2019 AAP Results

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So related as I am reading this. My 140 WISC/CoGAT kid also had very bad handwriting and scored very low in GBRS, we had to appeal to get him in. This is exactly the reason that the committee should not put too much weight on GBRS - too subjective.

Bad handwriting is not good, we worked on it this past summer for a few weeks by going through handwriting books, it is much better now. I was surprised to find out that handwriting was not really taught and practiced in school, but kids are penalized for not doing a good job.

My 130 Cogat kid got a 15 GBRS but still had to appeal to get in. This kid also had horrible handwriting. I don't think it's just the GBRS. The selection panel members don't have much time to evaluate the packet, and work samples that look sloppy with bad handwriting are very off-putting to the committee members. If from a quick glance the work samples don't look AAP worthy, I think they're much more inclined to reject. From what I've observed from my kid's AAP classes, the kids don't seem that amazing to me, but they certainly have pretty work products hanging in the hallways.

This is where you lost me. It's really difficult to see that other kids are "amazing" when you don't live with them like your own kid. And your "pretty work products" is dismissive of the kind of thinking it takes to organize and represent ideas visually and spatially--sure handwriting shouldn't get you into AAP--but there is intelligence, organization and discipline that is involved in creating work that communicates effectively. Over the years, I've seen kids with terrible handwriting on their products--including one of my kids in the center. It doesn't seem to have stopped their admission, but I don't know if there's a bias against it in admissions. Since kids' fine motor skills develop at different paces I don't think any kid should be dinged for bad handwriting, but I worry about your dismissive attitude that kids that create attractive work probably aren't that "amazing." This is a common way to dismiss girls' intelligence btw--suspecting they got in on their obedience, their pretty work products etc. I ask that you're careful not to don't feed into it. My AAP daughter has high scores AND really gets into visual design and spatial thinking in work products. Her work looks far more composed than her brothers. Her scores are nearly identical as her brother's who fit the more stereotypical "genius" with terrible handwriting, technical vocabulary, complicated ideas but he gets WAY more attention for being super-smart where she gets praised for being good and "talented" even though as her parent I see their nearly identical scores (she's a tad higher actually) similar levels of driving curiosity, intelligence and creativity in both.