessarily denotes academic excellence and that many students with very little aptitude take AP courses and tests.
It reminded me of our last exchange student. Part of the exchange program rules is that they have to take US History and English. They put poor Tochter into AP US History. Makes a lot of sense to me?
Anyway, she did alright - basically - until it came time to do the final. Note that this wasn’t the AP test, just the final for the course. She was feeling very lost and confused and so I told her that I’d help her study (figuring that since Boy and I had covered it the previous year, I should be alright to be able to answer her questions and direct her to what she needed.)
So we sit and she pulls out a sheet of paper.
“This is what’s going to be on the final.”
“okay, that will help us know what to study.”
“No, these are the essay questions that will be on the final.”
“So, you just need to know how to answer these 10 questions?”
“Actually we have to answer these first 3, but then we can choose any 3 of the remaining 7.”
But wait, that wasn’t the only thing (and btw, this wasn’t special instructions for her, it was for the entire class.) It turned out the they could bring in a 8.5 x 11 in. cheat sheet with whatever they wanted written on it.
AND THIS WAS AN AP CLASS!
I was floored. So, now reading this grader’s comments, I have to say I agree with him.
Permalink
06.29.08
Posted in COLLEGE, The nuts and bolts of it, Books at 10:51 am by Meg
If this works, you should be able to click below to view a list of everything that Boy has read over the last 4 years. Not just the ‘good’ stuff that we included in his course description.
List
Edited later: To follow up on Applestars question about why I didn’t have him list comic books and graphic novels - he ‘thinks’ he has about 3000 comic books and 200 graphic novels. Way too much to list.
Permalink
06.27.08
Posted in COLLEGE at 10:12 am by Meg
Trinity wants a copy and so for completeness, I figured I’d put it here (and update the page on the side)
I’ve been dragging my heels getting this done.
With this final transcript we are not resending the course descriptions - yeah, there’s some changes and more books to be added, but it’s not worth it for what is primarily a rubber stamp indicating that he did finish high school.
For fun, I thought I’d also post his entire actual reading list that includes all the ‘good’ stuff as well as the junk - the only thing that would have been missing were the comics and graphic novels of which he has an amazing collection built up. (I just bought him more sleeves and cardboard for storing them in and he wanted 200 to bring him up to date and have some to fill.)
But trying to take the file I have and get all 227 books to post on here properly (without having to retype them all in) is taking too much fiddling. So until I can figure out how to import an Excel spreadsheet in mass, you’ll have to take my word.
Permalink
06.16.08
Posted in COLLEGE at 11:00 am by Meg
Anyone remember that Boy was waitlisted by two schools?
Well, we haven’t heard anything else from one, but Tulane is still checking in with him regularly if he might still be interested.
Yeah, it is 6 weeks after that May 1 deadline…you’d think it would be settled by now. And it really is on our part. Boy is happily looking forward to San Antonio in August. But we figure it doesn’t hurt to see what might get thrown at us, so we’ll play along with Tulane.
As it happens, what we are seeing is playing out all over this year. Just a week or so ago, the Chronicle has a long article about how nearly everyone is digging into their waitlists to come up with ‘full’ classes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
06.05.08
Posted in COLLEGE at 11:29 pm by Meg
I just wanted anyone coming over here looking for high school info to be aware that JoVE is having a fascinating discussion about grading and transcripts.
Now, yes, she’s looking at it from a Canadian pov, but having an ear in on her thoughts as she develops some idea of what she’s going to do opens up discussion points that aren’t contingent on which country you live in.
It’s well worth dropping by.
Permalink
