How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?

[Anonymous]

I feel bad to be an Asian! I meant look at all the "love" that people in this county think of us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad to be an Asian! I meant look at all the "love" that people in this county think of us!

What exactly are you choosing to misunderstand here?

[Anonymous]

we love you model minority

haha j/k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we love you model minority

haha j/k

Only if your boss can see your message here and know what your perception about other group of people (race)!!!

[Anonymous]

who cares if we cheated to get in

you woke/sjw idiots pretend to care about tj when its convenient

asians would still dominate tj even without cheating, its just different asians who get in with it

morons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

True

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:who cares if we cheated to get in

you woke/sjw idiots pretend to care about tj when its convenient

asians would still dominate tj even without cheating, its just different asians who get in with it

morons

White folks are upset there is only one magnet high school in the area and it happens to be STEM high school that actually demands lot of work and not some artsy fartsy school they can say oh my creative and well rounded genius is thriving blah blah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

tj student (2023) here. the kids gave curie the test question after they took the test. so if ur calling the fbi ur calling it on the kids who did it. no rule against it.

Actually, there are rules against sharing the test questions. If you are a TJ student, you should know this. The students signed a pledge when they took the test that they would not discuss the specific questions.

Curie Learning Center published the names of their 133 students that were admitted to TJ on August 17th.

If FCPS is serious about the academic integrity of TJ, they could investigate these 133 students. There were plenty of students in the semifinalist and/or wait list that potentially were denied admission if Curie was engaging in teaching children how to cheat on the admissions test.

DP.
I haven't read the entire thread, but publishing actual names of the admits was an incredibly stupid thing to do! I mean, come on, who in their right mind does that?

And my second thought is, do they really have 70 sessions spread around a year and a half to PREP FOR A TEST with no guarantees? One session per week, for a year and a half? People complete multiple college and grad school courses and master entire subjects in this much time! We don't live in Virginia so I don't have a dog in the fight, but I'm genuinely impressed by the intensity and depth of this prep. Wow.

[Anonymous]

With all respect, please try not to attack Asians or White people here. To be respected, we have to be respectful!

Anyone who cheated should be held accountable for his/her action. But please do not accuse the Asians community of cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

tj student (2023) here. the kids gave curie the test question after they took the test. so if ur calling the fbi ur calling it on the kids who did it. no rule against it.

Actually, there are rules against sharing the test questions. If you are a TJ student, you should know this. The students signed a pledge when they took the test that they would not discuss the specific questions.

Curie Learning Center published the names of their 133 students that were admitted to TJ on August 17th.

If FCPS is serious about the academic integrity of TJ, they could investigate these 133 students. There were plenty of students in the semifinalist and/or wait list that potentially were denied admission if Curie was engaging in teaching children how to cheat on the admissions test.

DP.
I haven't read the entire thread, but publishing actual names of the admits was an incredibly stupid thing to do! I mean, come on, who in their right mind does that?

And my second thought is, do they really have 70 sessions spread around a year and a half to PREP FOR A TEST with no guarantees? One session per week, for a year and a half? People complete multiple college and grad school courses and master entire subjects in this much time! We don't live in Virginia so I don't have a dog in the fight, but I'm genuinely impressed by the intensity and depth of this prep. Wow.

They do it every year. They got 51 admits in c/o 2022, and 95 admits in c/o 2023. They have clearly used their illicit access to the test to great effect.

I feel terrible for the students whose names were published given the amount of attention that this scandal is going to get in the very near future. The overwhelming majority of them did nothing wrong and probably had no idea that the test questions were obtained illegally and then sliced and diced to create similar ones. If I know anything about TJ, those kids will be silently judged and probably ostracized through no fault of their own, because every TJ kid has a friend (or ten) who didn't get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With all respect, please try not to attack Asians or White people here. To be respected, we have to be respectful!

Anyone who cheated should be held accountable for his/her action. But please do not accuse the Asians community of cheating.

This is really important. It is CURIE who cheated and used their access to the test questions to make millions off of their ill-earned reputation. And it's whoever fed them the questions after taking the exam, after signing a pledge not to, that should be held accountable with them.

What is important is how we move forward to ensure that cheating like this is not possible. And in so doing, hopefully address some of the major cheating that, unsurprisingly, continues to pervade the TJ community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

tj student (2023) here. the kids gave curie the test question after they took the test. so if ur calling the fbi ur calling it on the kids who did it. no rule against it.

Actually, there are rules against sharing the test questions. If you are a TJ student, you should know this. The students signed a pledge when they took the test that they would not discuss the specific questions.

Curie Learning Center published the names of their 133 students that were admitted to TJ on August 17th.

If FCPS is serious about the academic integrity of TJ, they could investigate these 133 students. There were plenty of students in the semifinalist and/or wait list that potentially were denied admission if Curie was engaging in teaching children how to cheat on the admissions test.

DP.
I haven't read the entire thread, but publishing actual names of the admits was an incredibly stupid thing to do! I mean, come on, who in their right mind does that?

And my second thought is, do they really have 70 sessions spread around a year and a half to PREP FOR A TEST with no guarantees? One session per week, for a year and a half? People complete multiple college and grad school courses and master entire subjects in this much time! We don't live in Virginia so I don't have a dog in the fight, but I'm genuinely impressed by the intensity and depth of this prep. Wow.

They do it every year. They got 51 admits in c/o 2022, and 95 admits in c/o 2023. They have clearly used their illicit access to the test to great effect.

I feel terrible for the students whose names were published given the amount of attention that this scandal is going to get in the very near future. The overwhelming majority of them did nothing wrong and probably had no idea that the test questions were obtained illegally and then sliced and diced to create similar ones. If I know anything about TJ, those kids will be silently judged and probably ostracized through no fault of their own, because every TJ kid has a friend (or ten) who didn't get in.

If this prep center had questions in advance, why didn’t 99.9% of their students get in and why would the students attend prep for almost two years? Doesn’t make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

tj student (2023) here. the kids gave curie the test question after they took the test. so if ur calling the fbi ur calling it on the kids who did it. no rule against it.

Actually, there are rules against sharing the test questions. If you are a TJ student, you should know this. The students signed a pledge when they took the test that they would not discuss the specific questions.

Curie Learning Center published the names of their 133 students that were admitted to TJ on August 17th.

If FCPS is serious about the academic integrity of TJ, they could investigate these 133 students. There were plenty of students in the semifinalist and/or wait list that potentially were denied admission if Curie was engaging in teaching children how to cheat on the admissions test.

DP.
I haven't read the entire thread, but publishing actual names of the admits was an incredibly stupid thing to do! I mean, come on, who in their right mind does that?

And my second thought is, do they really have 70 sessions spread around a year and a half to PREP FOR A TEST with no guarantees? One session per week, for a year and a half? People complete multiple college and grad school courses and master entire subjects in this much time! We don't live in Virginia so I don't have a dog in the fight, but I'm genuinely impressed by the intensity and depth of this prep. Wow.

They do it every year. They got 51 admits in c/o 2022, and 95 admits in c/o 2023. They have clearly used their illicit access to the test to great effect.

I feel terrible for the students whose names were published given the amount of attention that this scandal is going to get in the very near future. The overwhelming majority of them did nothing wrong and probably had no idea that the test questions were obtained illegally and then sliced and diced to create similar ones. If I know anything about TJ, those kids will be silently judged and probably ostracized through no fault of their own, because every TJ kid has a friend (or ten) who didn't get in.

you mean cheating has consequences? Hopefully they get expelled

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

tj student (2023) here. the kids gave curie the test question after they took the test. so if ur calling the fbi ur calling it on the kids who did it. no rule against it.

Actually, there are rules against sharing the test questions. If you are a TJ student, you should know this. The students signed a pledge when they took the test that they would not discuss the specific questions.

Curie Learning Center published the names of their 133 students that were admitted to TJ on August 17th.

If FCPS is serious about the academic integrity of TJ, they could investigate these 133 students. There were plenty of students in the semifinalist and/or wait list that potentially were denied admission if Curie was engaging in teaching children how to cheat on the admissions test.

DP.
I haven't read the entire thread, but publishing actual names of the admits was an incredibly stupid thing to do! I mean, come on, who in their right mind does that?

And my second thought is, do they really have 70 sessions spread around a year and a half to PREP FOR A TEST with no guarantees? One session per week, for a year and a half? People complete multiple college and grad school courses and master entire subjects in this much time! We don't live in Virginia so I don't have a dog in the fight, but I'm genuinely impressed by the intensity and depth of this prep. Wow.

They do it every year. They got 51 admits in c/o 2022, and 95 admits in c/o 2023. They have clearly used their illicit access to the test to great effect.

I feel terrible for the students whose names were published given the amount of attention that this scandal is going to get in the very near future. The overwhelming majority of them did nothing wrong and probably had no idea that the test questions were obtained illegally and then sliced and diced to create similar ones. If I know anything about TJ, those kids will be silently judged and probably ostracized through no fault of their own, because every TJ kid has a friend (or ten) who didn't get in.

If this prep center had questions in advance, why didn’t 99.9% of their students get in and why would the students attend prep for almost two years? Doesn’t make sense.

Because succeeding on the exam only gets you to the semifinal stage. But because the exam is nationally normed, if a huge chunk of students have artificially inflated scores, that means that the curve is set differently for other students who probably didn't make the semifinalist cut as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything seems to be about “gaining an edge” and exploiting every possible angle with these TJHSST families. They absolutely suck all the fun out of high school with their grim zero-sum game mentality. It provides quite a window as to why applications from other students have been declining sharply.

Says the racist who cannot work hard.

TJ grad here who managed to get in without prepping, succeed without cheating, and graduate with a 4.1/1560/$10K+ in scholarship offers...all with minimal parental oversight. Sorry about your need to control your kid's entire life at any cost rather than actually raise a self-motivated individual.

BINGO. There are plenty of kids at TJ right now who belong at TJ. There are also plenty of kids who have faked their way in through prepping and stayed in through cheating. If you've been there for any length of time, you know and understand this reality and also that the numbers of the latter have been growing significantly for the last decade or so.

We should distinguish between cheating and prepping:

Cheating: No evidence of wrongdoing by anyone has been provided. Instead, what we have is:
i) Anecdotes by a few on an anonymous message board (TJ vents) just like this one, that some questions on QuantQ (one of multiple admissions criteria including ACT Aspire, grades in 7th and 8th, math level, essay/writing prompt, teacher recommendations) looked familiar from several practice tests taken at Curie - Perfectly logical explanations for this have been discussed on this thread. Curie provides several practice tests and assignments over the 1.5 years of prep, so its not a big surprise that a few questions might resemble what they have practiced before. Just like in any sport (e.g. Football) players from high quality teams practice lots of different plays and so if they encounter a play they have practiced before it does not mean that there is foul play (unless there is evidence of it, a la Houston Astros).
ii) Innuendo that there must be something fishy because 25% of admitted students went for prep at Curie - Again, perfectly logical explanations for this have been discussed on this thread. It could easily be explained by a combination of parents/children motivated to apply to TJ and willing to prep for it, relatively academically advanced children, and rigorous work ethic at Curie. There is nothing inherently wrong/unfair about this, unless there is evidence to the contrary.
iii) Innuendo that something is fishy because substantially all kids at Curie are of Indian origin - I am not sure why the demographic makeup of Curie students is relevant. Regardless, here is my explanation. Curie is relatively well known among Indian parents. There are a few other enrichment centers (MyTJPrep, A4E) offering TJ/AOS/AET prep that also have majority Indian origin children, and I know of at least one center (Sunshine) that has majority east asian children (chinese, korean), and all promote their high success rates. There might be others that are popular universally or among specific groups. Most of these enrichment centers offer several other enrichment courses on a variety of topics to kids of all ages. These centers are open to everyone, but there is relatively high level of interest among asians in TJ/AOS/AET (reflected in lopsided applicant pool demographic statistics), and the motivation to get into and prep for it, and relative awareness and popularity of each center within specific groups is reflected in the demographics of the center.
Having said this, if anyone has knowledge or evidence of cheating or fraud, they should report it and have it investigated, rather than (or in addition to) vent on TJ Vents or DCUM.

Prepping: I don't see what's wrong in prepping. We have the opportunity to apply to one of the best high schools in the country. It is going to be competitive and people who are motivated to get into it would want to give it their best shot. There is a published admission criteria (which reflects the baseline for the school). Prepping to do well on a test is not cheating or faking. It is hard work. It is not undeserving kids getting the answer key the day before the test and memorizing it. It is children that show potential from an early grade (might be giftedness or perseverance), which is reflected in grades, SOL, course selections, participation in competitions, STEM activities inside and outside of school. It is parents that spend countless hours with the children showing interest in their progress, coaching them at home, checking their work, driving them around. And in the case of prep centers, it is rigorous work environment with lots of tutoring, assignments, practice tests, company of like-minded children. It is disheartening to see all the efforts being branded as fake or cheating instead of applauding their achievement. You have to put in the effort to excel in any field and prepping is part of the effort. All top athletes have coaches and a very rigorous environment. And the prep doesn't just help you do well in the entrance test, it also helps you do well at school, whether or not you get accepted to TJ/AOS/AET. Finally, advanced STEM education is not very everyone. Some may be interested in athletics or music or theater or history or any other field. Some may not like the intensity that is required for TJ. There is probably a fine line between pushing children into something they are not able to handle or interested in, and motivating children providing them a challenging and rewarding experience so they can excel to the best of their ability. And that is for each parent to figure out with their children rather than being judged by others or shamed for their efforts.