I skipped 7th but was just as bored in 8th grade as I would have been in 7th. (though suddenly being the youngest 8th grader had its own survival challenges) Some Ritalin at that stage would have helped but of course that wasn't on the menu then (we had to seek out own medication strategies later on - and I think a lot of that was because if you weren't into hard science or math it was pretty hard to give your brain real excercise) i really found it physically painful to sit in class. Never found high school or college even mildly challenging. Got pretty excited about getting into computers in my mid thirties. Suddenly I found out where the smart kids hung out. I'll never forget going to my first big geekfest and sitting there really enjoying the idea that I wasn't the smartest person in the room.



>They made the mistake of trying that with me later on in my education. I was in the 9th grade and they jumped me up to 10th. I had to go to a separate school entirely (7-9 was junior high then). I sat in every class for 3 weeks staring straight ahead because no one would speak to me. I did absolutely nothing. The counselors spoke with me and I still did nothing. I was absolutely furious. I figured if my grades and tests could move me up, they could bring me back down. Not to mention I was behaving rather immaturely :o) Finally we had a conference and my mom said forget it. I was able to stay with my friends then. A year later we had to move due to my mom's job. The best memories of teenage life are all during that year before we moved.
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>>>>My SATs were pretty good, but I think my getting into Penn had a lot to do with being 15 when I graduated high school.
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>>>>Tamar
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>>>15 ! I had just turned 17 and in retrospect that was about 5 years too young <s>
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>>Yeah, well, they didn't know what to do with kids like me back then, so they skipped us over grades. I skipped 3rd entirely, and did a special program for grades 6-8 in two years. I was the youngest in my graduating class by 6 months.
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>>> I know that in 1964 a 900-1000 SAT wouldn't have got you past the first cut at any kind of competitive school, and I hear that today the competition is much more fierce, but I guess there are many other factors at play now (they kept it simple in the 60s - grades, SATs, legacies and heavy donations)
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>>Again, I can't speak to the new scores. But what I seemed to see 4-8 years ago was that the really top schools were averaging around 1300-1400.
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>>>I was pretty oblivious to all that as just going to college out of my high school put you in the 14% of the grad class to do so and most of that was on athletic scholarships (and didn't result in graduation)
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>>Very different kind of school than I went to, then. I was at Philly's all-girls academic magnet, which was a college prep high school. No business track or vo-tech at all (though typing was offered). I don't remember the stats anymore, but pretty much every girl was expected to go on to college, though many stayed home and commuted to Temple and other local schools.
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>>> College counseling was almost all done by the football coach. <g>
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>>Despite the expectation, the college counseling we got was terrible. Had I had a real college counselor, I suspect I would have gone to a small, liberal arts college. Can't say Penn didn't do well by me, though.
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>>Tamar