First Steps Towards College

Not quite sure we're ready for this but the first steps towards college have been taken. Sweet Pea took the PSAT at the local high school yesterday and it sounds like it was quite the interesting experience. It also reaffirmed for her that there's a reason she chose to homeschool high school and she's glad that she chose this path. She was in a room that was a mix of public school kids and homeschool kids, including a good friend of hers. Among the interesting things that happened - the public school kids were reminded the day before the test that they had to bring a pencil and calculator if they wanted to use one. Guess they forgot as a few of them showed up with out either a pencil or calculator. They were admonished for forgetting, told they were setting a poor example for the homeschool kids (yes, the proctor really said that), given a pencil and told if they didn't bring a calculator, they would have to do without. You would think for all the standardized testing they do in the public schools these days that they would remember a pencil for a testing day! You would also think that they would be able to follow directions about how to fill out forms and sit quietly. Apparently not.

On the good side, after the nerves of just having to go over to the high school, Sweet Pea said she thought the test itself went well. She felt a bit rushed on the last part (a few things happened, like the class bell going off, that distracted her) but overall felt she did well. We'll get her scores in December along with her testing book and will see how she did then. Sometime in January, we'll start prepping for the SAT she'll be taking in May. We did very, very little prepping for the PSAT but want to make sure she's ready for the SAT. Her goal is to do well enough on it the first time that she only has to take it once.

So I guess now the college mail and emails will start coming in and a few more colleges may pop up on her list of ones to think about. Hopefully none of them will have any surprise requirements for homeschoolers. We've mainly been focused on one or two schools and they really don't require anything extra of homeschoolers. If she needs to take an SAT subject test, we'll have to figure that one out when we get to it and hopefully any that are required will be ones that don't need a lot of studying. I think the bigger issue here is fitting them in at this point. She's got a busy summer ahead and if she needs to have the testing done before applying, it could be tough to fit in.

So the first steps have been taken, now we need to see if there's more colleges she wants to look at, figure out all the testing that needs to be done, fit in some college visits, and keep moving forward. Most importantly, she needs to keep working hard this year.