Prepping/Scamming the Cogat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal told me to prep! I was so dumb! It took me some time to understand that when he said ..."you go on the Internet and you find some ...ummm materials... then you have your DCs study them...then you will see a rise in scores..." He meant prep, duhh. And then you will leave this school and never come back! What great advice and so glad I did! Really worked well. A win-win for all.

I asked a parent what the test was like and she referred to this site. I bought a book from Amazon 4 days before the actual test and my DC did the test on the weekends. I am not sure if it helped or not because when he did the test, he made very few mistakes. The actual test results seemed lower.

I prepped my son. Got the new Fairfax County test prep. as well as numerous other CogAT tests and critical thinking books. We worked half an hour or so a day for two or three weeks and then crammed with tests before the exam (plus the section specific practice tests each night during the test). My DC did great. I have no regrets whatsoever. We are thrilled and so is she. I think you waited a little to long to start, as it is a process to get some of the patterns down. The repeat, as there are only so many ways you can flip a pattern.

Can you give the links of what you specifically bought?

[Anonymous]

So well said!!! 10+
Why do we have no problem with the grouping by abilities in sports, music, etc but academics?

You are so wise. This explains why we have junior varsity and varsity teams. Well said.

[Anonymous]

Are these surgeons, pilots, and judges in second grade?? You're talking about grown adults who are making choices for their own further education--not 6-year-olds whose prep is entirely driven by Mom and Dad.

When you clean you children bottoms, diapers and bed sheets I wonder who is driving this?

Children should not prepare ...only adults. Then there would be no doctors, mathematicians, violinists or pilots.

Even cave men and babies prepared in their day. If you didn't you starved or were eaten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal told me to prep! I was so dumb! It took me some time to understand that when he said ..."you go on the Internet and you find some ...ummm materials... then you have your DCs study them...then you will see a rise in scores..." He meant prep, duhh. And then you will leave this school and never come back! What great advice and so glad I did! Really worked well. A win-win for all.

I asked a parent what the test was like and she referred to this site. I bought a book from Amazon 4 days before the actual test and my DC did the test on the weekends. I am not sure if it helped or not because when he did the test, he made very few mistakes. The actual test results seemed lower.

I prepped my son. Got the new Fairfax County test prep. as well as numerous other CogAT tests and critical thinking books. We worked half an hour or so a day for two or three weeks and then crammed with tests before the exam (plus the section specific practice tests each night during the test). My DC did great. I have no regrets whatsoever. We are thrilled and so is she. I think you waited a little to long to start, as it is a process to get some of the patterns down. The repeat, as there are only so many ways you can flip a pattern.

Can you give the links of what you specifically bought?

Mercer and Critical Thinking. Worth every penny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So well said!!! 10+
Why do we have no problem with the grouping by abilities in sports, music, etc but academics?

You are so wise. This explains why we have junior varsity and varsity teams. Well said.

Really? There are junior varsity soccer teams for 8 year olds? And there are advanced strings classes for 9 year olds? There's regular leveling across elementary schools in America where the stronger musicians and athletes are separated out by age 8 and 9? Yeah, I didn't think so.

The problem with grouping for academics at this young age is that kids' minds are so flexible and changing. And there are kids who arrive in kindergarten, but have had limited reading and vocabulary experiences. They begin to thrive once in school, but still need more schooling and experiences to really take off. If you were to test them at age 7 or 8, they might perform as strongly as their peers who came into school with a rich language experience at home.

Save the tracking for high school.

[Anonymous]

^^^ might NOT perform as strongly as their peers...

[Anonymous]

Some 6 and 7 yr olds can swim all 4 swim strokes well and some simply need a wading pool or the junior varsity. I'm surprised you didn't know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So well said!!! 10+
Why do we have no problem with the grouping by abilities in sports, music, etc but academics?

You are so wise. This explains why we have junior varsity and varsity teams. Well said.

Really? There are junior varsity soccer teams for 8 year olds? And there are advanced strings classes for 9 year olds? There's regular leveling across elementary schools in America where the stronger musicians and athletes are separated out by age 8 and 9? Yeah, I didn't think so.
The problem with grouping for academics at this young age is that kids' minds are so flexible and changing. And there are kids who arrive in kindergarten, but have had limited reading and vocabulary experiences. They begin to thrive once in school, but still need more schooling and experiences to really take off. If you were to test them at age 7 or 8, they might perform as strongly as their peers who came into school with a rich language experience at home.

Save the tracking for high school.

Uhmmm ... well, at least with some sports the better athletes are absolutely separated out from the lesser so at age 9+, just as they should be.

[Anonymous]

Really? There are junior varsity soccer teams for 8 year olds? And there are advanced strings classes for 9 year olds? There's regular leveling across elementary schools in America where the stronger musicians and athletes are separated out by age 8 and 9? Yeah, I didn't think so. The problem with grouping for academics at this young age is that kids' minds are so flexible and changing. And there are kids who arrive in kindergarten, but have had limited reading and vocabulary experiences. They begin to thrive once in school, but still need more schooling and experiences to really take off. If you were to test them at age 7 or 8, they might perform as strongly as their peers who came into school with a rich language experience at home.

Save the tracking for high school.

Yes, they do track in different sports and activities at that age range, and in some younger. Serious, competitive gymnastics starts around age 6. The most promising go into a very different type of program than kids like mine who are at a very different level. Travel soccer? Age 9. Serious music vs my 1 class/week strings student? Hours of training each week by this age. Serious differentiation in dance? In ballet, it starts at age 8, competitive dance around 7-9. Swimming? The kids on the swim team in my neighborhood are doing daily practicies around ages 6-7, where my kid who loves swimming but is not at an advanced level either goes once a week for 50 minutes, or goes just for fun.

If you look at all kids activities across the board, most of the serious differentiation occurs either a little before or just after 3rd grade.

I will speak to dance because that is the activity I know the most about. Serious differentiation at that age for the few kids who are ready can create wonderful results, and allow those kids to take off at a pace and level that best suits their ability and learning style. But guess what? Many other kids taking the slow and steady route begin to catch up, and sometimes surpass the early bloomers right around high school. They were not damaged in the least by other kids having the opportunity at an earlier age to learn at the speed and level that best aligned with their ability. Letting kids move at the right speed, at all ends of the spectrum, truly is the best way to achieve success. Different paths might lead to the same outcome, and that is okay.

[Anonymous]

This thread suddenly reminded me of a saying I heard years ago. It was something like, when we are pregnant and expecting our child, we say all we are hoping for is for the baby to be normal, ten toes, ten fingers, etc. and once that child is born, being normal is never enough. I really wish we all could hear each other in about twenty years when your children are young adults, making up their own minds, and believe me, in their 20's, it is their own minds. You all want to give your children the strongest beginning they can get, but that doesn't look the same for all and it is not the end of the world if it doesn't look like what you think it should.

[Anonymous]

Phelps benefitted immensely in gold with early tracking in swimming at the wee ages between 7 and 8 at NBAC. He did not wait for the rest to catch up with him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread suddenly reminded me of a saying I heard years ago. It was something like, when we are pregnant and expecting our child, we say all we are hoping for is for the baby to be normal, ten toes, ten fingers, etc. and once that child is born, being normal is never enough. I really wish we all could hear each other in about twenty years when your children are young adults, making up their own minds, and believe me, in their 20's, it is their own minds. You all want to give your children the strongest beginning they can get, but that doesn't look the same for all and it is not the end of the world if it doesn't look like what you think it should.

I like you.

[Anonymous]

This thread suddenly reminded me of a saying I heard years ago. It was something like, when we are pregnant and expecting our child, we say all we are hoping for is for the baby to be normal, ten toes, ten fingers, etc. and once that child is born, being normal is never enough. I really wish we all could hear each other in about twenty years when your children are young adults, making up their own minds, and believe me, in their 20's, it is their own minds. You all want to give your children the strongest beginning they can get, but that doesn't look the same for all and it is not the end of the world if it doesn't look like what you think it should.

Rubbish. The lack of preparation in life is what is abnormal. Normal children with 23 chromosomes learn the value of preparation early in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread suddenly reminded me of a saying I heard years ago. It was something like, when we are pregnant and expecting our child, we say all we are hoping for is for the baby to be normal, ten toes, ten fingers, etc. and once that child is born, being normal is never enough. I really wish we all could hear each other in about twenty years when your children are young adults, making up their own minds, and believe me, in their 20's, it is their own minds. You all want to give your children the strongest beginning they can get, but that doesn't look the same for all and it is not the end of the world if it doesn't look like what you think it should.

I like you.

Thank you. I do have to say, it is refreshing to see reality checks and common sense show up at times on DCUM. It is all the rest of it, like whoever called me rubbish, is what makes it fascinating to read.

[Anonymous]

Children are children and require adult supervision and guidance (including parental). When they are adults they are free to leave the nest unsupervised. Didn't you know this? It's the same in the animal world.