Regret prepping for cogat now . . .

[Anonymous]

Anybody else?

We did two of the Mercer books with DC. I hadn't even heard of Mercer before this forum, but reading others' posts made me curious and not want to let DC miss out on anything . . . Now I'm feeling regretful. Will he be called out for being "prepped" like other thread was suggesting?

Hopefully it won't be a problem. I think we will do things differently for DC #2. Probably the best thing would be to stay off this board so the craziness doesn't creep in again!

On the other hand, if I didn't prep him at all, I might be feeling regretful right now about that decision.

[Anonymous]

No I don't regret it but I can't say what we did was much. I got the Mercer books, and I sat down with dd once for about 20-30 minutes. We did a few questions from two parts of the test. I graded them. Then a couple of weeks later, dh worked with dd for about 30 minutes on a couple of other parts. I just wanted her to have an idea what the test would look like. And I was also curious too. I was worried that because she is below grade level in reading, that it would impact her score. I was glad to see it was more of a bunch of pictures. Dh didn't even grade or point out wrong answers. haha, so not like she learned what was right or wrong, just what to expect.

They prepped yesterday in class, so I think everyone else would be pretty much where my dd.

[Anonymous]

Goodness, have you really nothing else to worry about? You must be lucky!

Really, it's going to be fine. One, prepping is not a bad thing. Two, he's not going to get into trouble for it. Three, you did what you could to prepare him, which is your job as a parent. Good for you. Now move on.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I do worry too much.

[Anonymous]

I'm genuinely curious -- is all the talk of prepping to get into AAP something that has taken off in the past few years? My daughter (in AAP) was in second grade five years ago and there was zero talk of test prep, workbooks, etc.(But I wasn't on DCUM then!) I really didn't have any of this stuff, that fills up whole threads on here, on the radar. It might have been because our base school was one that had a lot of issues with academics so the school and many parents were focused greatly on just raising the standardized test scores overall, so maybe those families with kids who were eventually AAP-bound (which meant leaving that base school, for sure) just never heard about all this prep talk. I am not asking because I feel we should have prepped -- that boat sailed long ago -- but because I've been a bit baffled to see all the threads on DCUM for and against AAP prep. Is this a pretty recent "industry"?

[Anonymous]

I don't know, 13:03. I know that my own awareness of prep and the issues around it was non-existent until DCUM (about 2 yrs ago). So, not sure whether it was around before but I just wasn't clued in.

It may be the difference between DCUM and real life. Like, in real life I never hear moms arguing SAHM vs. WOHM and the like, but here it certainly makes it sound like we're all obsessed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, 13:03. I know that my own awareness of prep and the issues around it was non-existent until DCUM (about 2 yrs ago). So, not sure whether it was around before but I just wasn't clued in.

It may be the difference between DCUM and real life. Like, in real life I never hear moms arguing SAHM vs. WOHM and the like, but here it certainly makes it sound like we're all obsessed.

What she/he said

[Anonymous]

I only heard about it after my child got into TJ. I had been aware that people prepped their kids for the TJ test, although we didn't, but my child came home from school the first weeks in high school and told me how many of the kids talked about their test prep classes and the kinds of prep they did. Out of curiosity, I went looking for more information and found out that parents were prepping their kids for the AAP identification tests also and that there were areas where parents were making a bit of money selling test prep books to other parents.

I never heard of this when my child was in first and second grade! Back then, there were 10-12% in the program, so maybe the numbers have gone up because of people prepping their kids for these test ahead of time, I don't know. From descriptions on this board, it sounds like the program may be different than when my child went though it simply because of the increase in numbers. I would imagine that if you broaden the spectrum of the ability level you're looking for, that that would change the nature of class discussions and the type of work the teacher can assign.

[Anonymous]

I'm with you, 13:03

Our base school has such a small number of AAP eligible kids that I never heard about any of this prepping stuff when my kids were in 2nd grade (5 and 6 years ago).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm genuinely curious -- is all the talk of prepping to get into AAP something that has taken off in the past few years? My daughter (in AAP) was in second grade five years ago and there was zero talk of test prep, workbooks, etc.(But I wasn't on DCUM then!) I really didn't have any of this stuff, that fills up whole threads on here, on the radar. It might have been because our base school was one that had a lot of issues with academics so the school and many parents were focused greatly on just raising the standardized test scores overall, so maybe those families with kids who were eventually AAP-bound (which meant leaving that base school, for sure) just never heard about all this prep talk. I am not asking because I feel we should have prepped -- that boat sailed long ago -- but because I've been a bit baffled to see all the threads on DCUM for and against AAP prep. Is this a pretty recent "industry"?

There are one-two really bitter parents on this forum who think that their kid did not get a fair chance at AAP because other people (usually blaming Asians) prepped their kids. According to these posters, it is scores and scores of parents who do this. They have first hand knowledge that all these families are gaming the system, except for themselves

You can tell the tone and writing style of the main posters crying foul. Then it gets parroted, embellished, etc, a big game of telephone where people hear that everyone is testing.

In reality, with three fcps kids (one a current 2nd grader and another in a center), I have never heard of a single family that actually prepped for these things, beyond what they would have done whether or not this test was happening. There is the kid who complains about being forced to do Kumon for math (mom let him drop it this year), and the handful of kids who go to Chinese school every week, but no giant test prep machine.

It is mostly a bunch of manufactured drama by a few posters with buckets of sour grapes.

[Anonymous]

There is the kid who complains about being forced to do Kumon for math (mom let him drop it this year), and the handful of kids who go to Chinese school every week, but no giant test prep machine.

To be fair, my mom-friends at the dance studio, tell me that part of the time their kids spend at Korean or Russian or Chinese school on the weekends is spent on what are essentially test prep type lessons. They miss or come late to rehearsals because they spend a number of hours at their cultural school on the weekends. I used to think that they were learning their heritage language at that time, but I've been told by the parents and the kids that a lot of the time is math and TJ prep.

[Anonymous]

I know of one person that prepped their kids -- I suspect in certain groups it is more common. Mostly it is people who come from societies with limited resources where "failing" a single test dooms you to a life of poverty.

[Anonymous]

We prepped with the book and my kid reported the book examples were much easier and he didn't feel like was very helpful.

We are to in Ffx city but in a neighboring jurisdiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are one-two really bitter parents on this forum who think that their kid did not get a fair chance at AAP because other people (usually blaming Asians) prepped their kids. According to these posters, it is scores and scores of parents who do this. They have first hand knowledge that all these families are gaming the system, except for themselves
You can tell the tone and writing style of the main posters crying foul. Then it gets parroted, embellished, etc, a big game of telephone where people hear that everyone is testing.

In reality, with three fcps kids (one a current 2nd grader and another in a center), I have never heard of a single family that actually prepped for these things, beyond what they would have done whether or not this test was happening. There is the kid who complains about being forced to do Kumon for math (mom let him drop it this year), and the handful of kids who go to Chinese school every week, but no giant test prep machine.

It is mostly a bunch of manufactured drama by a few posters with buckets of sour grapes.

Oh no, it's you again -- the poster who likes to insist that there are only "one or two" parents claiming that many parents prep. It's so amusing to hear you try and convince everyone else that there couldn't possibly be more than a couple of people who feel differently than you. At any rate, at our center school, it is common knowledge that prepping parents send their kids to a certain woman's home where she holds prepping classes for the CogAt. It's no secret and lots of families do this; she guarantees the children in her classes will get into AAP. And guess what? They do. Some are Asian, but most aren't (I don't know where you're getting that whole Asian remark? Tons of non-Asian kids in AAP at our school). So you go right ahead and pretend it's a bunch of "manufactured drama". Hey, whatever makes you feel better.

[Anonymous]

21:31, is the area you're talking about Great Falls?