Tj prep companies $$$ wow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC attends Curie, and we moved from Kumon for cost reasons. For multiple subjects, Curie is much cheaper than Kumon. Curie as year long grade enrichment for advanced math, english, science and summer courses, has been working well.

But not sure how effective it is to enroll just at the tail end in one month tj essay prep course. Think of this in terms of - how effective would Kumon be if student enrolled for just a month before final exam. Mastering math takes years, not a month or two.

Let us be the judge after you scan all of the materials and share with us.

Curie is 100% comfortable with sharing materials.

Need a Dropbox folder to upload everything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids near me paid that much for a summer camp for a week.

I don't think Curie's class is a 9-4 class. Camps are normal 8-4, 9-4, or 9-5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC attends Curie, and we moved from Kumon for cost reasons. For multiple subjects, Curie is much cheaper than Kumon. Curie as year long grade enrichment for advanced math, english, science and summer courses, has been working well.

But not sure how effective it is to enroll just at the tail end in one month tj essay prep course. Think of this in terms of - how effective would Kumon be if student enrolled for just a month before final exam. Mastering math takes years, not a month or two.

There is a difference between year long enrichment and test prep. Test prep is about 10 hours of instruction on testing format, time management, things like process of elimination and how to guess, and practice exams. Some commenters are basically saying that practice exams are cheating.
If you are learning substantive material that might be useful on a mathcounts competition, etc. then this is just studying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC attends Curie, and we moved from Kumon for cost reasons. For multiple subjects, Curie is much cheaper than Kumon. Curie as year long grade enrichment for advanced math, english, science and summer courses, has been working well.

But not sure how effective it is to enroll just at the tail end in one month tj essay prep course. Think of this in terms of - how effective would Kumon be if student enrolled for just a month before final exam. Mastering math takes years, not a month or two.

There is a difference between year long enrichment and test prep. Test prep is about 10 hours of instruction on testing format, time management, things like process of elimination and how to guess, and practice exams. Some commenters are basically saying that practice exams are cheating.
If you are learning substantive material that might be useful on a mathcounts competition, etc. then this is just studying.

What do practice exams mean? periodic assessments? At Curie, there are upfront placement tests and periodic assessments along the way, and before moving to the next level, similar to Kumon. The overall curriculum is fast paced and high rigor, so these checkpoint assessments help in deciding if student wants to continue to dropout. Considerable number dropout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC attends Curie, and we moved from Kumon for cost reasons. For multiple subjects, Curie is much cheaper than Kumon. Curie as year long grade enrichment for advanced math, english, science and summer courses, has been working well.

But not sure how effective it is to enroll just at the tail end in one month tj essay prep course. Think of this in terms of - how effective would Kumon be if student enrolled for just a month before final exam. Mastering math takes years, not a month or two.

I've heard from several parents whose kids were admitted, that they just signed up for the admissions prep portion. One declined TJ. I think all would have been admitted to Academies of Loudoun without Curie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC attends Curie, and we moved from Kumon for cost reasons. For multiple subjects, Curie is much cheaper than Kumon. Curie as year long grade enrichment for advanced math, english, science and summer courses, has been working well.

But not sure how effective it is to enroll just at the tail end in one month tj essay prep course. Think of this in terms of - how effective would Kumon be if student enrolled for just a month before final exam. Mastering math takes years, not a month or two.

I've heard from several parents whose kids were admitted, that they just signed up for the admissions prep portion. One declined TJ. I think all would have been admitted to Academies of Loudoun without Curie.

yeah, right!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After seeing mentioned here I looked at 2 of the TJ prep companies. Both Curie and TJ Test Prep are about $2k for 6-8 week class (with a self-paced option for about $700). Wow! To read here the prep companies did increase acceptance chances when was old admission standards, but the prep classes still helpful now?

TJ Prep looks all online only and bunch of recordings so if going to pay, would think at least want a direct person that Curie does, but not sure why needed anymore given being in Alg II no longer needed and math test is not what was before. If kid can write a good essay, is that really enough now to apply and then it is the holistic selection?

There is no holistic selection. That is something people say on here to argue against using tests, but that is something colleges do while TJ does not collect any info with which to do a holistic view.

Curie appears to be doing a good job prepping people for the essays.

May be there are more than one Curie? The Curie learning center that DC goes to is a regular math/english/science enrichment center, and it is year round for multiple grades. It sounds like few are mistaking this enrichment class to some sort of silly essay preparation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After seeing mentioned here I looked at 2 of the TJ prep companies. Both Curie and TJ Test Prep are about $2k for 6-8 week class (with a self-paced option for about $700). Wow! To read here the prep companies did increase acceptance chances when was old admission standards, but the prep classes still helpful now?

TJ Prep looks all online only and bunch of recordings so if going to pay, would think at least want a direct person that Curie does, but not sure why needed anymore given being in Alg II no longer needed and math test is not what was before. If kid can write a good essay, is that really enough now to apply and then it is the holistic selection?

There is no holistic selection. That is something people say on here to argue against using tests, but that is something colleges do while TJ does not collect any info with which to do a holistic view.

Curie appears to be doing a good job prepping people for the essays.

May be there are more than one Curie? The Curie learning center that DC goes to is a regular math/english/science enrichment center, and it is year round for multiple grades. It sounds like few are mistaking this enrichment class to some sort of silly essay preparation?

It’s the same place. The level 8 semester 3 offering is: “Those who are interested in TJ/ACL will be taught the components necessary for success in TJ/ACL admission process (including essay writing) in addition to grammar/vocabulary and reading comprehension in English from July through December.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC attends Curie, and we moved from Kumon for cost reasons. For multiple subjects, Curie is much cheaper than Kumon. Curie as year long grade enrichment for advanced math, english, science and summer courses, has been working well.

But not sure how effective it is to enroll just at the tail end in one month tj essay prep course. Think of this in terms of - how effective would Kumon be if student enrolled for just a month before final exam. Mastering math takes years, not a month or two.

There is a difference between year long enrichment and test prep. Test prep is about 10 hours of instruction on testing format, time management, things like process of elimination and how to guess, and practice exams. Some commenters are basically saying that practice exams are cheating.
If you are learning substantive material that might be useful on a mathcounts competition, etc. then this is just studying.

What do practice exams mean? periodic assessments? At Curie, there are upfront placement tests and periodic assessments along the way, and before moving to the next level, similar to Kumon. The overall curriculum is fast paced and high rigor, so these checkpoint assessments help in deciding if student wants to continue to dropout. Considerable number dropout.

Practice exams in the test prep context means taking a previously administered test from a few years ago.

This whole curie thing comes from a bunch of people who are just looking for reasons to justify their racism by saying that the reason they changed the admissions process was to combat the rampant cheating coming out of curie. They accuse curie of selling TJ test answers and allowing their students to effectively buy their way into tj. It's stupid and racist. if you watched the hearings surrounding the change in admissions process, there was a lot of ugly racism on display against all asians but particulary against the indians because they are the newcomers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC attends Curie, and we moved from Kumon for cost reasons. For multiple subjects, Curie is much cheaper than Kumon. Curie as year long grade enrichment for advanced math, english, science and summer courses, has been working well.

But not sure how effective it is to enroll just at the tail end in one month tj essay prep course. Think of this in terms of - how effective would Kumon be if student enrolled for just a month before final exam. Mastering math takes years, not a month or two.

There is a difference between year long enrichment and test prep. Test prep is about 10 hours of instruction on testing format, time management, things like process of elimination and how to guess, and practice exams. Some commenters are basically saying that practice exams are cheating.
If you are learning substantive material that might be useful on a mathcounts competition, etc. then this is just studying.

What do practice exams mean? periodic assessments? At Curie, there are upfront placement tests and periodic assessments along the way, and before moving to the next level, similar to Kumon. The overall curriculum is fast paced and high rigor, so these checkpoint assessments help in deciding if student wants to continue to dropout. Considerable number dropout.

Practice exams in the test prep context means taking a previously administered test from a few years ago.

This whole curie thing comes from a bunch of people who are just looking for reasons to justify their racism by saying that the reason they changed the admissions process was to combat the rampant cheating coming out of curie. They accuse curie of selling TJ test answers and allowing their students to effectively buy their way into tj. It's stupid and racist. if you watched the hearings surrounding the change in admissions process, there was a lot of ugly racism on display against all asians but particulary against the indians because they are the newcomers.

Too bad it all actually happened and has been proven here over and over.

[Anonymous]

I am Indian and many of my friends kids go to Curie. I looked at their materials.

It is the just rote repetition. Pretty much they try to pre-teach what would be taught at school so kids need not even pay attention in class. So kids who go to curie, without even paying attention at school would end up doing fine.

This creates its own set of problems. It short circuits how children actually learn - goes against all the techniques that are shown to be effective in learning. But this is the approach of "tuitions" back in India that many in Loudoun knew growing up and they enroll their kids in similar setting at Curie.

It needlessly dumbs down sharp kids.

[Anonymous]

If you talk with a kid, it is easy to tell in 10 minutes if they went to Curie or done something similar.

There are so many better options out there but sending kids to Curie is an easy way out of FOMO. So parents end up sending their kids purely due to peer pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am Indian and many of my friends kids go to Curie. I looked at their materials.

It is the just rote repetition. Pretty much they try to pre-teach what would be taught at school so kids need not even pay attention in class. So kids who go to curie, without even paying attention at school would end up doing fine.

This creates its own set of problems. It short circuits how children actually learn - goes against all the techniques that are shown to be effective in learning. But this is the approach of "tuitions" back in India that many in Loudoun knew growing up and they enroll their kids in similar setting at Curie.

It needlessly dumbs down sharp kids.

Curie curriculum is needlessly so difficult. DC quit after couple of months, complained about too much homework and endless assessments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you talk with a kid, it is easy to tell in 10 minutes if they went to Curie or done something similar.

There are so many better options out there but sending kids to Curie is an easy way out of FOMO. So parents end up sending their kids purely due to peer pressure.

Better options, like what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am Indian and many of my friends kids go to Curie. I looked at their materials.

It is the just rote repetition. Pretty much they try to pre-teach what would be taught at school so kids need not even pay attention in class. So kids who go to curie, without even paying attention at school would end up doing fine.

This creates its own set of problems. It short circuits how children actually learn - goes against all the techniques that are shown to be effective in learning. But this is the approach of "tuitions" back in India that many in Loudoun knew growing up and they enroll their kids in similar setting at Curie.

It needlessly dumbs down sharp kids.

Some kids benefit from this some don't. Overall they have a fairly demanding program that fills a lot of gaps.