09-22-2008, 07:16 PM
Cindy, just a note on the SAT -- he only takes it once and the score will follow him forever, and if it's really good it will open doors, so I would just advise he prep well before he does it.
I don't know how many tests like that he's taken, being home schooled, but it's a skill in itself, so it does take practice. Well, you probably know that.
I took the PSAT's junior year, SAT's senior year, long ago. I didn't take one of those courses that so many people do now, just used the workbook (and did the same for the GRE down the road, the workbooks are good, and cheap!).
Twenty years later, I decided to apply to Berkeley and they let me in with a special waiver (applied in spring, six months after admissions closed), and I asked why, and they said, your exceptional SAT scores. And I got a scholarship. So that high school test came to my rescue and paid off at age 37 ...
It's worth really hitting that practice workbook to get the absolute best showing and not just looking at it as something he knocks out so he can take a class. I mean, he can probably score well enough to take the class without much work, but it wouldn't be his best capability. Kids don't know how much higher education they may want down the road.
I audited a class at UHH, and the atmosphere was very good. Lots of young Japanese-American boys who appeared to be serious about school. Smart articulate people of both genders in the English class I took. Granted it was a senior seminar. Quite a few students from California. If he can get into university it would be a better atmosphere than the community college, not the that CC is junk or anything, but caters to more remedial issues.
Ed to add, if he has any kind of test anxiety, he should put himself under the pressure of timed tests. It's so different when you're not being timed.
I don't know how many tests like that he's taken, being home schooled, but it's a skill in itself, so it does take practice. Well, you probably know that.
I took the PSAT's junior year, SAT's senior year, long ago. I didn't take one of those courses that so many people do now, just used the workbook (and did the same for the GRE down the road, the workbooks are good, and cheap!).
Twenty years later, I decided to apply to Berkeley and they let me in with a special waiver (applied in spring, six months after admissions closed), and I asked why, and they said, your exceptional SAT scores. And I got a scholarship. So that high school test came to my rescue and paid off at age 37 ...
It's worth really hitting that practice workbook to get the absolute best showing and not just looking at it as something he knocks out so he can take a class. I mean, he can probably score well enough to take the class without much work, but it wouldn't be his best capability. Kids don't know how much higher education they may want down the road.
I audited a class at UHH, and the atmosphere was very good. Lots of young Japanese-American boys who appeared to be serious about school. Smart articulate people of both genders in the English class I took. Granted it was a senior seminar. Quite a few students from California. If he can get into university it would be a better atmosphere than the community college, not the that CC is junk or anything, but caters to more remedial issues.
Ed to add, if he has any kind of test anxiety, he should put himself under the pressure of timed tests. It's so different when you're not being timed.