NGAT prep centers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OH. MY. GOD.
If you need to find a test center, your child doesn't belong in AAP.

This is a misunderstanding of AAP. AAP is for academically advanced students, not gifted students. That includes children who are prepared to work hard to do advanced work and are capable of it. Hard work and conscientiousness pretty much always trumps "gifted ability" so I don't know why the idea of preparing for a test (which usually involves just reviewing a couple of nnat / cogat books with your child and not some type of intense coaching sessions, generates such an intense reaction here.

Sorry, but hard work and conscientiousness without underlying talent will never trump the person with “gifted ability.” You might tell your kid that, but it is simply not true.

Lots of kids could have worked right along side Micheal Phelps, maybe even worked harder than Phelps, but they would never be able to surpass him. Why? Because they did not have the “gifted ability” he had. Hard work is great, but it doesn’t make up for high levels of talent.

Hard work will absolutely trump any natural talent. For a talent of a generation like LeBron or Messi, they still need to work hard to fully develop. There is nothing wrong with hard work and it is definitely not cheating.

NP here. The baseline understanding is that everyone is working hard. The point is that is that hard work + gifted innate ability will trump hard work + no innate ability every single time.

Also, hard work is not cheating, cheating is training at testing centers for tests that are intended to be seen for the first time to measure ability (not knowledge).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OH. MY. GOD.
If you need to find a test center, your child doesn't belong in AAP.

This is a misunderstanding of AAP. AAP is for academically advanced students, not gifted students. That includes children who are prepared to work hard to do advanced work and are capable of it. Hard work and conscientiousness pretty much always trumps "gifted ability" so I don't know why the idea of preparing for a test (which usually involves just reviewing a couple of nnat / cogat books with your child and not some type of intense coaching sessions, generates such an intense reaction here.

Sorry, but hard work and conscientiousness without underlying talent will never trump the person with “gifted ability.” You might tell your kid that, but it is simply not true.

Lots of kids could have worked right along side Micheal Phelps, maybe even worked harder than Phelps, but they would never be able to surpass him. Why? Because they did not have the “gifted ability” he had. Hard work is great, but it doesn’t make up for high levels of talent.

Hard work will absolutely trump any natural talent. For a talent of a generation like LeBron or Messi, they still need to work hard to fully develop. There is nothing wrong with hard work and it is definitely not cheating.

NP here. The baseline understanding is that everyone is working hard. The point is that is that hard work + gifted innate ability will trump hard work + no innate ability every single time.

Also, hard work is not cheating, cheating is training at testing centers for tests that are intended to be seen for the first time to measure ability (not knowledge).

Your assumption is that you can prep a child regardless of his/her innate talent to a high score. If that's the case why are there good or bad students in any given class? If a child can perform at high level after prep, why not AAP? Most kid can't get 90% even after prepping.

[Anonymous]

Two things . First, AAP does not require extraordinary gifts. Any bright child from a family that’s not indifferent to education can handle it easily.

Second, test performance does not necessarily correlate with school performance. Intelligence is too complex to be measured by a single test. Anecdotally, my DS bombed COGAT even after prepping, still got in, and is/was an academic superstar in middle school. My daughter had a spectacular COGAT score but is a non star student so far.

[Anonymous]

https://classes.masterpiecek12.org/visitor_class_catalog/category/952026

Also, here’s something I’d say — my kid needed prep to be really familiar with the question types. He didn’t understand how analogy questions functioned and would confuse them with other grouping type questions. He has been raised bilingual and didn’t have as much communication in English at home — just a series of au pairs. He had never done paper folding cutting in school (and really not at home).

After practice tests in the mid-80th percentile, he scored 99th percentile after 15 days of prep (I thought the CoGAT was in spring, so I didn’t start prepping til we got the notice in early October that it was coming up).

So the preparation was an incredibly useful in getting him over the hump from missing ones that were obviously within his mental capability. It was deep familiarity with what the questions were actually asking, rather than over-learning. If all you wanted was someone’s absolutely cold ability to solve unfamiliar puzzles, you’d change the test completely from year to year. I think it tested his true abilities.

I had also heard beforehand from lots of other families in AAP that the math was so much more accelerated in AAP, and difficult for their kids to keep up with. That has been absolutely untrue for my kid. He destroys in math and is performing very high in reading.

If not for gentle test prep with a familiar adult (me), he’d be in Gen Ed, where he clearly doesn’t belong at this point.

Let people do what they’re going to do. Stop with the judgment about prepping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OH. MY. GOD.
If you need to find a test center, your child doesn't belong in AAP.

Why not? The parent is motivated and wants their kid to do well in school and be challenged. The kid belongs in the AAP classroom. It's not just one type of kid (e.g., "gifted").