TJ Essay/SIS testing postponed to Feb. 7 for Loudoun and Prince William County Semifinalists

[Anonymous]

Loundoun and PW counties have postponed essay/SIS to February 7, 2015. Are they using the same prompts and if so isn't that unfair to the FCPS and Arlington semifinalists?

http://www.fcps.edu/pla/TJHSST_Admissions/news.html

[Anonymous]

I am wondering the very same thing. How is this going to be handled?

[Anonymous]

Why would it be unfair?

[Anonymous]

Agree with the PP. Why is it unfair? That was already a makeup day for kids who were sick yesterday, so they must already have an alternative test prepared.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they didn't have alternative test prepared for relatively few potentially sick students. Maybe they planned on giving the same tests to few sick students.

Now it will be several hundreds students from both counties taking the essay and sis exams on February 7 and there may not be enough time to prepare new essay and sis tests for the hundreds of students.

Even if they rushed and came up with new tests, doesn't that make the already subjective process worse by having different prompts for the long essay and the shorter essays among the semifinalist pool students?

I think it's a problem whether they administer the same test or come up with a different test.

[Anonymous]

They are going to know what the prompts are and have days to prepare.

[Anonymous]

I believe that if they don't have separate prompts they would have told the applicants not to tell others about the test. TJ has an honor code that requires similar behavior around testing at TJ. I doubt any applicant is going to want to risk their chance at admission by telling people waiting to take the test exactly what is on it. Not only might you get caught (and therefore excluded from final TJ admissions in a very embarrassing way), just the act of helping everyone in Loudoun gain an advantage on the test would be really counterproductive to your own (or your own child's) admission. And I also believe that if any Loudoun student found out the prompts and told tons of people or posted that information online, TJ admissions would find out and decline to admit that student. What are we left with? Maybe a couple kids tell their best friend something about the test on a top secret basis. That's not enough to harm the overall process in any material way. Or how about this? Kids taking the test pass out misinformation about the test. Frankly in the TJ pool, which includes a high population of hyper competitive families, I would suspect that is equally likely (but also equally likely to cause admissions to be cranky with anyone doing that).

[Anonymous]

All the counties should have postponed the testing together or all the counties should have administered the test this past Saturday. No need to add to the already contentious process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe that if they don't have separate prompts they would have told the applicants not to tell others about the test. TJ has an honor code that requires similar behavior around testing at TJ. I doubt any applicant is going to want to risk their chance at admission by telling people waiting to take the test exactly what is on it. Not only might you get caught (and therefore excluded from final TJ admissions in a very embarrassing way), just the act of helping everyone in Loudoun gain an advantage on the test would be really counterproductive to your own (or your own child's) admission. And I also believe that if any Loudoun student found out the prompts and told tons of people or posted that information online, TJ admissions would find out and decline to admit that student. What are we left with? Maybe a couple kids tell their best friend something about the test on a top secret basis. That's not enough to harm the overall process in any material way. Or how about this? Kids taking the test pass out misinformation about the test. Frankly in the TJ pool, which includes a high population of hyper competitive families, I would suspect that is equally likely (but also equally likely to cause admissions to be cranky with anyone doing that).

I think it would be more than couple of kids. Once couple of kids find out, soon it will dozens of kids. Admissions office is not likely to find out anything until after the testing.

[Anonymous]

They should void the Saturday tests and have all semifinalists take new tests on February 7. Problem solved and all applicants will have same prompts without anyone gaining advantage.

[Anonymous]

I guess we will have more TJ acceptances from Loudoun county and PW county this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are going to know what the prompts are and have days to prepare.

How?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess we will have more TJ acceptances from Loudoun county and PW county this year.

I think they have caps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess we will have more TJ acceptances from Loudoun county and PW county this year.

I think they have caps.

They never reach their caps. For example, I think Prince William county's cap is about 70 ~ 80 freshmen per year but it's actually about 13 to 16 each year. Not sure about Loudoun county's numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are going to know what the prompts are and have days to prepare.

How?

Fairfax and Arlington kids presumably already took the tests. They are probably 1,100 to 1,200 kids and one or more of them might have friends in Loudoun/Prince William county taking the test on February 7.