Are students supposed to prep for TJ admissions exam

[Anonymous]

Please excuse the stupidity of my question but I’m not in social circles with many parents of kids interested in pursuing TJ. We don’t have any plans for DC to take courses to prepare, but are there workbooks or sample questions I should get for DC to practice?

[Anonymous]

No. It is questions about portrait for a graduate skills - just have your kid think about how those apply to them. And then some type of math or science word problem. It is not something you really prep for now.

[Anonymous]

We began preparing our child for TJ (or any high school) as early as 2nd grade, using these math and English resources, continuing through middle school:

IXL math workbooks and can use the free IXL website as a companion:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947569503

English reading comprehension:
https://www.amazon.com/Comprehension-Nonfiction-Identifying-Homeschool-Curriculum/dp/1483812162/

Variety of library books for reading material, at least 1 hour every single day

STEM activities and competitions involvement all through elementary and middle school.

Our student completed Algebra 2 in 8th grade, and is confident taking on the TJ curriculum.

Admission to TJ is a lottery process with short essay, but survival after entering TJ is completely dependent on the academic preparation starting in 2nd grade.

Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

There are free online resources with sample questions you can take a look at. Just google it

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I appreciate the info and suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Time seems to be a real factor for the test, my DC barely finished and many students reported running out of time before answering all of the questions. DC had taken some "practice tests" with a timer beforehand, as had they.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Time seems to be a real factor for the test, my DC barely finished and many students reported running out of time before answering all of the questions. DC had taken some "practice tests" with a timer beforehand, as had they.

Where did you get practice tests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Time seems to be a real factor for the test, my DC barely finished and many students reported running out of time before answering all of the questions. DC had taken some "practice tests" with a timer beforehand, as had they.

Where did you get practice tests?

A lot of the prep centers have developed question banks if you can afford those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Time seems to be a real factor for the test, my DC barely finished and many students reported running out of time before answering all of the questions. DC had taken some "practice tests" with a timer beforehand, as had they.

Where did you get practice tests?

There are some old test questions online. You can build a practice test from that.

[Anonymous]

Keep up with advanced math, solid English reading & writing, and science activities all through elementary and middle school.
Skipping the years of middle school hardwork, and preparing just for a five line essay is a recipe for struggle at TJ.

[Anonymous]

We did not.

However, DS did find YouTube videos of the past test question from years ago online, and watched those for free.

Mostly his friends at Longfellow all talked about TJ and that’s why he applied and got in.

Please don’t force your kid to go if they don’t really want to be there.

[Anonymous]

Longfellow is a STEM middle school. Lot of kids focused on advanced math and science learning and club activities, similar to TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please excuse the stupidity of my question but I’m not in social circles with many parents of kids interested in pursuing TJ. We don’t have any plans for DC to take courses to prepare, but are there workbooks or sample questions I should get for DC to practice?

Honest answer is that it now depends where your child goes to middle school.
If applying from a middle school that has lots of TJ applicants then it’s best to prep as much as possible because the competition for admission is against that smaller selection pool rather than county-wide.
If your DC goes to an fcps middle school that is currently and traditionally underrepresented at TJ, they have a much better shot at getting in without prep.
Equity admissions hits different depending on where you sit.
And that’s the straight talk.

[Anonymous]

For sure if you are at Cooper and you want to go you need to do a prep class during the winter break before the test.

Most kids that don't do that will get waitlisted.

[Anonymous]

DS will work with a writing tutor this summer. He loves math and is interested in TJ but his writing is not great and his responses to prompts for school have been lacking, at least to our eyes. We figure working with a writing tutor on how to quickly think through prompts and complete self edits is a great skill that will serve him well in school as well as on the TJ exam. We have been working on it at home after a few tests came back with Bs, nothing that is awful, but easily improved by discussing how to address the prompt completely and connect thoughts to show mastery.

I have no worries about the math or science essay; he does math essays in his competition group on a regular basis.