Thinking about prepping

[Anonymous]

If you prep him and he does much better on the Cogat, then you'll never know what he would have really gotten. You'll always think of him as not as smart as his brother. You'll always rank them in your mind as the smart one and the smart-with-prepping one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you prep him and he does much better on the Cogat, then you'll never know what he would have really gotten. You'll always think of him as not as smart as his brother. You'll always rank them in your mind as the smart one and the smart-with-prepping one.

That's ridiculous. The CogAT provides an extremely rough approximation of intelligence, especially at the higher ends where one lucky guess leads to a huge difference in scores. Even if OP gets the "true" score for her younger child, she can't rank them against each other based on such a poor metric as the CogAT. I assume that most preppers recognize that the CogAT is a poor test, want their kids in AAP, and don't want to pay for a WISC.

[Anonymous]

In your situation, I would prep and not think twice about it. We did. Like you, we were confident that DS is able to handle advanced programming in math and reading, but COGAT is a reading of one day, one moment in a child's life, and the stakes riding on it are too high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you prep him and he does much better on the Cogat, then you'll never know what he would have really gotten. You'll always think of him as not as smart as his brother. You'll always rank them in your mind as the smart one and the smart-with-prepping one.

The goal is to get child to AAP, not achieve perfect harmony in his mother's mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you prep him and he does much better on the Cogat, then you'll never know what he would have really gotten. You'll always think of him as not as smart as his brother. You'll always rank them in your mind as the smart one and the smart-with-prepping one.

The goal is to get child to AAP, not achieve perfect harmony in his mother's mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in an FCPS ES and I promise you that most kids don’t get prepped for CogATs. And we know the kids who do because most will blurt it out that they’ve been practicing with their parents. The only practice needed is done in class before the test. I promise you that it is sufficient. In fact, extensive prepping invalidates the result; that’s why you can’t take it twice in a calendar year.

Believe me, when we get a kid who has been extensively prepped and gets an unexpectedly high score, we know it and essentially dismiss it. Last year we had a kid with the hugest NNAT we’ve ever seen but she finished the test in less than 5 minutes and said these were the exact puzzles she’s been practicing with her mom for months. We all know that’s not her real score, and the sad thing is we’ll never know what her real score is since her mom basically invalidated the test.

But you don't need an "unexpectedly high score" to get in. The difference between getting in and not getting in can be as small as a few more questions answered right. On a quant section, the difference between in pool and not in pool is one question. One! So if prepping helps the child to answer just a few more questions right, it may very well be the difference between in or out.

[Anonymous]

We did a small amount of prep with both kids (DD1 got in; applying now for DS2 but he did well on COGAT) - spent a few days doing some of the workbook pages and basically explaining how the problems worked and what the types of patterns were.

Frankly I don't really care if that skews the results. DD1 has at no point been behind in AAP; if anything she complains the math pace is still too slow. DS2 can absolutely handle the type of stuff DD1 has worked on in the program.

If the program were a real "gifted" program with off the charts kids, I'd be more leery of prepping since i wouldn't want my kid to be lost in AAP & struggling to keep up. But it's not that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in an FCPS ES and I promise you that most kids don’t get prepped for CogATs. And we know the kids who do because most will blurt it out that they’ve been practicing with their parents. The only practice needed is done in class before the test. I promise you that it is sufficient. In fact, extensive prepping invalidates the result; that’s why you can’t take it twice in a calendar year.

Believe me, when we get a kid who has been extensively prepped and gets an unexpectedly high score, we know it and essentially dismiss it. Last year we had a kid with the hugest NNAT we’ve ever seen but she finished the test in less than 5 minutes and said these were the exact puzzles she’s been practicing with her mom for months. We all know that’s not her real score, and the sad thing is we’ll never know what her real score is since her mom basically invalidated the test.

But you don't need an "unexpectedly high score" to get in. The difference between getting in and not getting in can be as small as a few more questions answered right. On a quant section, the difference between in pool and not in pool is one question. One! So if prepping helps the child to answer just a few more questions right, it may very well be the difference between in or out. [/quote

Many cases is not only a difference between one question. How about if a student only get 110 if not prep, can he get over 132 if he get prep?

[Anonymous]

Sure, the difference between 110 and 132 in a section is not that many questions. Absolutely preppable.
T

[Anonymous]

Question - did anyone prep their kid and still not get a good result?

[Anonymous]

Seems like there is more than enough desire to roll out the AAP style curriculum ac cross all schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like there is more than enough desire to roll out the AAP style curriculum ac cross all schools.

You might think so from reading this forum. In reality, I don't think there is. The "AAP curriculum" has been rolled out for all students at a couple elementary schools, which is probably enough. My elementary school doesn't want it. Nor do the ones that my friends' kids go to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like there is more than enough desire to roll out the AAP style curriculum ac cross all schools.

You might think so from reading this forum. In reality, I don't think there is. The "AAP curriculum" has been rolled out for all students at a couple elementary schools, which is probably enough. My elementary school doesn't want it. Nor do the ones that my friends' kids go to.

There aren't any near me. We would like a more rigorous curriculum from kindergarten like they do back home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like there is more than enough desire to roll out the AAP style curriculum ac cross all schools.

If I understand things correctly, all schools have pull outs for kids who are a bit more advanced. So that kids who are not at the Centers can have more advanced classes if it is needed. Parents can refer for level II and III services if their child is not in Level IV AAP program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like there is more than enough desire to roll out the AAP style curriculum ac cross all schools.

If I understand things correctly, all schools have pull outs for kids who are a bit more advanced. So that kids who are not at the Centers can have more advanced classes if it is needed. Parents can refer for level II and III services if their child is not in Level IV AAP program.

Eh. A lot of schools don't have local level 4, or have a part-time AART who is only there twice a week. How much extra enrichment time do you think kids get at those schools?