Junior year

[Mo]

Today the US young women did very well.
It would have been better if they had all been in different brackets.
Rebex Ward got the gold.
Sada Jacobson Silver
Mariel Zagunis and Sandra Sassine from Canada were third.
Dagmara Wozniak was in the top 8 having lost to Becca Ward to get in the round of 4. It is tough to have to fence teammates.
The Momster

[4qtrs]

Congrats Mo!

I hate when teammates fence because either way I feel badly about it.

[LordShout]

I didn't fence in HS but I did compete in other sports and took a full academic load (entered college as with >28 credits) so I know the stress feeling.

Here's my advice, three things will make or break your AP jr year schooling:

1: Your ability to get hw done FAST. If you can't take notes and do your hw at the same time in class I'm sorry, but you'll have to pick one. In my opinion the better pick is doing hw in class. If your hw is done in class than you don't have to do it after class, you don't need the notes, if you've actually done all your hw you probably don't need to study too hard for the tests and thus can get by without notes. Learn to read the textbook and get the important information out of it (will help a ton in college).

2:AP tests aren't as hard as they seem. Yes the topics are broad, yes the questions depend that you have covered the topics in depth. However thanks to the extreme level of partial credit you can receive you don't need perfection to achieve a good (3+) score. Learn how the tests are scored, get the Princeton review books and read through them. Learning how the tests are scored will allow you to write an answer that will gain 50% more points with 50% less content.
They don't want you to demonstrate complete mastery of the subject, they want you to make between 9 and 14 general statements about the topic. Their grading rubric makes it so quality doesn't count, one point is usually assigned for the correct answer (on the free response sections) the other 9-14 points are for general statements or important steps. Learn to recognize what they want and predict what will be on the rubric from any given question.

3:ACT/SAT's Review your pre calc and algebra, if you're taking an ap load your biggest danger is sitting down and forgetting how to solve problems you last did in 8/9th grade. If you're taking the ACT's review how to read a graph and the like, thats all the science section is, review basic rules of grammar. Had I taken that grammar advice I would have improved my score by a full two points or more. Failing or doing poorly on one subsection will not harm you that bad but does make it very difficult to achieve a 30+ score.

As a side note perhaps someone should make a thread on AP tests so that fencers that are studying the same subjects can get help from another place? There are some pretty smart cookies on this board, tossing a thread up wouldn't be such a bad idea.

[4qtrs]

Foildad,

I thought of you/this thread this weekend while doing college apps with my youngest. So, I thought I would ask how things are going since it is almost half way though the Jr. year?

[Neinteen]

But junior year...

AP classes, labs, maybe a Saturday class, hours of homework every night, community service, PSAT, SAT, SAT IIs, etc., etc.

How have others handled the conflicts?

THis is sooo true. +work, EMT training, other clubs, rawr.

I'm just gonna over pace myself sorta and kinda over-work lol.

[little_old_me]

But as I remind her... everything is DOWNHILL from here! Once she gets into college her life should be a breeze (comparatively). No University lets you take more than 3 - 4 classes/semester and she won't have to comute to fencing practice! Piece of cake!!!

I wish my school would get that memo. Granted, I'm not on a Varsity team, but my major curriculum requires me to take 16-18 credit hours per semester to graduate on time (read that as an average of 5.5 classes/semester). That's not including the one or two 3 hour labs each semester that don't give any credit hours.

[foildad]

Foildad,

I thought of you/this thread this weekend while doing college apps with my youngest. So, I thought I would ask how things are going since it is almost half way though the Jr. year?

Things are going pretty well. He's trying to "do it all" to the extent possible. When academics and fencing clash, academics take priority. His courseload is over the top, 10 classes altogether, 9 solids including 7 APs, so time management is critical. He withdrew from a couple of European events (for example he could be at a cadet designated B today but he's taking the SAT instead) but we've managed two overseas trips including his first Jr. World Cup.

We've got the European trips down to an art: fly to the east coast after school Wednesday, take a college tour Thursday, fly out on the latest possible flight Thursday night, try to sightsee on Friday, skip the team dinner and get to bed early on Friday, fence Saturday, and take the earliest flight home Sunday. Sunday's are hell; up early, and home around 9 p.m. our time which is 3 or 4 a.m. Monday where we began the day. At least he's able to do a lot of homework on the plane.

In short, it's pretty crazy but all is well. Oh, and there's no time for a social life.

Edit: And good luck with those college apps!

[OMCEPKEN]

Well, encourage that your child focus on the things important to him. You only go around once, and if fencing is his passion, then support him. He will make his academics work, and it will help him to remain goal oriented in life.