For those parents really invested in the AAP process beginning in kindergarten or first grade...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But those who could have gotten in with some prep (but did not because the DCUM nazis told them not to) are the ones who got the shaft. Missed out on free-quslity education..

Wait, are you saying that parents will take their kids out of public school if they don't get into AAP?

Because that's the only way they would miss out on a free quality education. Children who don't need to be in the AAP classroom get a high quality free education in the regular FCPS classrooms. Lots of people who live in other places would love to have access to the FCPS regular classrooms.

No. FCPS IS a great school system but there are several threads on how bad the gen ed classes are compared to AAP, etc. I'd consider FCPS AAP to be at the lower-to-middle end of the private school spectrum and you can have it for free with minimal prep for a deserving student. So why not? You can always move the child to gen ed if they don't fare well. Can't go the other way so easily.

[Anonymous]

Amount of prep? We spent less than 5 minutes the night before reviewing some sample Naglieri questions so he knew what to expect.

I don’t believe in prep. If a kid gets into AAP because they prepped and learned test-taking tricks, then that does them a disservice. Now you’ve got kid that is in AAP, but doesn’t have the natural skills to deal with accelerated work. A kid should be in AAP because they naturally have the ability and are not challenged enough at their base school.


Like another poster stated we had:

No extra outside work (Kumon, etc.)
No Odyssey of the mind or anything remotely related.
No work samples.
No letters of recommendation.
Nothing.

Does it surprise me that my kid was accepted to AAP? No. Would I have been OK if he hadn’t? Yes. I trust the judgement of the professionals. If they didn’t think he should be in AAP, then so be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amount of prep? We spent less than 5 minutes the night before reviewing some sample Naglieri questions so he knew what to expect.

I don’t believe in prep. If a kid gets into AAP because they prepped and learned test-taking tricks, then that does them a disservice. Now you’ve got kid that is in AAP, but doesn’t have the natural skills to deal with accelerated work. A kid should be in AAP because they naturally have the ability and are not challenged enough at their base school.


Like another poster stated we had:

No extra outside work (Kumon, etc.)
No Odyssey of the mind or anything remotely related.
No work samples.
No letters of recommendation.
Nothing.

Does it surprise me that my kid was accepted to AAP? No. Would I have been OK if he hadn’t? Yes. I trust the judgement of the professionals. If they didn’t think he should be in AAP, then so be it.

Totally agree with you. We didn't do anything at all either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amount of prep? We spent less than 5 minutes the night before reviewing some sample Naglieri questions so he knew what to expect.

I don’t believe in prep. If a kid gets into AAP because they prepped and learned test-taking tricks, then that does them a disservice. Now you’ve got kid that is in AAP, but doesn’t have the natural skills to deal with accelerated work. A kid should be in AAP because they naturally have the ability and are not challenged enough at their base school.


Like another poster stated we had:

No extra outside work (Kumon, etc.)
No Odyssey of the mind or anything remotely related.
No work samples.
No letters of recommendation.
Nothing.

Does it surprise me that my kid was accepted to AAP? No. Would I have been OK if he hadn’t? Yes

. I trust the judgement of the professionals. If they didn’t think he should be in AAP, then so be it.

Totally agree with you. We didn't do anything at all either.

If the pp really trusted the judgment of the professionals, she wouldn't have done the five minutes of prep before the test. The professionals specifically say do nothing. She clearly cared about her child getting into AAP. I hate the hypocrisy. And by the way, some kids love Odyssey of the Mind because they are outside the box thinkers. My DC heard about it from the teacher, thought it sounded interesting and begged to do it in first grade. DC loved it enough to ask to do it again in second, but I dropped the ball and didn't follow up in time to make a team. The fact that OP somehow thinks not doing OotM is something to crow about speaks volumes. Signed someone who didn't fill out the parent questionnaire or any other forms, so the committee has no clue my kid did OotM. A couple of the kids on my DC's team (I'm not including DC because I'm biased) were amazing thinkers. Just because your child doesn't show an interest in something doesn't mean it isn't something that's an amazing experience. If you ever attend one of the competitions you'll see why some parents mention it on the questionnaire.

[Anonymous]

" If the pp really trusted the judgment of the professionals, she wouldn't have done the five minutes of prep before the test."
=====

Reading is fundamental. How in the world did you link "trusting the judgment of professionals" with "five minutes of prep"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does every AAP thread devlove into an anti-prepping preach session?

Here's the bottom line:
Kid clearly deserves to be in AAP - Prepping will not make a difference. She'll get in anyways and do well with or without prep.

Kid is not good enough for AAP - No amount of prepping will get the kid in (contrary to what everyone thinks)

Kid is on the cusp - Prep will make a difference. These are the kids that prep benefits the most. They will get in and with some minimal effort be able to manage in AAP classes. Most of this group will slow down in MS (Algebra vs Honors, etc) and not even try for TJ (not that TJ is the ultimate goal, but just saying). Why prep even for these kids? Because parents think they have a genius who just needs some focus and think the prep classes will given the child that focus. Guess what, it works.

+1. I will just add that I don't think every parent who goes the prep route thinks their kid is a genius. Most parents simply hope to give their child the best education that FCPS offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think you groomed your child for their eventual AAP admission?

I have 3 in the program. Agree with test prep comments above. Will help with familiarity but I wouldn't spend a lot of time on prep stuff.

Work samples--yes, be on the look out for these early. We had our kids do work samples over the winter break when they had time.

Recommendation letters--have heard these are not that important. Nevertheless, each of my kids had a recommendation from a coach.

I do not believe that your kid needs to be in robotics or odyssey of the mind.

You had kids prepare their work samples over break? I just saved a few things and the AART supplimented the rest. Did no recommendation letters.

Yes, I had each of my kids write a one page story and do 3-4 math problems. Didn't take long and the kids actually thought it was fun to write an original story and do some challenging math. I didn't talk to my AART at all and have no idea what was submitted. TBH, I don't know if work samples really matter, but for such little effort, why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amount of prep? We spent less than 5 minutes the night before reviewing some sample Naglieri questions so he knew what to expect.

I don’t believe in prep. If a kid gets into AAP because they prepped and learned test-taking tricks, then that does them a disservice. Now you’ve got kid that is in AAP, but doesn’t have the natural skills to deal with accelerated work. A kid should be in AAP because they naturally have the ability and are not challenged enough at their base school.


Like another poster stated we had:

No extra outside work (Kumon, etc.)
No Odyssey of the mind or anything remotely related.
No work samples.
No letters of recommendation.
Nothing.

Does it surprise me that my kid was accepted to AAP? No. Would I have been OK if he hadn’t? Yes. I trust the judgement of the professionals. If they didn’t think he should be in AAP, then so be it.

I think this depends on the kid. I have three in AAP. The first one is a great test taker (we didn't realize it then but she's in high school now so we've learned that about her). No prep and scored great. Kid 2 is an athlete and would prefer to be outdoors. She did three hours of prep just to get her familiar with the types of questions. She also did well. Without the test prep, she may have faced an unfamiliar type of question, wondered why am i taking this test? , and then decided to think about recess or her next sports activity. And contrary to your opinion, she did fabulous in elementary school and had straight As at Longfellow while taking Algebra and Geometry. Some kids really are better test takers. For Kid 2, I definitely think the test prep helped as I honestly believe she would have scored lower without it. Prepping for the test was NOT a disservice for my second child. I don't think you can make generalizations like this (see bold above) for all kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amount of prep? We spent less than 5 minutes the night before reviewing some sample Naglieri questions so he knew what to expect.

I don’t believe in prep. If a kid gets into AAP because they prepped and learned test-taking tricks, then that does them a disservice. Now you’ve got kid that is in AAP, but doesn’t have the natural skills to deal with accelerated work. A kid should be in AAP because they naturally have the ability and are not challenged enough at their base school.


Like another poster stated we had:

No extra outside work (Kumon, etc.)
No Odyssey of the mind or anything remotely related.
No work samples.
No letters of recommendation.
Nothing.

Does it surprise me that my kid was accepted to AAP? No. Would I have been OK if he hadn’t? Yes

. I trust the judgement of the professionals. If they didn’t think he should be in AAP, then so be it.

Totally agree with you. We didn't do anything at all either.

If the pp really trusted the judgment of the professionals, she wouldn't have done the five minutes of prep before the test. The professionals specifically say do nothing. She clearly cared about her child getting into AAP. I hate the hypocrisy. And by the way, some kids love Odyssey of the Mind because they are outside the box thinkers. My DC heard about it from the teacher, thought it sounded interesting and begged to do it in first grade. DC loved it enough to ask to do it again in second, but I dropped the ball and didn't follow up in time to make a team. The fact that OP somehow thinks not doing OotM is something to crow about speaks volumes. Signed someone who didn't fill out the parent questionnaire or any other forms, so the committee has no clue my kid did OotM. A couple of the kids on my DC's team (I'm not including DC because I'm biased) were amazing thinkers. Just because your child doesn't show an interest in something doesn't mean it isn't something that's an amazing experience. If you ever attend one of the competitions you'll see why some parents mention it on the questionnaire.

" If the pp really trusted the judgment of the professionals, she wouldn't have done the five minutes of prep before the test."
=====

Reading is fundamental. How in the world did you link "trusting the judgment of professionals" with "five minutes of prep"?

Did you read the bolded parts above? PP who spent some time reviewing the material said she trusted the judgement of professionals but she didn't listen to the professionals' advise to not prep at all. They have prepared the tests specifically for kids who have had absolutely no exposure to the questions. Part of the testing is to see how kids do with questions that they didn't know to expect. It's been developed that way, specifically for that purpose. So don't say you trust the professionals and then do any kind of prepping, less than 5 mins or more than 5 mins.

[Anonymous]

The Woodson thread is making more sense now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It must chap the asses of the "invested" parents that some of us just send the kids to school and let them do activities they enjoy and still get admitted to AAP without breaking a sweat.

I don't understand why you think the test prepping parents keep their kids out of activities? Test prepping and letting kids do what they enjoy are not mutually exclusive. My 2nd grader was just accepted and plays four sports (two at the travel level) and has practices/games almost every day. I prepped him for about 5 hours in the two months before the test. Did he need the prep? Probably not, as he scored in the 99% on the Cogat. But I felt better about the whole thing. I certainly did not keep him from doing what he loves. And the only sweat he broke was on the field/basketball court

In addition, it doesn't bother me AT ALL that others got in with no prep, no work samples, no recommendations, etc. Honestly I wish every kid could have the AAP experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must chap the asses of the "invested" parents that some of us just send the kids to school and let them do activities they enjoy and still get admitted to AAP without breaking a sweat.

I don't understand why you think the test prepping parents keep their kids out of activities? Test prepping and letting kids do what they enjoy are not mutually exclusive. My 2nd grader was just accepted and plays four sports (two at the travel level) and has practices/games almost every day. I prepped him for about 5 hours in the two months before the test. Did he need the prep? Probably not, as he scored in the 99% on the Cogat. But I felt better about the whole thing. I certainly did not keep him from doing what he loves. And the only sweat he broke was on the field/basketball court

In addition, it doesn't bother me AT ALL that others got in with no prep, no work samples, no recommendations, etc. Honestly I wish every kid could have the AAP experience.

This! And to put it more bluntly.. I don't care who else gets in nor how, as long as my DC also gets in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think you groomed your child for their eventual AAP admission?

-Prepping
-Creating work samples with them at home with the intent to submit them OR saving work samples for years
-Looking for potential people to write letters of recommendation well before the deadlines

Do you also think that you can help ensure your child is admitted by doing any of these things?

I have two in AAP already...but I've wondered if parents are in the know, do you think it is easier to get admission that way?

Short answer is No. A key component of the admission process is the child's teacher recommendation (Forget what it's called). No amount of prep can work around this.

- Test Prep. will only help familiarize the kid with the test. I don't think it improves results.

- Work samples - Begin gathering work samples as early as you can. Keep an eye out for good samples of the child's work at school or home. preserve it with some notes so you can write about it. It could be a story, ability to solve problems in pre-K, creating their own game with stuff lying around the house, etc. Whatever you think shows extra ability. Provide these to the teacher or include in your packet. Don't expect the teacher to do this on your behalf. Though most teachers are very conscientious, they have a lot of kids to think about.

- Recommendation letters - This is important. Identify people who interact with your child on a consistent basis. Your parents, His pre-K teacher, his coach in Robotics, Odyssey of the mind team, etc (yes, you have to have the kid be involved in one of these).

All of the above falls under "Prepping" in my opinion. It's up to you to decide if you want to increase the level of certainty that your child will get into AAP.

AAP as it is now is not really for the smartest kids but for the most hard working. So all kids deserve a chance to be in it and it's up to the parents to make it happen..

This poster is very confused.

Letters of recommendation and work samples from prek are ridiculous!! If you can't find something more recent, forget it.

Your kid does NOT need to be in robotics or odyssey of the mind. My two athletic kids were in sports when they were in second grade.

Aap is NOT about the most hard working kids. Sure, some hard working kids are admitted, but lots and lots of slackers are, too. Go walk outside an aap classroom and look at some of the poor work samples. Doesn't mean the kid isn't really bright, but may be 2e or just lazy.

I agree with the first poster here. It is mostly just for hard working kids. I have a child and I know of 1 other child in her grade, in aap, that are BORED to tears and becoming lazy because they are waiting for all of the "hard-working" kids to comprehend the materials, especially in math. It's a ridiculous excuse for an advanced academics program. MOST of the kids would learn just fine in the regular classroom. My kid becomes lazy when sitting in a class all day doing work that is years behind her. If you sat at your desk at work all day and your job was to do a worksheet of addition problems everyday, you'd slack off also. I resent that program for not creating an environment for kids that actually NEED something different than the regular classroom. When I have to listen to parents talk about their kids crying and fighting with them over homework and studying it makes me want to tell them to take their kid out because they are slowing my kid down! It's such a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think you groomed your child for their eventual AAP admission?

-Prepping
-Creating work samples with them at home with the intent to submit them OR saving work samples for years
-Looking for potential people to write letters of recommendation well before the deadlines

Do you also think that you can help ensure your child is admitted by doing any of these things?

I have two in AAP already...but I've wondered if parents are in the know, do you think it is easier to get admission that way?

Short answer is No. A key component of the admission process is the child's teacher recommendation (Forget what it's called). No amount of prep can work around this.

- Test Prep. will only help familiarize the kid with the test. I don't think it improves results.

- Work samples - Begin gathering work samples as early as you can. Keep an eye out for good samples of the child's work at school or home. preserve it with some notes so you can write about it. It could be a story, ability to solve problems in pre-K, creating their own game with stuff lying around the house, etc. Whatever you think shows extra ability. Provide these to the teacher or include in your packet. Don't expect the teacher to do this on your behalf. Though most teachers are very conscientious, they have a lot of kids to think about.

- Recommendation letters - This is important. Identify people who interact with your child on a consistent basis. Your parents, His pre-K teacher, his coach in Robotics, Odyssey of the mind team, etc (yes, you have to have the kid be involved in one of these).

All of the above falls under "Prepping" in my opinion. It's up to you to decide if you want to increase the level of certainty that your child will get into AAP.

AAP as it is now is not really for the smartest kids but for the most hard working. So all kids deserve a chance to be in it and it's up to the parents to make it happen..

This poster is very confused.

Letters of recommendation and work samples from prek are ridiculous!! If you can't find something more recent, forget it.

Your kid does NOT need to be in robotics or odyssey of the mind. My two athletic kids were in sports when they were in second grade.

Aap is NOT about the most hard working kids. Sure, some hard working kids are admitted, but lots and lots of slackers are, too. Go walk outside an aap classroom and look at some of the poor work samples. Doesn't mean the kid isn't really bright, but may be 2e or just lazy.

I agree with the first poster here. It is mostly just for hard working kids. I have a child and I know of 1 other child in her grade, in aap, that are BORED to tears and becoming lazy because they are waiting for all of the "hard-working" kids to comprehend the materials, especially in math. It's a ridiculous excuse for an advanced academics program. MOST of the kids would learn just fine in the regular classroom. My kid becomes lazy when sitting in a class all day doing work that is years behind her. If you sat at your desk at work all day and your job was to do a worksheet of addition problems everyday, you'd slack off also. I resent that program for not creating an environment for kids that actually NEED something different than the regular classroom. When I have to listen to parents talk about their kids crying and fighting with them over homework and studying it makes me want to tell them to take their kid out because they are slowing my kid down! It's such a joke.

This kind of attitude really pisses me off. I have a kid that did not do great on the tests -- at that point in her life (second grade), she under performed. She did not understand something in the instructions, and got frustrated and stopped. She scored about 121 on the CogAT.

After getting the scores back, I talked to the teacher -- both the AART and her 2nd grade teacher. The AART was also her math teacher that year. Both teachers said that we should refer; we did. She was admitted without appeals.

So now, she is done with AAP; she is a Freshman in HS. Yet, I continue to help out in her ES; I coach science olympiad, and run into her old teachers. They definitely remember her -- and even some of her insights on writing assignments. She never held the class back, but she was never the most accelerated in math (math remains her weakest subject; she is currently getting a B+ in Alg. II Honors).

We did not prep for the tests. We did not prep for the SOL's or the IAAT. You see, my thinking is I do not want to put the pressure on my kid to cause extra stress. And I don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think you groomed your child for their eventual AAP admission?

-Prepping
-Creating work samples with them at home with the intent to submit them OR saving work samples for years
-Looking for potential people to write letters of recommendation well before the deadlines

Do you also think that you can help ensure your child is admitted by doing any of these things?

I have two in AAP already...but I've wondered if parents are in the know, do you think it is easier to get admission that way?

Short answer is No. A key component of the admission process is the child's teacher recommendation (Forget what it's called). No amount of prep can work around this.

- Test Prep. will only help familiarize the kid with the test. I don't think it improves results.

- Work samples - Begin gathering work samples as early as you can. Keep an eye out for good samples of the child's work at school or home. preserve it with some notes so you can write about it. It could be a story, ability to solve problems in pre-K, creating their own game with stuff lying around the house, etc. Whatever you think shows extra ability. Provide these to the teacher or include in your packet. Don't expect the teacher to do this on your behalf. Though most teachers are very conscientious, they have a lot of kids to think about.

- Recommendation letters - This is important. Identify people who interact with your child on a consistent basis. Your parents, His pre-K teacher, his coach in Robotics, Odyssey of the mind team, etc (yes, you have to have the kid be involved in one of these).

All of the above falls under "Prepping" in my opinion. It's up to you to decide if you want to increase the level of certainty that your child will get into AAP.

AAP as it is now is not really for the smartest kids but for the most hard working. So all kids deserve a chance to be in it and it's up to the parents to make it happen..

This poster is very confused.

Letters of recommendation and work samples from prek are ridiculous!! If you can't find something more recent, forget it.

Your kid does NOT need to be in robotics or odyssey of the mind. My two athletic kids were in sports when they were in second grade.

Aap is NOT about the most hard working kids. Sure, some hard working kids are admitted, but lots and lots of slackers are, too. Go walk outside an aap classroom and look at some of the poor work samples. Doesn't mean the kid isn't really bright, but may be 2e or just lazy.

I agree with the first poster here. It is mostly just for hard working kids. I have a child and I know of 1 other child in her grade, in aap, that are BORED to tears and becoming lazy because they are waiting for all of the "hard-working" kids to comprehend the materials, especially in math. It's a ridiculous excuse for an advanced academics program. MOST of the kids would learn just fine in the regular classroom. My kid becomes lazy when sitting in a class all day doing work that is years behind her. If you sat at your desk at work all day and your job was to do a worksheet of addition problems everyday, you'd slack off also. I resent that program for not creating an environment for kids that actually NEED something different than the regular classroom. When I have to listen to parents talk about their kids crying and fighting with them over homework and studying it makes me want to tell them to take their kid out because they are slowing my kid down! It's such a joke.

This kind of attitude really pisses me off. I have a kid that did not do great on the tests -- at that point in her life (second grade), she under performed. She did not understand something in the instructions, and got frustrated and stopped. She scored about 121 on the CogAT.

After getting the scores back, I talked to the teacher -- both the AART and her 2nd grade teacher. The AART was also her math teacher that year. Both teachers said that we should refer; we did. She was admitted without appeals.

So now, she is done with AAP; she is a Freshman in HS. Yet, I continue to help out in her ES; I coach science olympiad, and run into her old teachers. They definitely remember her -- and even some of her insights on writing assignments. She never held the class back, but she was never the most accelerated in math (math remains her weakest subject; she is currently getting a B+ in Alg. II Honors).

We did not prep for the tests. We did not prep for the SOL's or the IAAT. You see, my thinking is I do not want to put the pressure on my kid to cause extra stress. And I don't.

What I wrote isn't an attitude first off. It's facts. My kid and at least one other we know are twiddling their thumbs all day because the county has turned aap into a free-for-all to any parents who want to brag that their kid is in aap. They have no actual resources for kids that have super high intelligence (top 1% of country). Some kids actually NEED a different or much more accelerated learning environment than most kids. Hard working kids are hard working, so why do they need a curriculum that's faster and deeper than the rest of the kids. It adds this "pressure" you mention and causes "extra stress" from what I can see to many of the kids.

Your post is all over the place, so I'm not even sure what your point is except that your trying to defend why your kid was in app since she wasn't a good test taker. So what? I never said it was all about the test scores, nor do I believe that, but many of the kids are struggling with math and science or trying to keep up with the reading. My kid is struggling with her day because she has to wait for the class to catch on and in the meantime ends up reading a good portion of the day.