Only about 15 8th graders in all of VA qualified for AIME, and only 1 or 2 of those went to Basis. Basis is churning out highly accelerated kids, but it is not churning out AIME qualifiers. |
My kid took AP Calculus BC at TJ at 13 and that didn't cost anything. |
And I suspect part of the reason is that kids are Basis are too busy with relentless schoolwork + testing to have much extra time left in their lives to seriously prepare to pass the AMC round. Based on their acceleration (i.e kids taking precalc at Basis in 8th grade) I would suspect the cohort who could have the capability to make it to the AIME should be higher than just 1-2 kids, but it still takes significant effort and these kids just don't have the time/motivation to devote more of their afterschool time to training. |
LCPS has a higher proportion of kids taking algebra in 7th than FCPS, at least at some schools. Because of summer geometry, there is probably 100 kids taking algebra 2/trig in 8th grade. Might be the same 50 kids taking algebra in 6th in the county, though these numbers are way down now after they started implementing VMPI early, and are now getting back to what happened before. Online has also reduced the learning of the 4th and 5th graders. Many of the algebra 2 8th graders are not getting As, particularly the summer geometry kids, though some of them are good. LCPS generally has these kids tracked for calculus in 10th grade with a 9th grade analysis class. The trig portion of the curriculum is pretty weak. |
How would they know about it, since JMO qualifier is well after applications are in. |
JMO qualifiers may not be known before applications are due, but the status is known well before TJ decisions are made. Even if the kid didn't state their status on the application, because they wouldn't have known at the time, it would be entirely possible for TJ admissions to take note of the 1 or 2 FCPS 8th graders who made JMO, and then take that into consideration when evaluating applications. The same is the case for Mathcounts. By the end of March, the top kids in the state are known. Someone could audit the TJ applications and make note of the kids who finish in the top 10 in the state. Also, every JMO qualifier is going to have a very high AMC 10 score. These scores are known before the applications are due. When only 15 8th graders in VA are qualifying for AIME, and the bulk of those are within 10 points of the cutoff, the kids who are > 25 points above the cutoff should stand out. |
Same but I only had to spend $15k on outside enrichment to make that possible! |
How do you know that those things were NOT taken into consideration, and that those same students weren’t found wanting in other areas? You don’t. Plain and simple. |
Now come on that is just silly. You cannot know anything about the current application process if you say this. I fully support the shift to having a minimum set of seats for all middle schools but WITHIN a middle school and/or for the extra kids not allocated seats from the middle school process I think you do need a way to ensure the tippy top off the charts math kids get in. And there is nothing to guarantee that now. |
evil kids |
Studying is not evil. Killing, robbing and raping is evil. |
Some middle schools don’t have “top off the charts” kids but they are not freshmen and sophomores anyway. You need to stop obsessing about this. TJ’s future has been decided - it will be an above-average high school in the future, not the #1 school in the country. |
^ they are now |
I know! When they eliminated the 2nd and 3rd tier preppers and replaced them with naturally gifted students in the selection it made the latest crop of TJ admits among the strongest in the school's history. |
And that's why many of them can't even score pass-advanced on dumbed down SOLs. (They are referred to as LoLs at TJ since they are ridiculously easy to get pass advanced). |