AAP Results and Discussion 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top athletes are being "prepped" as well. By top, I mean the very best in any league in any sport in our area. They have parents who played D1, D2, or D3 and spend time with their kids perfecting the sport, working on them from a very young age. Some can even afford to get trainers for additional workouts....It's the same game, people. Just the sport happens to be academia. So stop complaining.

Prepping for an aptitude test makes the tests unreliable. When kids who are gifted are losing out on gifted education because other kids are being prepped, parents have the right to complain, just like you do.

HA! So then prepping for a tryout makes the tryout unreliable?? When kids that are athletic are losing out on spots at top teams in the DMV because John was prepared/conditioned to excel from an early age, how many parents' complain? NONE.

Because oh John is just "naturally talented".

Giftedness is a type of neurodivergence. There are supposed to be gifted education classes to meet the needs of gifted kids. FCPS essentially provides advanced classes, not gifted education support— in part because of all this prepping. Bless you if you do not need to understand the difference.

Oh, so you don't like the parallel between prepping for an academic test and prepping for sports? And therefore, you are making this about "giftedness" and what "FCPS provides." You have the choice of completely opting out of all tests if you do not like the format or offerings. But here you are, complaining on an AAP forum about the "advanced support" that kids receive because parents are "prepping" and how that's diluting the service offerings and keeping gifted kids from getting in.

My point is simple, its preparing to excel at something else. It isn't all that different. Namaste!

Prepping for sports versus prepping for a certain aptitude test are completely different. If you prep and train and practice for a sport you become better and continue to perform at a high level when on the team. If you prep for specific tests but your hope score/what you show in the class isn’t that great or iready scores aren’t 95%+ then you likely won’t be able to keep up with the faster paces of the class and all the writing that is involved. Sports prep to make a team and AAP prep to do well on cogat aren’t comparable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

DP, but I don't condemn prepping at all. FCPS does a lot of things wrong, such that we often find ourselves having to make up for their failure. Maybe "prepping" makes the CogAT less an aptitude test and more of an achievement test. But kids who can "learn" how to do CogAT well will also be more capable of learning the material in AAP. Frankly, working hard, training hard, putting in the time, is often what makes people successful in life. I think we all know it's not all natural ability (and that's a good thing).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top athletes are being "prepped" as well. By top, I mean the very best in any league in any sport in our area. They have parents who played D1, D2, or D3 and spend time with their kids perfecting the sport, working on them from a very young age. Some can even afford to get trainers for additional workouts....It's the same game, people. Just the sport happens to be academia. So stop complaining.

Prepping for an aptitude test makes the tests unreliable. When kids who are gifted are losing out on gifted education because other kids are being prepped, parents have the right to complain, just like you do.

HA! So then prepping for a tryout makes the tryout unreliable?? When kids that are athletic are losing out on spots at top teams in the DMV because John was prepared/conditioned to excel from an early age, how many parents' complain? NONE.

Because oh John is just "naturally talented".

Giftedness is a type of neurodivergence. There are supposed to be gifted education classes to meet the needs of gifted kids. FCPS essentially provides advanced classes, not gifted education support— in part because of all this prepping. Bless you if you do not need to understand the difference.

Oh, so you don't like the parallel between prepping for an academic test and prepping for sports? And therefore, you are making this about "giftedness" and what "FCPS provides." You have the choice of completely opting out of all tests if you do not like the format or offerings. But here you are, complaining on an AAP forum about the "advanced support" that kids receive because parents are "prepping" and how that's diluting the service offerings and keeping gifted kids from getting in.

My point is simple, its preparing to excel at something else. It isn't all that different. Namaste!

Prepping for sports versus prepping for a certain aptitude test are completely different. If you prep and train and practice for a sport you become better and continue to perform at a high level when on the team. If you prep for specific tests but your hope score/what you show in the class isn’t that great or iready scores aren’t 95%+ then you likely won’t be able to keep up with the faster paces of the class and all the writing that is involved. Sports prep to make a team and AAP prep to do well on cogat aren’t comparable

+1. The discrepancies between Iready, VALLSS and the Cogat are telling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

DP, but I don't condemn prepping at all. FCPS does a lot of things wrong, such that we often find ourselves having to make up for their failure. Maybe "prepping" makes the CogAT less an aptitude test and more of an achievement test. But kids who can "learn" how to do CogAT well will also be more capable of learning the material in AAP. Frankly, working hard, training hard, putting in the time, is often what makes people successful in life. I think we all know it's not all natural ability (and that's a good thing).

Of course you don't because you cheated and your kid got in, taking another more worthy kids place. Condemn or not, it's not the way to get in. And you shouldn't have to extensively prep if your kid is AAP material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

DP, but I don't condemn prepping at all. FCPS does a lot of things wrong, such that we often find ourselves having to make up for their failure. Maybe "prepping" makes the CogAT less an aptitude test and more of an achievement test. But kids who can "learn" how to do CogAT well will also be more capable of learning the material in AAP. Frankly, working hard, training hard, putting in the time, is often what makes people successful in life. I think we all know it's not all natural ability (and that's a good thing).

Of course you don't because you cheated and your kid got in, taking another more worthy kids place. Condemn or not, it's not the way to get in. And you shouldn't have to extensively prep if your kid is AAP material.

Not the pp. I have 3 kids, including one who just got into AAP. The number of kids is not capped for AAP so one kid does not take another kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

This is where FCPS is being dumb. The same parents who are putting their kids in full prep classes are also putting their kids in academic enrichment classes. The prepped kids are going to be the ones who are advanced in all subjects and will still do all of the busywork that the teacher gives them. They're likely to do neat, pretty work and participate a lot in class. Relying on HOPE makes it even easier for the hardcore preppers to get in.

Meanwhile, HOPE is likely to miss the actually gifted kids who are very quiet, have an undiagnosed LD, are so bored that they are completely disengaged, or who are so gifted that the teacher doesn't even understand what's going on in their heads.

My experience was with the equally flawed GBRS, but the score is pretty meaningless. In 2nd grade, my kid got a score that indicated that the teacher absolutely did not think my kid belonged in AAP. This teacher pretty obviously disliked my kid. When we applied again in 3rd, the teacher was surprised that my kid wasn't in AAP and gave a perfect score. The scores are very subjective and based much more on the specific teacher and your kid's relationship with that teacher than they are with the merits of your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

DP, but I don't condemn prepping at all. FCPS does a lot of things wrong, such that we often find ourselves having to make up for their failure. Maybe "prepping" makes the CogAT less an aptitude test and more of an achievement test. But kids who can "learn" how to do CogAT well will also be more capable of learning the material in AAP. Frankly, working hard, training hard, putting in the time, is often what makes people successful in life. I think we all know it's not all natural ability (and that's a good thing).

Of course you don't because you cheated and your kid got in, taking another more worthy kids place. Condemn or not, it's not the way to get in. And you shouldn't have to extensively prep if your kid is AAP material.

Not the pp. I have 3 kids, including one who just got into AAP. The number of kids is not capped for AAP so one kid does not take another kid.

They say that but no one believes it. While there is some fluctuation in AAP classes at center schools I doubt that they would allow a school where 75% of the kids are in AAP and 25% are Gen Ed. There are schools were the test scores and grades are high enough that you could end up with such a high percentage of kids in AAP that the Gen Ed classes would be out numbered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top athletes are being "prepped" as well. By top, I mean the very best in any league in any sport in our area. They have parents who played D1, D2, or D3 and spend time with their kids perfecting the sport, working on them from a very young age. Some can even afford to get trainers for additional workouts....It's the same game, people. Just the sport happens to be academia. So stop complaining.

Prepping for an aptitude test makes the tests unreliable. When kids who are gifted are losing out on gifted education because other kids are being prepped, parents have the right to complain, just like you do.

HA! So then prepping for a tryout makes the tryout unreliable?? When kids that are athletic are losing out on spots at top teams in the DMV because John was prepared/conditioned to excel from an early age, how many parents' complain? NONE.

Because oh John is just "naturally talented".

Giftedness is a type of neurodivergence. There are supposed to be gifted education classes to meet the needs of gifted kids. FCPS essentially provides advanced classes, not gifted education support— in part because of all this prepping. Bless you if you do not need to understand the difference.

Oh, so you don't like the parallel between prepping for an academic test and prepping for sports? And therefore, you are making this about "giftedness" and what "FCPS provides." You have the choice of completely opting out of all tests if you do not like the format or offerings. But here you are, complaining on an AAP forum about the "advanced support" that kids receive because parents are "prepping" and how that's diluting the service offerings and keeping gifted kids from getting in.

My point is simple, its preparing to excel at something else. It isn't all that different. Namaste!

Prepping for sports versus prepping for a certain aptitude test are completely different. If you prep and train and practice for a sport you become better and continue to perform at a high level when on the team. If you prep for specific tests but your hope score/what you show in the class isn’t that great or iready scores aren’t 95%+ then you likely won’t be able to keep up with the faster paces of the class and all the writing that is involved. Sports prep to make a team and AAP prep to do well on cogat aren’t comparable

+1. The discrepancies between Iready, VALLSS and the Cogat are telling.

They're testing different things. I doubt it's the case with the PP, but when the aptitude test is much higher than the achievement test, it could be a red flag for a LD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

This is where FCPS is being dumb. The same parents who are putting their kids in full prep classes are also putting their kids in academic enrichment classes. The prepped kids are going to be the ones who are advanced in all subjects and will still do all of the busywork that the teacher gives them. They're likely to do neat, pretty work and participate a lot in class. Relying on HOPE makes it even easier for the hardcore preppers to get in.

Meanwhile, HOPE is likely to miss the actually gifted kids who are very quiet, have an undiagnosed LD, are so bored that they are completely disengaged, or who are so gifted that the teacher doesn't even understand what's going on in their heads.

My experience was with the equally flawed GBRS, but the score is pretty meaningless. In 2nd grade, my kid got a score that indicated that the teacher absolutely did not think my kid belonged in AAP. This teacher pretty obviously disliked my kid. When we applied again in 3rd, the teacher was surprised that my kid wasn't in AAP and gave a perfect score. The scores are very subjective and based much more on the specific teacher and your kid's relationship with that teacher than they are with the merits of your kid.

How do you even know this? Are you a psychologist or researcher? Have you read the studies about the assessment tool? It seems like you’ve just decided that it’s not a valid tool because you have a quiet kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

DP, but I don't condemn prepping at all. FCPS does a lot of things wrong, such that we often find ourselves having to make up for their failure. Maybe "prepping" makes the CogAT less an aptitude test and more of an achievement test. But kids who can "learn" how to do CogAT well will also be more capable of learning the material in AAP. Frankly, working hard, training hard, putting in the time, is often what makes people successful in life. I think we all know it's not all natural ability (and that's a good thing).

Of course you don't because you cheated and your kid got in, taking another more worthy kids place. Condemn or not, it's not the way to get in. And you shouldn't have to extensively prep if your kid is AAP material.

Not the pp. I have 3 kids, including one who just got into AAP. The number of kids is not capped for AAP so one kid does not take another kid.

They say that but no one believes it. While there is some fluctuation in AAP classes at center schools I doubt that they would allow a school where 75% of the kids are in AAP and 25% are Gen Ed. There are schools were the test scores and grades are high enough that you could end up with such a high percentage of kids in AAP that the Gen Ed classes would be out numbered.

+1. There's such a a big overlap in the abilities and test scores for kids in aap and kids in Gen Ed. If there's no cap, why not give a chance to any kid who can do the work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

This is where FCPS is being dumb. The same parents who are putting their kids in full prep classes are also putting their kids in academic enrichment classes. The prepped kids are going to be the ones who are advanced in all subjects and will still do all of the busywork that the teacher gives them. They're likely to do neat, pretty work and participate a lot in class. Relying on HOPE makes it even easier for the hardcore preppers to get in.

Meanwhile, HOPE is likely to miss the actually gifted kids who are very quiet, have an undiagnosed LD, are so bored that they are completely disengaged, or who are so gifted that the teacher doesn't even understand what's going on in their heads.

My experience was with the equally flawed GBRS, but the score is pretty meaningless. In 2nd grade, my kid got a score that indicated that the teacher absolutely did not think my kid belonged in AAP. This teacher pretty obviously disliked my kid. When we applied again in 3rd, the teacher was surprised that my kid wasn't in AAP and gave a perfect score. The scores are very subjective and based much more on the specific teacher and your kid's relationship with that teacher than they are with the merits of your kid.

How do you even know this? Are you a psychologist or researcher? Have you read the studies about the assessment tool? It seems like you’ve just decided that it’s not a valid tool because you have a quiet kid.

The HOPE tool, itself, says that it's supposed to be used as one factor among many in gifted identification, and it's supposed to be used for inclusion rather than exclusion of services. FCPS isn't using the tool correctly if they are using it as the main component guiding AAP status and if they're using it to exclude kids with high scores rather than include kids who didn't otherwise make the cut. On page 28, they specifically state that kids with high test scores may not have high HOPE scores due to negative behaviors, but they should still be included in the gifted program. They specifically state that a high score in either the standardized testing or the HOPE scale should suffice for placement. https://davis.agendaonline.net/public/Meeting/Attachments/DisplayAttachment.aspx?AttachmentID=238383&IsArchive=0
see page 27-28

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top athletes are being "prepped" as well. By top, I mean the very best in any league in any sport in our area. They have parents who played D1, D2, or D3 and spend time with their kids perfecting the sport, working on them from a very young age. Some can even afford to get trainers for additional workouts....It's the same game, people. Just the sport happens to be academia. So stop complaining.

Prepping for an aptitude test makes the tests unreliable. When kids who are gifted are losing out on gifted education because other kids are being prepped, parents have the right to complain, just like you do.

HA! So then prepping for a tryout makes the tryout unreliable?? When kids that are athletic are losing out on spots at top teams in the DMV because John was prepared/conditioned to excel from an early age, how many parents' complain? NONE.

Because oh John is just "naturally talented".

Giftedness is a type of neurodivergence. There are supposed to be gifted education classes to meet the needs of gifted kids. FCPS essentially provides advanced classes, not gifted education support— in part because of all this prepping. Bless you if you do not need to understand the difference.

Oh, so you don't like the parallel between prepping for an academic test and prepping for sports? And therefore, you are making this about "giftedness" and what "FCPS provides." You have the choice of completely opting out of all tests if you do not like the format or offerings. But here you are, complaining on an AAP forum about the "advanced support" that kids receive because parents are "prepping" and how that's diluting the service offerings and keeping gifted kids from getting in.

My point is simple, its preparing to excel at something else. It isn't all that different. Namaste!

Prepping for sports versus prepping for a certain aptitude test are completely different. If you prep and train and practice for a sport you become better and continue to perform at a high level when on the team. If you prep for specific tests but your hope score/what you show in the class isn’t that great or iready scores aren’t 95%+ then you likely won’t be able to keep up with the faster paces of the class and all the writing that is involved. Sports prep to make a team and AAP prep to do well on cogat aren’t comparable

Maybe you are good at sport, but obviously you are not the smart one. AAP is just a standard learning, not even challenging at all for smart kids, and iready isn't hard also when compared to kangaroo/rsm, those kids prep for cogat, and i am sure their parents will have them prep for even more challenging materials and they will do better than those "gifted" kids with lazy parents who just complains prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top athletes are being "prepped" as well. By top, I mean the very best in any league in any sport in our area. They have parents who played D1, D2, or D3 and spend time with their kids perfecting the sport, working on them from a very young age. Some can even afford to get trainers for additional workouts....It's the same game, people. Just the sport happens to be academia. So stop complaining.

Prepping for an aptitude test makes the tests unreliable. When kids who are gifted are losing out on gifted education because other kids are being prepped, parents have the right to complain, just like you do.

HA! So then prepping for a tryout makes the tryout unreliable?? When kids that are athletic are losing out on spots at top teams in the DMV because John was prepared/conditioned to excel from an early age, how many parents' complain? NONE.

Because oh John is just "naturally talented".

Giftedness is a type of neurodivergence. There are supposed to be gifted education classes to meet the needs of gifted kids. FCPS essentially provides advanced classes, not gifted education support— in part because of all this prepping. Bless you if you do not need to understand the difference.

Oh, so you don't like the parallel between prepping for an academic test and prepping for sports? And therefore, you are making this about "giftedness" and what "FCPS provides." You have the choice of completely opting out of all tests if you do not like the format or offerings. But here you are, complaining on an AAP forum about the "advanced support" that kids receive because parents are "prepping" and how that's diluting the service offerings and keeping gifted kids from getting in.

My point is simple, its preparing to excel at something else. It isn't all that different. Namaste!

Prepping for sports versus prepping for a certain aptitude test are completely different. If you prep and train and practice for a sport you become better and continue to perform at a high level when on the team. If you prep for specific tests but your hope score/what you show in the class isn’t that great or iready scores aren’t 95%+ then you likely won’t be able to keep up with the faster paces of the class and all the writing that is involved. Sports prep to make a team and AAP prep to do well on cogat aren’t comparable

+1. The discrepancies between Iready, VALLSS and the Cogat are telling.

iReady and VALLSS is a lot easier than Cogat...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: prep tests like cogat so kids have better chance to get their feet in the door. What is wrong with that? You have to prep everything in life if you want to achieve any goals. Parents here definitely obsessed with getting their kids to aap so why complaint about kids prepping tests? For whatever reason kids score well on tests prep or no prep. They both deserve the placement. Btw what really made the difference is the feedback from grade reports and teachers input.

Stop. You know exactly what is wrong with it and no one is talking about looking at a couple of tests to be familiar with format. It's the kind of prep that invalidates the test and if you think because everyone does it and is obsessed is a good reason then you need your head and your morals examined.

FCPS knows it's wrong too hence the downweighting of the tests.

DP, but I don't condemn prepping at all. FCPS does a lot of things wrong, such that we often find ourselves having to make up for their failure. Maybe "prepping" makes the CogAT less an aptitude test and more of an achievement test. But kids who can "learn" how to do CogAT well will also be more capable of learning the material in AAP. Frankly, working hard, training hard, putting in the time, is often what makes people successful in life. I think we all know it's not all natural ability (and that's a good thing).

Of course you don't because you cheated and your kid got in, taking another more worthy kids place. Condemn or not, it's not the way to get in. And you shouldn't have to extensively prep if your kid is AAP material.

Not the pp. I have 3 kids, including one who just got into AAP. The number of kids is not capped for AAP so one kid does not take another kid.

So maybe there is no cap. But if a certain amount of kids prep for it, it could raise the threshold of what qualifies for AAP in that school. Some schools you get in with 120s. Some you need 140-150. So say it’s a school that’s normally 130 is the level you have to hit. But parents prep their kids and now a lot of kids get 140 then the 130 who didn’t prep might get cut. I think they need to look at big picture, NNAT, Cogat, work samples, hope, iready, VALLS etc to see if there are outliers like a high cogat and low everything else to see the kid really should be there. Maybe they already do this? I don’t know how anything is weighted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top athletes are being "prepped" as well. By top, I mean the very best in any league in any sport in our area. They have parents who played D1, D2, or D3 and spend time with their kids perfecting the sport, working on them from a very young age. Some can even afford to get trainers for additional workouts....It's the same game, people. Just the sport happens to be academia. So stop complaining.

Prepping for an aptitude test makes the tests unreliable. When kids who are gifted are losing out on gifted education because other kids are being prepped, parents have the right to complain, just like you do.

HA! So then prepping for a tryout makes the tryout unreliable?? When kids that are athletic are losing out on spots at top teams in the DMV because John was prepared/conditioned to excel from an early age, how many parents' complain? NONE.

Because oh John is just "naturally talented".

Giftedness is a type of neurodivergence. There are supposed to be gifted education classes to meet the needs of gifted kids. FCPS essentially provides advanced classes, not gifted education support— in part because of all this prepping. Bless you if you do not need to understand the difference.

Oh, so you don't like the parallel between prepping for an academic test and prepping for sports? And therefore, you are making this about "giftedness" and what "FCPS provides." You have the choice of completely opting out of all tests if you do not like the format or offerings. But here you are, complaining on an AAP forum about the "advanced support" that kids receive because parents are "prepping" and how that's diluting the service offerings and keeping gifted kids from getting in.

My point is simple, its preparing to excel at something else. It isn't all that different. Namaste!

Prepping for sports versus prepping for a certain aptitude test are completely different. If you prep and train and practice for a sport you become better and continue to perform at a high level when on the team. If you prep for specific tests but your hope score/what you show in the class isn’t that great or iready scores aren’t 95%+ then you likely won’t be able to keep up with the faster paces of the class and all the writing that is involved. Sports prep to make a team and AAP prep to do well on cogat aren’t comparable

+1. The discrepancies between Iready, VALLSS and the Cogat are telling.

iReady and VALLSS is a lot easier than Cogat...

According to who? You can't prep for the IReady and VALLSS. They test actual knowledge.