How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes people say or think they've been given the exact test if they're just very well prepared and have seen questions like that before in other tests.

LOL okay Curie rep.


Nice save.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like Curie removed the 8/17 facebook post.

Nothing is ever truly gone. The list of 133 names is still out there.

Yup. I took screen shots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prep or no prep there should be representative racial diversity at a public school.

You cannot expect someone to rise through the ranks if you don't give them the same opportunities. But, I guess for many parents here and in Fairfax, that's not a value they espouse. I'd like to see equal opportunities in a public magnet. Period.

and starts with AAP. Equal opportunities and diversity for AAP.

How do you practically do that other than enforcing race based quotas? Parents with resources White, Asian or any other race will find ways to have a leg up on the competition by helping their kids prepare at home and/or getting outside coaching help.

I believe in quotas. There are plenty of kids who are black who could handle this work. As a whole, this group has been disadvantaged in the US, much like the Indian kids we are talking about are coming from an academically elite class. Let's create an academically elite class of other minorities here. But that can't be done unless they are offered a spot! I would like spots to be set aside to create diversity to make this a place that all students would consider an option. I am white. I want my white kid in classes with all racial groups. I'd like to see a critical mass of black kids, white kids, and latinx kids. I think admission should be holistic for a better environment for all kids and equity in the county. I wouldn't send my white kid there unless there was racial diversity. It's not the real world and the business world demands diversity so TJ needs to figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes people say or think they've been given the exact test if they're just very well prepared and have seen questions like that before in other tests.

LOL okay Curie rep.


Nice save.

ha ha.. this is funny. I don't think it was the entire test. it is possible that there might be few questions that they have practiced from known prior year questions, ACT or similar tests. I just can't believe that TJ test admins leaked the test to one prep center. Considering, most kids who go to this prep center already in AAP, prepare extensively for TJ and still only about quarter of them are qualified for TJ. If test paper is leaked to already smart kids, everyone will score 100% and it will be suspicious right from the start. Well, you don't need to take my word but, if the kids did in fact had leaked full test ahead of time, it won't be random ramblings/venting in some FB forum, it would already be a huge scandal. Thing of this magnitude is very difficult to contain, especially when so many kids are involved. Its simple common sense, and I am not sure why it is so difficult to get it and why there has been so much discussion on this topic.

For anyone with good math/engineering background and practiced enough for similar tests, it is quite common to see questions repeated (or same questions with different numbers) from previous years as teachers/professors are quite lazy and will not come up with new questions every year. Also, at this level (7th grade), with limited number of topics to choose from, it is not easy to prepare 100s of unique questions every year. If you are creating a standard placement test like this one, could you really prepare a totally unique test year after year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes people say or think they've been given the exact test if they're just very well prepared and have seen questions like that before in other tests.

LOL okay Curie rep.


Nice save.

ha ha.. this is funny. I don't think it was the entire test. it is possible that there might be few questions that they have practiced from known prior year questions, ACT or similar tests. I just can't believe that TJ test admins leaked the test to one prep center. Considering, most kids who go to this prep center already in AAP, prepare extensively for TJ and still only about quarter of them are qualified for TJ. If test paper is leaked to already smart kids, everyone will score 100% and it will be suspicious right from the start. Well, you don't need to take my word but, if the kids did in fact had leaked full test ahead of time, it won't be random ramblings/venting in some FB forum, it would already be a huge scandal. Thing of this magnitude is very difficult to contain, especially when so many kids are involved. Its simple common sense, and I am not sure why it is so difficult to get it and why there has been so much discussion on this topic.

For anyone with good math/engineering background and practiced enough for similar tests, it is quite common to see questions repeated (or same questions with different numbers) from previous years as teachers/professors are quite lazy and will not come up with new questions every year. Also, at this level (7th grade), with limited number of topics to choose from, it is not easy to prepare 100s of unique questions every year. If you are creating a standard placement test like this one, could you really prepare a totally unique test year after year?

eehhh... I think where there is smoke there is fire. There have been too many people coming out and saying that they had the questions to the test. All the kids who went to that school previously who potentially gave the test questions to the school should be investigated along with the school and the students who used the questions the following year. All cheaters should be expelled

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes people say or think they've been given the exact test if they're just very well prepared and have seen questions like that before in other tests.

LOL okay Curie rep.


Nice save.

ha ha.. this is funny. I don't think it was the entire test. it is possible that there might be few questions that they have practiced from known prior year questions, ACT or similar tests. I just can't believe that TJ test admins leaked the test to one prep center. Considering, most kids who go to this prep center already in AAP, prepare extensively for TJ and still only about quarter of them are qualified for TJ. If test paper is leaked to already smart kids, everyone will score 100% and it will be suspicious right from the start. Well, you don't need to take my word but, if the kids did in fact had leaked full test ahead of time, it won't be random ramblings/venting in some FB forum, it would already be a huge scandal. Thing of this magnitude is very difficult to contain, especially when so many kids are involved. Its simple common sense, and I am not sure why it is so difficult to get it and why there has been so much discussion on this topic.

For anyone with good math/engineering background and practiced enough for similar tests, it is quite common to see questions repeated (or same questions with different numbers) from previous years as teachers/professors are quite lazy and will not come up with new questions every year. Also, at this level (7th grade), with limited number of topics to choose from, it is not easy to prepare 100s of unique questions every year. If you are creating a standard placement test like this one, could you really prepare a totally unique test year after year?

eehhh... I think where there is smoke there is fire. There have been too many people coming out and saying that they had the questions to the test. All the kids who went to that school previously who potentially gave the test questions to the school should be investigated along with the school and the students who used the questions the following year. All cheaters should be expelled

Like how many kids said they had the questions to the test? One or two people repeating same lie does not make it a truth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes people say or think they've been given the exact test if they're just very well prepared and have seen questions like that before in other tests.

LOL okay Curie rep.


Nice save.

ha ha.. this is funny. I don't think it was the entire test. it is possible that there might be few questions that they have practiced from known prior year questions, ACT or similar tests. I just can't believe that TJ test admins leaked the test to one prep center. Considering, most kids who go to this prep center already in AAP, prepare extensively for TJ and still only about quarter of them are qualified for TJ. If test paper is leaked to already smart kids, everyone will score 100% and it will be suspicious right from the start. Well, you don't need to take my word but, if the kids did in fact had leaked full test ahead of time, it won't be random ramblings/venting in some FB forum, it would already be a huge scandal. Thing of this magnitude is very difficult to contain, especially when so many kids are involved. Its simple common sense, and I am not sure why it is so difficult to get it and why there has been so much discussion on this topic.

For anyone with good math/engineering background and practiced enough for similar tests, it is quite common to see questions repeated (or same questions with different numbers) from previous years as teachers/professors are quite lazy and will not come up with new questions every year. Also, at this level (7th grade), with limited number of topics to choose from, it is not easy to prepare 100s of unique questions every year. If you are creating a standard placement test like this one, could you really prepare a totally unique test year after year?

eehhh... I think where there is smoke there is fire. There have been too many people coming out and saying that they had the questions to the test. All the kids who went to that school previously who potentially gave the test questions to the school should be investigated along with the school and the students who used the questions the following year. All cheaters should be expelled

Like how many kids said they had the questions to the test? One or two people repeating same lie does not make it a truth

Why would you assume it is a lie? You sound like a PR person for this school.

I imagine there arent tens of people clamoring to admit they are cheaters. One or two bragging about getting away with it, sure. 25% of the class made up of one school. That is hardly a coincidence. Something is there. I hope they investigate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes people say or think they've been given the exact test if they're just very well prepared and have seen questions like that before in other tests.

LOL okay Curie rep.


Nice save.

ha ha.. this is funny. I don't think it was the entire test. it is possible that there might be few questions that they have practiced from known prior year questions, ACT or similar tests. I just can't believe that TJ test admins leaked the test to one prep center. Considering, most kids who go to this prep center already in AAP, prepare extensively for TJ and still only about quarter of them are qualified for TJ. If test paper is leaked to already smart kids, everyone will score 100% and it will be suspicious right from the start. Well, you don't need to take my word but, if the kids did in fact had leaked full test ahead of time, it won't be random ramblings/venting in some FB forum, it would already be a huge scandal. Thing of this magnitude is very difficult to contain, especially when so many kids are involved. Its simple common sense, and I am not sure why it is so difficult to get it and why there has been so much discussion on this topic.

For anyone with good math/engineering background and practiced enough for similar tests, it is quite common to see questions repeated (or same questions with different numbers) from previous years as teachers/professors are quite lazy and will not come up with new questions every year. Also, at this level (7th grade), with limited number of topics to choose from, it is not easy to prepare 100s of unique questions every year. If you are creating a standard placement test like this one, could you really prepare a totally unique test year after year?

eehhh... I think where there is smoke there is fire. There have been too many people coming out and saying that they had the questions to the test. All the kids who went to that school previously who potentially gave the test questions to the school should be investigated along with the school and the students who used the questions the following year. All cheaters should be expelled

Like how many kids said they had the questions to the test? One or two people repeating same lie does not make it a truth

Why would you assume it is a lie? You sound like a PR person for this school.

I imagine there arent tens of people clamoring to admit they are cheaters. One or two bragging about getting away with it, sure. 25% of the class made up of one school. That is hardly a coincidence. Something is there. I hope they investigate.

Mr. FBI, please gather facts and present it to TJ, they will surely look in to it. You sound like an agent of one of their competitors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes people say or think they've been given the exact test if they're just very well prepared and have seen questions like that before in other tests.

LOL okay Curie rep.


Nice save.

ha ha.. this is funny. I don't think it was the entire test. it is possible that there might be few questions that they have practiced from known prior year questions, ACT or similar tests. I just can't believe that TJ test admins leaked the test to one prep center. Considering, most kids who go to this prep center already in AAP, prepare extensively for TJ and still only about quarter of them are qualified for TJ. If test paper is leaked to already smart kids, everyone will score 100% and it will be suspicious right from the start. Well, you don't need to take my word but, if the kids did in fact had leaked full test ahead of time, it won't be random ramblings/venting in some FB forum, it would already be a huge scandal. Thing of this magnitude is very difficult to contain, especially when so many kids are involved. Its simple common sense, and I am not sure why it is so difficult to get it and why there has been so much discussion on this topic.

For anyone with good math/engineering background and practiced enough for similar tests, it is quite common to see questions repeated (or same questions with different numbers) from previous years as teachers/professors are quite lazy and will not come up with new questions every year. Also, at this level (7th grade), with limited number of topics to choose from, it is not easy to prepare 100s of unique questions every year. If you are creating a standard placement test like this one, could you really prepare a totally unique test year after year?

eehhh... I think where there is smoke there is fire. There have been too many people coming out and saying that they had the questions to the test. All the kids who went to that school previously who potentially gave the test questions to the school should be investigated along with the school and the students who used the questions the following year. All cheaters should be expelled

Like how many kids said they had the questions to the test? One or two people repeating same lie does not make it a truth

Why would you assume it is a lie? You sound like a PR person for this school.

I imagine there arent tens of people clamoring to admit they are cheaters. One or two bragging about getting away with it, sure. 25% of the class made up of one school. That is hardly a coincidence. Something is there. I hope they investigate.

Mr. FBI, please gather facts and present it to TJ, they will surely look in to it. You sound like an agent of one of their competitors

When the FBI gathers facts I doubt they go on about it on a public board.

I hope the appropriate agencies do investigate. Cheaters shouldn't win, if this is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in one of the feeder middle school districts. Kids prep from early elementary. I’m not jealous. I wouldn’t have wanted my kids to go to TJ in a million years. Had I known the lack of racial diversity at my feeder school, I wouldn’t have moved to this neighborhood. Not everyone wants the same things. Get that? Diversity. I want my kids exposed to a variety of viewpoints. TJ has a serious racial bias issue that needs to be solved.

It's two different but extremely important issues that need to be solved:

1) the extreme lack of diversity - not just by race, but of social experience, economic status, and interests beyond STEM

2) the cut-throat, toxic, dangerous environment where students feel they must study for 5-6 hours a night and completely maximize their STEM profile in order to stay afloat

Someone has got to be able to get in these parents' (and honestly, the teachers also) heads and get them to understand that more studying is not necessarily better - and the admissions office needs to model that truism in how they go about selecting their incoming classes. For as educated a parent base as they have, they do not have any concept of opportunity cost or the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Wow, I'm one of the PP's who said not every TJ student preps. This is very eye-opening for me, although I still maintain that not everyone preps. I didn't even know places like this exist. Maybe more people prep than I thought, but I hope this doesn't make everyone think that everyone preps. I know plenty who didn't.

3) That over 25% of the incoming freshman class is coming from one prep company. And that there are current students saying that the prep helped them to cheat. Oh, and that the prep company appears to ONLY serve students with Indian names.

"That over 25% of the incoming freshman class is coming from one prep company". - So what? The number of students who actually enroll here must also be a large percentage of the total number of students who take TJ test. Also preparation from here or any other such place or prepping at home will improve scores on stadarized tests.
"And that there are current students saying that the prep helped them to cheat." This is untrue. They may have used cheat in the sense that they were prepped on the kind of questions that are asked on the test. You can go to Amazon and buy ACT books and prep.
"Oh, and that the prep company appears to ONLY serve students with Indian names" - Again not true. It is open to you and everyone else who can afford to and don't mind spending $4,200.

Finally if your kids are planning to take TJ test and you are serious about it, you have choice of doing self prep or going to one of these places. Or you can chose to do nothing, whine and waste your time here posting unsubstantiated things.

There is troubling information that would show otherwise.

Go to the Curie Learning Center facebook page. Look at the list of names that they posted on August 17th that were admitted to TJ's class of 2024. Please find more than 3 names of the 133 that are NOT Indian. Also, go and look at the TJ Vents page from the July post on the Curie learning center. You will see a student (who appears to be non-Indian) who posted that he was treated poorly at Curie due to his race.

Wow, I'm one of the PP's who said not every TJ student preps. This is very eye-opening for me, although I still maintain that not everyone preps. I didn't even know places like this exist. Maybe more people prep than I thought, but I hope this doesn't make everyone think that everyone preps. I know plenty who didn't.

It is true that not everyone preps. And not all students of Asian descent prep. But this situation is clear and obvious evidence of expensive prep academies that create imbalances in the process which favor a particular race of students. The 133 students here who were successful in getting into TJ, to say nothing of I'm sure the many that weren't, represent over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS in billings for this company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in one of the feeder middle school districts. Kids prep from early elementary. I’m not jealous. I wouldn’t have wanted my kids to go to TJ in a million years. Had I known the lack of racial diversity at my feeder school, I wouldn’t have moved to this neighborhood. Not everyone wants the same things. Get that? Diversity. I want my kids exposed to a variety of viewpoints. TJ has a serious racial bias issue that needs to be solved.

It's two different but extremely important issues that need to be solved:

1) the extreme lack of diversity - not just by race, but of social experience, economic status, and interests beyond STEM

2) the cut-throat, toxic, dangerous environment where students feel they must study for 5-6 hours a night and completely maximize their STEM profile in order to stay afloat

Someone has got to be able to get in these parents' (and honestly, the teachers also) heads and get them to understand that more studying is not necessarily better - and the admissions office needs to model that truism in how they go about selecting their incoming classes. For as educated a parent base as they have, they do not have any concept of opportunity cost or the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Wow, I'm one of the PP's who said not every TJ student preps. This is very eye-opening for me, although I still maintain that not everyone preps. I didn't even know places like this exist. Maybe more people prep than I thought, but I hope this doesn't make everyone think that everyone preps. I know plenty who didn't.

3) That over 25% of the incoming freshman class is coming from one prep company. And that there are current students saying that the prep helped them to cheat. Oh, and that the prep company appears to ONLY serve students with Indian names.

"That over 25% of the incoming freshman class is coming from one prep company". - So what? The number of students who actually enroll here must also be a large percentage of the total number of students who take TJ test. Also preparation from here or any other such place or prepping at home will improve scores on stadarized tests.
"And that there are current students saying that the prep helped them to cheat." This is untrue. They may have used cheat in the sense that they were prepped on the kind of questions that are asked on the test. You can go to Amazon and buy ACT books and prep.
"Oh, and that the prep company appears to ONLY serve students with Indian names" - Again not true. It is open to you and everyone else who can afford to and don't mind spending $4,200.

Finally if your kids are planning to take TJ test and you are serious about it, you have choice of doing self prep or going to one of these places. Or you can chose to do nothing, whine and waste your time here posting unsubstantiated things.

There is troubling information that would show otherwise.

Go to the Curie Learning Center facebook page. Look at the list of names that they posted on August 17th that were admitted to TJ's class of 2024. Please find more than 3 names of the 133 that are NOT Indian. Also, go and look at the TJ Vents page from the July post on the Curie learning center. You will see a student (who appears to be non-Indian) who posted that he was treated poorly at Curie due to his race.

If over 90% of students are Indian, the results will also reflect the same. There was an academy that had majority Chinese (Sunshine?), results there will also reflect the same. I have heard all the teachers are non-Indian except for the guy who runs the center. So if someone was mistreated he/she should have reported and got a resolution.

The videos that are on their website and facebook page would suggest that pretty much ALL of the teachers are Indian.

[Anonymous]

Indian dad here. I was born in India but raised in Northern Virginia and grew up in the American school system (I did not go to TJ, a matter which I still hear about from my parents). While my family is relatively liberal, we do still belong to Indian social circles here and many parents are very upset that the Curie "secret" has been exposed to the greater community through that idiotic Facebook post.

Word is that their revenues were significantly down because of COVID - all of their promotional stuff shows kids crammed into tiny classrooms - and so they decided to push out this Facebook post to try to get people to commit to the TJ 7th grade program. They're working on an online program as well that can be accessed by students overseas whose families have not moved to America for TJ yet - there are a good number of these families who had plans to come here but have halted temporarily due to COVID.

There are also families who believe that Dr. Rao provides this service for free to family friends, which is a subject of some consternation as it's well understood to confer a huge advantage in the TJ process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Indian dad here. I was born in India but raised in Northern Virginia and grew up in the American school system (I did not go to TJ, a matter which I still hear about from my parents). While my family is relatively liberal, we do still belong to Indian social circles here and many parents are very upset that the Curie "secret" has been exposed to the greater community through that idiotic Facebook post.

Word is that their revenues were significantly down because of COVID - all of their promotional stuff shows kids crammed into tiny classrooms - and so they decided to push out this Facebook post to try to get people to commit to the TJ 7th grade program. They're working on an online program as well that can be accessed by students overseas whose families have not moved to America for TJ yet - there are a good number of these families who had plans to come here but have halted temporarily due to COVID.

There are also families who believe that Dr. Rao provides this service for free to family friends, which is a subject of some consternation as it's well understood to confer a huge advantage in the TJ process.

The bolded part is the biggest thing that bothers me. TJ should serve people who are real Fairfax residents and not those who move here in middle school solely for TJ. They should heavily scrutinize the applications of those who moved into the district in 7th or 8th and then applied to TJ. Or, they should give some sort of boost to kids who have been in FCPS from at least mid-elementary through 8th.

[Anonymous]

Why would people from overseas be planning to go to TJ?
Unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would people from overseas be planning to go to TJ?
Unacceptable.

This has been happening for decades and became extremely popular when US News and World Report started putting out rankings of the best high schools in America. The massive South Asian immigration to Northern Virginia (not just from India, but also from other parts of the US) happened in part because of these rankings and a false belief that a degree from TJ is a ticket to an Ivy League school (fewer than 10% of TJ graduates attend Ivies).