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| I'll ace it. Trust me. |
It's that time.
Time for me to stress about Clark's fast-approaching adulthood. Time for me to think about the impact of his
less-than-stellar high school grades on his college applications. Time for me to worry about keeping him
focused through SAT prep, or over the course of a half day exam.
Shoot me, now!
Clark, however, assures me all this fuss is for naught. He's gonna ace it.
He always says that.
Right after he learns he has an "F" going into the final
because he has missed too many homeworks.
The problem is that he always HAS aced "it" before. He has passed classes by making near perfect
scores on finals five times in his 2.5 years of high school.
You read that right.
Five times.
No amount of counter-information from me convinces him the
SAT won't be more of the same. He is
predictably and stunningly over-confident.
Ah, how ADHD of him. And how
terrifying.
I look at my man-child, the whisper of moustache on the once
baby-smooth face, the size 11 feet that used to wear Dallas Cowboys booties. Only his big brown Bambi eyes remain the
same. I've never convinced him of
anything before. But this time, I have
ammunition, I have carrots.
A girl. Debate club
competitions. And avoidance of taking the "live" SAT prep class.
Aha! Clark agreed to working
through College
Board's online prep class for half an hour each day before he can spend
time with his girlfriend or work on debate.
He has to finish his homework first, too. All of this with the TV off, after a {gigantic}
snack, and a bare minimum of Facebook.
Ugh. I have to pace behind him
every few minutes to police this last requirement.
Then, he will take the test. No accommodations, no live prep class. If he kills it, he's done. If he doesn't score at a level that helps him
accomplish his stated college goals,
then it is on to live class and possible accommodations.
His goal is, at a minimum, to get into the University of
North Texas, so that he can participate in their Debate program. It is one of the few of its kind in
Texas. His "stretch" goal is
to gain admission to the University of Texas at Austin, which has the same type
of debate team. He believes his stretch
goal is possible. We try to hide our
skepticism. We are just happy (very happy) that he has found an attainable
school that he likes, UNT. And that
prides itself on its success rate with ADHD students.
Clark's Pre-Advanced Placement English teacher recommends
that all kids, especially those with disability issues that are benefited by maturity,
take the SAT no earlier than March of their junior year. Boy do I feel badly for our first three kids
now. They all took it the fall of their
junior year. According to htis teacher,
every bit of maturity gained aids in focusing during the long four hour test. This makes perfect sense to me. She also told me that she and other teachers
at his high school would not finish substantively teaching topics included on
the SAT until then. I am sold.
So, preparations continue, and will continue, for
months. And, if needed, we can request SAT or ACT test accommodations, which may include
individual administration of the test, computerized, audio, or large-print test
editions, or extended testing time. Or
not. We'll see.
In March.
Now, I'm off to monitor Facebook usage!
Until next time,
Pamela, aka Clark's Mom
Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes the Clark Kent Chronicles on parenting ADHD wonder kids, thanks to the crash course given to her by her ADHD son and his ADHD father. She focuses on the post-elementary school years. Visit her blog, Road to Joy, but hang on for the ride as she screws up her kids, drives her husband insane, embarrasses herself in triathlon, and sometimes writes utter nonsense.