MCPS high school application — ‘responses should be completed by the student without assistance’

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. This essay is stressing me out. My DC read theirs to me and it’s…ok. DC is usually a very strong writer, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. I’m trying not to interfere and let it be their voice, but it’s hard.

Interfere. Most kids have trouble writing about themselves and its not something taught in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. This essay is stressing me out. My DC read theirs to me and it’s…ok. DC is usually a very strong writer, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. I’m trying not to interfere and let it be their voice, but it’s hard.

You do realize that 98% of parents whose kids get in simply write this or pay to have it done professionally?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. This essay is stressing me out. My DC read theirs to me and it’s…ok. DC is usually a very strong writer, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. I’m trying not to interfere and let it be their voice, but it’s hard.

You do realize that 98% of parents whose kids get in simply write this or pay to have it done professionally?

Is this the new invented stat since you can no longer claim that all magnet kids prep for CogAT?

[Anonymous]

My child is not a strong writer and MCPS is not going to teach it.

So we have him discuss his essay with us, then mind map it, the we talk about what should go in intro and conclusion.

He writes it and reads it out loud.

He finds obvious mistakes and edits.

We do a final read through and suggest changes, usually changes in tense.

Final paper

Final read through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. This essay is stressing me out. My DC read theirs to me and it’s…ok. DC is usually a very strong writer, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. I’m trying not to interfere and let it be their voice, but it’s hard.

You do realize that 98% of parents whose kids get in simply write this or pay to have it done professionally?

Is this the new invented stat since you can no longer claim that all magnet kids prep for CogAT?

Not the PP but in my kid's magnet class a teacher once asked how many kids prepped for the test and according to DC 80% of the class raised their hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. This essay is stressing me out. My DC read theirs to me and it’s…ok. DC is usually a very strong writer, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. I’m trying not to interfere and let it be their voice, but it’s hard.

Interfere. Most kids have trouble writing about themselves and its not something taught in school.

Yeah. Not write for them, but just question some parts of it or highlight things that are clunky or vague. Point out where it's missing the mark. Feedback is perfectly fair.

I think it's a shame they have this through ParentView rather than StudentView. I sure hope kids are doing these for themselves, but I also don't trust parents to be ethical. Glad you are trying to stay out, PP, but there is no harm in a little feedback.

[Anonymous]

My kid wrote her own. It is in her voice, which is what the magnet coordinators want (really!). It answers the prompt and sounds like it was written by an (articulate) 13-year-old.

I made one punctuation suggestion and that was it. We'll see how it goes. She has had older siblings get accepted to these programs so I think we have an idea of what they want, but the system does change year by year.