kodokan

Last year, I had my freshman son take his first run at the PSAT (he likes exams and is amiably biddable, so it was easy enough to to do). I thought this was a fairly mainstream if slightly-helicoptering parent thing to do for kids who have a good shot of making National Merit in a couple of years - after all, I'd only picked it up as a suggestion from a college planning website, so figured all the American parents knew this as a given.

I was slightly surprised, therefore, to find that out of a year group of over 900 - it was a very big school, in a 'good' area - my son was one of only 9 freshmen to turn up on test morning.

I also don't see why, if he's taken a course of study at high school, he WOULDN'T then take whatever exam is around that might give him credit somehow or get him out of college compulsories: APs, subject SATs, CLEP, whatever. It's probably our UK O level/ GCSE background - I don't see it at all as a big ask to have to do a bunch of exams at year-end, whereas parents I've mentioned it to shudder at the notion of a do-or-die test rather than a continuous assessment grade based largely on turning in homework regularly and participating in class.

Excellent top tip! Shall remember that nearer the time.

markcst

Thanks for all the replies, especially from PF. As it happens son is going big on APs, that's our tactic as well as the "he's got English GSCEs" with the admissions of the universities. SO the special path would be useful...

As it happens we have something similar to a GPA report from his current UK school as they have a system that supported the now defunct E-Bacc. The councillor we saw in his Frisco School found this really useful. He's a smart kid and is going to work with his teachers to get on as many APs as he can. He's checked out the AP exams and reckons he could pass a couple already.

We got our visa in 10 actual minutes of being in front of the booths at the Embassy, but a 5 hour stay (because the computers were down for 4 hours). Their tactic to clear people through the emabssy seemed to be to process most people with two questions at most!

Oh and I don't have $700 x 4 in my pocket right now! I will have to have cheap android phones until I have sold my house and furnished my new one!!!

Now the hard work of actually moving and saying goodbye to loads of stuff...

Phone calls to PetairUK, T-Mobile, My US Bank, Moving Company, house Clearance company, airline etc all to do tomorrow...

mrken30

If you still need a UK number for a while, you may want to look at togglemobile . It's cheap and allows you to have a UK and US number on the same phone. You can then port your number at a later date. you will need to do this before you leave the UK

hungryhorace

Just get a Three SIM. It's free to receive calls on their PAYG service on your UK number in the USA. Bargain!

mrken30

If you go down this route, might want to consider a dual sim phone.

markcst

I have Three. They give you 60 days a year international roaming and then turn the service off. (officially they give you less in their T&Cs).
We plan on using it for a month max, and then we will got T-Mobile. I'm used to cheap telecoms getting a lot of it for free or heavily discounted through my job. Not any longer...
Three have also just changed their policy, you now have to call them to enable the service. You used to be able to do it online, but not anymore. They check where you are calling from...

hungryhorace

I've been here 3 years, and have only had my 3 service barred from Roaming once. It's really easy to work around, you just change the SIM card.The block is done at SIM card number. Simple.

kodokan

By the time he arrives, he'll have missed almost half the school year - has he started studying for these already? Do you have a good online program for this? I'm thinking of doing an Associates Degree for fun, and it'd be nice to do a quick bit of study and test out of some credits for things I already know well, like English and French, or use them as evidence of prerequisites to get a better class placement.

Dotty70

Hi Hungryhorace,
My husband and I have been here for 3 months and 2 weeks and we are using Three. We keep wondering when our roaming will be switched off!!! The Three shop told us that we would definitely get 3 months and after that we could send our sims back to England for them to be used in the UK (by a family member) and then put them back into our phones in the U.S. again.
Did you mean that you can just send off for a replacement sim from three?
Many thanks for your help,
Dotty

hungryhorace

Ignore the idiots at the store; they probably have about 3 GCSEs between them.

Just keep using the SIM until it (finally) gets barred. You'll get a text message a few weeks ahead of time BTW.

I travel to the UK regularly, so last time I was back I just picked up a replacement SIM. Worked a treat!

Dotty70

Cheers for the reply, did you just pick up a replacement sim with the same number?
Might get my son and his gf to pick up replacement sims for us both before they come in December!

hungryhorace

Yep, I did. Exactly. Definitely ask them to bring over a couple of sims for you, just in case. You can always just activate them as new numbers, and then the clock resets remember.

MsElui

im in mckinney - so on the same side of the 121 to you- just the next town over on the east. We have been here 18 months. Liking it very much and happy with the move. shout if there is anything you need local suggestions for. (i can for example tell you about a local brit who runs a garage door repair company and another local brit who services air conditionining etc. Both very good at their stuff and they were very reasonably priced.

markcst

I've been told to phone CoServ for electric/gas. Anyone got any experience of the amount in dollars of deposit they will want (or any other company will want) for service? Obviously I won't have an SSN for a couple of weeks.