Has anyone received an HGC letter yet?!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My son is on waitlist of Cold Spring. His score is 141. Sigh.

WOW, 141 got waitlisted. I am wondering how much it needs to get into cold spring.

143 wait pool, cold spring
another friend, 142, cold spring, wait pool

That's crazy. Given the limited number of questions in the test, there is probably only one or two questions difference between those who got admitted and who got waitlisted.

Yep. The test this year is very trick to different kids abilities. That's why it was emphasized in the mail that test score is only one factor being evaluated and I sense it might be the least important factor.

What do you mean?

Test this year is easier and shorter with less questions. It's hard to differentiate one's ability by just looking at the score. One wrong question may cause big difference in the score. I guess the speed of answering the question may also count towards the final score.
BTW, who knows what the total score is?

It definitely was different. My eldest DD took the test two years ago and younger DD took it this year. They compared notes about the test and from the sounds of it, younger DD took a different test.

Who says its easier? Curious.

To be honest, I had my DC done 4 mockup tests a week before the GT test. I was told the mockup is the exact same format and amount of questions as the real test. It has 3 parts, needs 2 hours to complete.
But the actual test is way more easier than the mockup (according to DC), and it took only 30mins.
That's why I thought the test this year is different. Unless I was told the wrong information about the Mockups.

[Anonymous]

Cold Spring is surely the most competitive. While many kids with 140+ are put in the wait pool, I know an accepted kid with a SAS score of 160. Is that a perfect score?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cold Spring is surely the most competitive. While many kids with 140+ are put in the wait pool, I know an accepted kid with a SAS score of 160. Is that a perfect score?

That must be the full score... a truly gifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS was accepted with a lower SAS than some who were waitlisted for the same school (according to this thread). I'm worried now that he won't succeed in the program. He does perform at a high level in school and MAP tests, so it's not a total fluke, but those higher sas numbers are worrying me

I would not freak out. Go to the open house, talk to parents of kids who are currently in the HGC program, talk to your son's teacher. There are reasons he got in and reasons the committee thinks he will succeed. If you and he are willing to give HGC a try, go for it. The test is simply not determinative of a kid's ability to succeed in this program. As I've said upthread, my middle kid has been through it and while she and her cohort are extremely bright, I truly believe the "highly gifted" label is a misnomer. The curriculum is more like honors/advanced, not "highly gifted" level.

Thank you for your supportive words. He has not felt challenged in school, so I know he would enjoy a change in that regard, but to us he's extremely bright but not profoundly gifted. We did not prepare him for the test. I think seeing how the open house goes is a good plan. Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cold Spring is surely the most competitive. While many kids with 140+ are put in the wait pool, I know an accepted kid with a SAS score of 160. Is that a perfect score?

That's the perfect score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cold Spring is surely the most competitive. While many kids with 140+ are put in the wait pool, I know an accepted kid with a SAS score of 160. Is that a perfect score?

That's the perfect score.

Wow. This is the kind of kid that the HGC program is truly meant for!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS was accepted with a lower SAS than some who were waitlisted for the same school (according to this thread). I'm worried now that he won't succeed in the program. He does perform at a high level in school and MAP tests, so it's not a total fluke, but those higher sas numbers are worrying me

I would not freak out. Go to the open house, talk to parents of kids who are currently in the HGC program, talk to your son's teacher. There are reasons he got in and reasons the committee thinks he will succeed. If you and he are willing to give HGC a try, go for it. The test is simply not determinative of a kid's ability to succeed in this program. As I've said upthread, my middle kid has been through it and while she and her cohort are extremely bright, I truly believe the "highly gifted" label is a misnomer. The curriculum is more like honors/advanced, not "highly gifted" level.

Thank you for your supportive words. He has not felt challenged in school, so I know he would enjoy a change in that regard, but to us he's extremely bright but not profoundly gifted. We did not prepare him for the test. I think seeing how the open house goes is a good plan. Thanks again.

Please don't get hung up on the gifted label, and especially by focusing on "profoundly" gifted, which is the tippy-top of the gifted spectrum.

A profoundly gifted child would likely need more than the HGC program offers. If your very bright kid (i.e., gifted or highly gifted, but not necessarily extremely or profoundly gifted) is not feeling challenged, then the HGC is the right fit, or at least a better fit than the home school.

Take a look at the Davidson Foundation's minimum qualification criteria for profoundly gifted. These are the kids that are in the 99.9th percentile on IQ/standardized tests:

http://www.davidsongifted.org/Young-Scholars/How-to-Apply/Qualification-Criteria

http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10387

And at this page's explanation of the spectrum of giftedness:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm

The profoundly gifted end of the spectrum is not representative of the HGC cohort of kids, believe me.

It's also important to understand what the CoGAT is and is not (understanding that this year's applicants did not take a full CoGAT). It's not an IQ test. It measures learned reasoning abilities, not innate abilities (as explicitly stated on the test publisher's website). It's a group intelligence test that's used for screening for gifted kids (as MoCo does here) by comparing them to their peers. There are significant limitations to the test, and some gifted kids may actually do worse and score lower than the very bright but not necessarily gifted:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/tests_tell_us.htm

http://www.hmhco.com/hmh-assessments/ability/cogat-6#faq

From personal experience, my daughter got into her HGC off the wait list right before 4th grade. I don't remember her CoGAT score (she took the full version) but it wasn't phenomenal. We were pretty clueless about the whole process, and did not even do basic prep like "don't rush, it's not a race, it's better to work more slowly and carefully than race through." She's always been the kid who seems to think there's a prize for finishing first, and her score reflected that. She had done the same thing on the Johns Hopkins CTY test.

My daughter had been bored at her home school (very well regarded), and leaped at the chance to go to HGC. She has thrived from day 1, and got into a magnet middle, where she is also thriving. I don't for a second think she is profoundly gifted, although we've never bothered doing the full battery of tests to see where she might fall on the smart vs. gifted spectrum. Her curriculum both at HGC and at magnet middle school has been more advanced and more interesting than the home elementary or middle schools. She gets excellent grades and great teacher feedback. Based on test scores only, she wouldn't have gotten the chance to participate in these programs.

I think you should have faith that your son will do well, and will especially benefit from having a cohort of smart peers. Give him the chance to succeed. If it really isn't the right fit, you can always pull him and return to your home school, no shame in that.

[Anonymous]

140 accepted for Oak View

[Anonymous]

11:27..thanks so much for the info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS was accepted with a lower SAS than some who were waitlisted for the same school (according to this thread). I'm worried now that he won't succeed in the program. He does perform at a high level in school and MAP tests, so it's not a total fluke, but those higher sas numbers are worrying me

The same with us. And we are in Cold Spring cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cold Spring is surely the most competitive. While many kids with 140+ are put in the wait pool, I know an accepted kid with a SAS score of 160. Is that a perfect score?

That's the perfect score.

Wow. This is the kind of kid that the HGC program is truly meant for!

Well, if that were the case there would probably be one class of two to three kids each year. About 1 out of every 30,000 kids has an IQ that high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cold Spring is surely the most competitive. While many kids with 140+ are put in the wait pool, I know an accepted kid with a SAS score of 160. Is that a perfect score?

That's the perfect score.

Wow. This is the kind of kid that the HGC program is truly meant for!

Well, if that were the case there would probably be one class of two to three kids each year. About 1 out of every 30,000 kids has an IQ that high.

But but I thought 40% of MCPS was gifted!!

[Anonymous]

One of the goals of the new test was to make it more subjective and less based on just 1 data point. To the pp's who are worried- stop! Your children will do wonderful. To be honest, I think any child scoring over 130 would be fantastic- too bad there aren't more seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cold Spring is surely the most competitive. While many kids with 140+ are put in the wait pool, I know an accepted kid with a SAS score of 160. Is that a perfect score?

That's the perfect score.

Wow. This is the kind of kid that the HGC program is truly meant for!

Well, if that were the case there would probably be one class of two to three kids each year. About 1 out of every 30,000 kids has an IQ that high.

It's not an IQ test. 160 is not the child's IQ score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is on waitlist of Cold Spring. His score is 141. Sigh.

WOW, 141 got waitlisted. I am wondering how much it needs to get into cold spring.

143 wait pool, cold spring
another friend, 142, cold spring, wait pool

That's crazy. Given the limited number of questions in the test, there is probably only one or two questions difference between those who got admitted and who got waitlisted.

Yep. The test this year is very trick to different kids abilities. That's why it was emphasized in the mail that test score is only one factor being evaluated and I sense it might be the least important factor.

What do you mean?

Test this year is easier and shorter with less questions. It's hard to differentiate one's ability by just looking at the score. One wrong question may cause big difference in the score. I guess the speed of answering the question may also count towards the final score.
BTW, who knows what the total score is?

It definitely was different. My eldest DD took the test two years ago and younger DD took it this year. They compared notes about the test and from the sounds of it, younger DD took a different test.

Who says its easier? Curious.

To be honest, I had my DC done 4 mockup tests a week before the GT test. I was told the mockup is the exact same format and amount of questions as the real test. It has 3 parts, needs 2 hours to complete.
But the actual test is way more easier than the mockup (according to DC), and it took only 30mins.
That's why I thought the test this year is different. Unless I was told the wrong information about the Mockups.

It is same test that you have been told but this time less questions to attempt