annx33

Hello All: My daughter has a desire to try high school. I've been treating this desire like
other ones and approaching it a day at a time, enjoying our time together looking at different
schools, etc. (Instead of getting all scared, and putting up road blocks as I've done in the
past.) For a couple schools she had to take a test, a pre-college board type test. I felt she
probably needed a test taking tutor to do well, but there wasn't really time. I figured at least
she'd experience taking a standardized state test. Her scores came back very low. I'm not
sure what to do -- part of me doesn't even want to tell her the scores, and I don't really want
to tell the schools either. It's caused a bit of a rif between my spouse and myself, too.
These really low scores to me just reflect dd's inexperience at test taking. To my spouse,
who's an academic and has gone along with unschooling rather reluctantly, these scores
scare her.

OTOH, my daughter seems so happy of late. We're enjoying each other so much, she's
relaxed, doing so much that she enjoys . . . I'm working to put this test and these apps into
some kind of perspective. (And hope it's not going to back fire for her, self esteem wise, etc.)

I've been to Sandra's site about test taking, also, I'd appreciate any thoughts/experience
around this.

Thanks, Ann

Sandra Dodd

-=-For a couple schools she had to take a test, a pre-college board
type test. I felt she
probably needed a test taking tutor to do well, but there wasn't
really time. I figured at least
she'd experience taking a standardized state test. Her scores came
back very low. I'm not
sure what to do -- part of me doesn't even want to tell her the
scores, and I don't really want
to tell the schools either.-=-

Was it the PSAT?

It doesn't matter, really, but there are test preparation books for
the GED and that might be something to get. You could tell her those
are the kinds of things they'll be doing in high school, and if she
looks through them and you help her with the vocabulary, that will go
a long way toward helping her be ready for high school.

And it's possible that if she goes to school and doesn't like it,
having seen that GED stuff (owning it at home, if you buy them) will
give her the confidence that the core material is not all that secret
or mysterious.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Paula Sjogerman

On Feb 23, 2009, at 9:48 AM, annx33 wrote:

> I'd appreciate any thoughts/experience
> around this.


For some things, it really matters what the test is. Some schools
have very specific curriculum-based entrance tests. In that case, her
scores reflect her inexperience with the subject matter they happened
to pick for that test. If it's a more general test, like the PSAT,
there are study guides that will tell you what kinds of things will
be on the test. I would ask her if she wants to know her scores, and
then act accordingly. Practicing for those tests is generally very
helpful. In our case, my daughter - who took the PSAT and the SAT -
mostly studied for the math part because the word stuff comes
naturally to her. She still scored very high on the verbal part and
medium low on the math.

I think it's important to remember how little these scores mean in
and of themselves and to view them as unpleasant obstacles to getting
where you want to go. If that's where you want to go.

Paula

annx33

"Was it the PSAT?"

Yes, it was. We got her a big study book and she went through it for about 10 days prior to
taking the test. We had fun with the guide, actually. When I asked her how the test was,
she said that she wasn't sure if she did very well, but that there was a really cute guy next to
her that loaned her a pencil. . . .

thanks for the suggestions, Ann