B grades and its effect on High School Magnet App

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why? So he can struggle all through high school?

I'm guessing he's smart enough, if he got into the MS magnet. He had to do well on a very challenging magnet entrance test to get that far. Also, 2 Bs in magnet classes doesn't translate into lack of ability. The question seems to be either motivation, or he just doesn't understand that he needs As for high school and, beyond that, college. Either of these problems can be fixed, if he wants to fix them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why? So he can struggle all through high school?

He is not struggling. He is coasting even in magnet school. It is hard to explain. He is extremely bright, get high A's in all tasks/HW and suddenly does not put any effort in one high weight task and gets an E and the grade turns to B. He feels it is unnecessary to brood over one tasks and moves on. Both the subjects had this pattern. Do not know if you call this a struggle, but I do not consider this to be. If I feel that he is struggling I would not bother with the application process at all since his local school has an IB program.

[Anonymous]

I believe the test scores from the magnet and/or IB admissions exams (especially the math scores for Blair) and teachers'/school's recommendations will be a bigger part of the admission committee's decision than two B's. Good luck, I hope your child gets into the program of his wish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? So he can struggle all through high school?

He is not struggling. He is coasting even in magnet school. It is hard to explain. He is extremely bright, get high A's in all tasks/HW and suddenly does not put any effort in one high weight task and gets an E and the grade turns to B. He feels it is unnecessary to brood over one tasks and moves on. Both the subjects had this pattern. Do not know if you call this a struggle, but I do not consider this to be. If I feel that he is struggling I would not bother with the application process at all since his local school has an IB program.

You could be writing about my son, who is also in a MS magnet program. I do think that part of it is just what boys (especially) are like in MS, but another part (at least for our son) is that he is so accustomed to relying on his smarts that the introduction of very hard work and lots of time as part of the equation for success is coming as a bit of a shock to him.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]I believe the test scores from the magnet and/or IB admissions exams (especially the math scores for Blair) and teachers'/school's recommendations will be a bigger part of the admission committee's decision than two B's. Good luck, I hope your child gets into the program of his wish. [/quote]

I agree with this.

[Anonymous]

OP Here. This thread is old, but wanted to close the loop just in case anyone reads in future. DS pulled one subject to an A (still had one B) in 1st Qtr and all As in second quarter. He is accepted into RM and Blair. I guess I was unnecessarily worrying. However, his pattern of not caring about some tasks once in a while continues. Hopefully he will understand the connection between his ability and its demonstartion through grades by the end of 8th grade and will break the pattern in high school. Just hoping

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this update. It is helpful and I appreciate it!

[Anonymous]

My son is really stressed out about this because many of his friends also applied they are all hoping to get in!

[Anonymous]

Does he want to attend RM to be challenged by the magnet program or in order to stay with his group of friends?

[Anonymous]

Hysterical!!

Anonymous wrote:His educational options are done if the B is in a foreign language or a math that is higher than Algebra 1. No ivy league school will take a student who got a B in middle school. Better to kill him now, and end his suffering. Hopefully you didn't wait until you were 40 to have him and you can still have other children who can make you proud and attain the goals you have set forth for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does he want to attend RM to be challenged by the magnet program or in order to stay with his group of friends?

He is actually really interested in the whole concept of the IB program. He applied on its own it wasn't until later that he found out some of his friends had applied.

[Anonymous]

Move to Virginia, they can accommodate more students in their G+T and magnet programs than MoCo ever does.

[Anonymous]

Check out the private option if the magnet does not work out. Good Counsel high in Olney offers the IB. They have bus service to several areas and even offer financial aid. I think your kid would have good chances of doing it there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is really stressed out about this because many of his friends also applied they are all hoping to get in!

What MS he attends now? There are quite a few HS offer IB programs (RM is the only one with magnet IB). He might have more options than you realize. For instance, if he is attending a magnet MS, he has a choice to attend the HS the magnet school feeds into (if that HS offers IB program).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is really stressed out about this because many of his friends also applied they are all hoping to get in!

What MS he attends now? There are quite a few HS offer IB programs (RM is the only one with magnet IB). He might have more options than you realize. For instance, if he is attending a magnet MS, he has a choice to attend the HS the magnet school feeds into (if that HS offers IB program).

I think this works for Rock Creek Forest kids who are doing Spanish immersion, who can go to BCC, even if they are out of bounds for BCC, and then do IB at BCC. Otherwise, there is no "feeder" track from the Eastern or Takoma MS magnets to any of the IB programs at RM, BC, Kennedy or Einstein. It's true that lots of Eastern and Takoma magnet kids go on to RM or Blair, but that's because they do well on the tests and applications, not because there is a specific feeder system.

There are some downcounty consortium programs (this is different from magnet schools) for downcounty kids. These are done by lottery: at least from what I saw 2 years ago, you fill out a form listing your 1st, 2nd and maybe 3rd school choices within the consortium. From what I heard then, it was fairly easy to get into the Einstein IB program through the consortium, at least if you listed Einstein as #1 on the lottery entrance form.