PSAT boot camps (Plano, Princeton, Rice: credit, transfer, top schools)

[stan4]

Originally Posted by tcualum

The cheating my husband saw was Indian students giving each other answers during tests. The teachers would leave the room during tests because they thought they could trust the students. When the professors were gone the students tell each others the answers. He was so fed up with it that after his final test he went to professors and asked him if he realized that they were cheating on the test. My husband is Indian so noticing that it was just Indians cheating wasn't racism on his part. He is an Indian expat who grew up in a country in Africa.

That sounds like straight-up cheating to me.
And what half the soccer team guys would do (all white) in my high school calculus class if Mrs DeSola stepped out to pee.

I think there are scuzzy cheaters everywhere.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by BLDSoon

Lots of things are reserved for College here which i think is part of the problem.

College isn't for everyone anyway and if they taught more advanced technical and practical subjects in high school, those kids that wished to opt out of College could do so and move on to trades and those who went to college would not have to waste time with 'English Composition' and would save some money not paying for fluff coursework. Surely one should know how to write before one goes on to higher education?

No!......."pre-med"/"for majors" O-chem I&II like stan4 is talking about are not taught in high school anywhere. Except maybe The Davidson School etc.

[BLDSoon]

Originally Posted by EDS_

No!......."pre-med"/"for majors" O-chem I&II like stan4 is talking about are not taught in high school anywhere. Except maybe The Davidson School etc.

I know... but what if they did? At least to those students that could handle that coursework anyway? If kids in India can hack it i'm sure ours can too? There's an obsession with age in America that i think holds many of our more capable students back . (you cant teach them that now, they are only X years old etc)

[stan4]

Originally Posted by BLDSoon

I know... but what if they did? At least to those students that could handle that coursework anyway? If kids in India can hack it i'm sure ours can too? There's an obsession with age in America that i think holds many of our more capable students back . (you cant teach them that now, they are only X years old etc)

I agree with that. I completely agree. I think we fail our kids by having low expectations.

And there are some opportunities for advanced high school kids here to take college courses. There's AP.
I had friends who went to the local nearby college for advanced math classes (bc we topped out at college level calculus at my high school).

Ochem is pretty theoretical, though, and wouldn't be a practical course for someone who didn't want to follow the college path.

I think in our country right now, we are more focused on getting the bottom kids to come up rather than help our top kids really excel. I think that might be one reason it's so dog-eat-dog insane at the top. They have so little opportunity to differentiate themselves at the highest offered levels that kids are going nuts gaming the system for their GPAs.

[unexpected]

This has gone off the rails. Brianlife, can I ask you why you are worried about KD/Princeton Review type courses.

I took KD in between the PSAT I took in 10th grade and the PSAT I took in 11th grade. I improved quite dramatically (enough to make the NMS cut-off).

The PSAT you take in 11th grade will represent your daughter's best chance to get college scholarships, so I think it's okay to take it seriously.

On average, I would say that the kids who take KD and take it seriously improve by 100-150 points. If I were in your shoes, I would get your daughter to take a practice test and see what she's capable of. You're not going to turn an 1100 SAT Score into a National Merit Scholar, but if your daughter is scoring 1300-1350+, I would strongly advise for KD/Princeton Review.

I'm very thankful I did KD, I would not have gone to my college without it. You get out what you put in - there are kids who go to KD, then just leave as soon as their parents drop them off (go see a movie at the movies 10, go to the coffee shop, etc.). There were other kids that would just use it as a dating spot (parents wouldn't let them meet somewhere else, but were happy to drop them off at SAT prep).

If you have more specific questions or concerns, you can private message me. I've move on from KD, but I'm back in the Plano-area, and totally look forward to sending my kid there when the time comes. I get the criticism that it's a boot camp, ritualistic, whatever, but I genuinely look back at my memories of KD with fondness and I'm very happy my parents sent me there.

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by EDS_

No!......."pre-med"/"for majors" O-chem I&II like stan4 is talking about are not taught in high school anywhere. Except maybe The Davidson School etc.

Honestly I don't know why it wouldn't be offered at the high school level to those who are interested. My plan with my daughter is for her to take O Chem at the junior college maybe during the summer of her senior year in high school. If nothing else, she can get a taste of what awaits her in college and maybe be better prepared for it (or on the flip side, let her figure out if this road is one she wants to take). Same with at least one bio course (maybe anatomy or something). Yes, not the most exciting way to spend a high school summer, but it will pay dividends down the road.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by BLDSoon

I know... but what if they did? At least to those students that could handle that coursework anyway? If kids in India can hack it i'm sure ours can too? There's an obsession with age in America that i think holds many of our more capable students back . (you cant teach them that now, they are only X years old etc)

The thing is high school kids in India per se wouldn't pass Baylor/UT/Rice/Penn/Harvard/Berkeley etc. O-chem I&II.

Please understand O-chem I&II are the pre-medical washout classes at UT. 4.00+ kids from Plano West, Southlake etc. routinely get there teeth kicked in by those classes.

I'm the dad of a kid who skipped 3rd and 5th grades FWIIW and he's doing well as an adult.


ETA - leaving my fail for all to see I do know the difference between there, their and they're.........in case you were wondering.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Honestly I don't know why it wouldn't be offered at the high school level to those who are interested. My plan with my daughter is for her to take O Chem at the junior college maybe during the summer of her senior year in high school. If nothing else, she can get a taste of what awaits her in college and maybe be better prepared for it (or on the flip side, let her figure out if this road is one she wants to take). Same with at least one bio course (maybe anatomy or something). Yes, not the most exciting way to spend a high school summer, but it will pay dividends down the road.

Well, for one thing, you usually can't take ochem without doing the prerequisites.
That includes college level intro chemistry (2 semesters).

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by EDS_

The thing is high school kids in India per se wouldn't pass Baylor/UT/Rice/Penn/Harvard/Berkeley etc. O-chem I&II.

Please understand O-chem I&II are the pre-medical washout classes at UT. 4.00+ kids from Plano West, Southlake etc. routinely get there teeth kicked in by those classes.

I'm the dad of a kid who skipped 3rd and 5th grades FWIIW and he's doing well as an adult.

(Sadly nodding head) yes I was one of those students who got smashed by O Chem II. But surely that has to improve the argument for offering it in high school? Most kids get through first year chem because they have taken chemistry in high school. If they were offered O Chem then some of them could stand a greater chance of passing? I get that a junior college class may not be quite as rigorous as the same class offered at Baylor or UT, but it cant be a bad thing.

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by stan4

Well, for one thing, you usually can't take ochem without doing the prerequisites.
That includes college level intro chemistry (2 semesters).

But wouldn't scoring a 4 or 5 on AP Chem suffice for the college intro chem?