TJ PREP OPTIONS !!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please help instead of criticizing against prepping.

Learn all of Alg 1 on khan academy this summer. I’m not joking.

I'm going to plus one this and the other person who laid out a suggestion of newspapers + AOPS.

Whatever you are doing should involve getting your child real skills, which will transfer to the TJ exam, but are also useful in other contexts. I'm going to go further, though: if your child just scrapes in based on the test results, don't send him to TJ. It's incredibly difficult, time-consuming, and stressful. Your child will do better in the top 10% of Random High than he would in the the bottom 20% of TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is going to be a huge shake-up soon in how TJ admissions are handled. Don't waste your time or money prepping to game the current system.

Disregard this. I have no dog in this fight as I have a rising 5th grader and a k and FOR SURE my rising 5th grader won't be going to TJ (she has an artistic bend). But prepping and improving is always good. I not for TJ, it will serve your child in other ways and aspects of life - maybe even the SATS?


For instance, even though my child has an "artistic bend" as I mentioned, she is still doing AoPS during next year and many other extracurricular activities.

SATs are becoming less relevant as well as more and more schools move in a test-optional direction. You'd be better served developing a child who is, you know, interesting and self-motivated.

What is an interesting child, and how do you develop one?

Allow them to have a multitude of different experiences with diverse people that they select on their own.

Encourage them to reflect on those experiences to help them determine what they do and do not enjoy, and how they can best serve humanity.

Encourage them to express their feelings about those experiences, so that they will be prepared to write about them in an essay or discuss them in an interview.

Teach them about the importance of learning how to interact with people and to treat them as ends unto themselves, rather than as means to an end.

Most importantly, give them the agency to seek their own path, allow them to struggle, and be there to pick them up when they fail - not to clear the road for them, but to prepare them to select and navigate their own road.

Having interviewed hundreds of young people for various selective processes over the years, by far their biggest difficulty was inauthenticity. Students whose paths were prepared for them by their parents were frequently able to sound polished in short, generic settings, but when I dug deeper to beyond where they had been prepared, they fell apart. Students who were allowed to seek their own path, by constrast, were light-years ahead of the others when it came to being able to communicate beyond what had been handed to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is going to be a huge shake-up soon in how TJ admissions are handled. Don't waste your time or money prepping to game the current system.

Disregard this. I have no dog in this fight as I have a rising 5th grader and a k and FOR SURE my rising 5th grader won't be going to TJ (she has an artistic bend). But prepping and improving is always good. I not for TJ, it will serve your child in other ways and aspects of life - maybe even the SATS?


For instance, even though my child has an "artistic bend" as I mentioned, she is still doing AoPS during next year and many other extracurricular activities.

SATs are becoming less relevant as well as more and more schools move in a test-optional direction. You'd be better served developing a child who is, you know, interesting and self-motivated.

What is an interesting child, and how do you develop one?

Allow them to have a multitude of different experiences with diverse people that they select on their own.

Encourage them to reflect on those experiences to help them determine what they do and do not enjoy, and how they can best serve humanity.

Encourage them to express their feelings about those experiences, so that they will be prepared to write about them in an essay or discuss them in an interview.

Teach them about the importance of learning how to interact with people and to treat them as ends unto themselves, rather than as means to an end.

Most importantly, give them the agency to seek their own path, allow them to struggle, and be there to pick them up when they fail - not to clear the road for them, but to prepare them to select and navigate their own road.

Having interviewed hundreds of young people for various selective processes over the years, by far their biggest difficulty was inauthenticity. Students whose paths were prepared for them by their parents were frequently able to sound polished in short, generic settings, but when I dug deeper to beyond where they had been prepared, they fell apart. Students who were allowed to seek their own path, by constrast, were light-years ahead of the others when it came to being able to communicate beyond what had been handed to them.

So you want cookie cutkids from your own cookie cutter.

In top of that, you want them to not focus on their skills, but improve humanity based on feelings.

You want to find individuality in kids, who may not have the means and the opportunities that those means buy. You would probably find the poor kid who studies all day bland and uninteresting, because he hasn't seen the works enough.

....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is going to be a huge shake-up soon in how TJ admissions are handled. Don't waste your time or money prepping to game the current system.

Disregard this. I have no dog in this fight as I have a rising 5th grader and a k and FOR SURE my rising 5th grader won't be going to TJ (she has an artistic bend). But prepping and improving is always good. I not for TJ, it will serve your child in other ways and aspects of life - maybe even the SATS?


For instance, even though my child has an "artistic bend" as I mentioned, she is still doing AoPS during next year and many other extracurricular activities.

SATs are becoming less relevant as well as more and more schools move in a test-optional direction. You'd be better served developing a child who is, you know, interesting and self-motivated.

What is an interesting child, and how do you develop one?

Allow them to have a multitude of different experiences with diverse people that they select on their own.

Encourage them to reflect on those experiences to help them determine what they do and do not enjoy, and how they can best serve humanity.

Encourage them to express their feelings about those experiences, so that they will be prepared to write about them in an essay or discuss them in an interview.

Teach them about the importance of learning how to interact with people and to treat them as ends unto themselves, rather than as means to an end.

Most importantly, give them the agency to seek their own path, allow them to struggle, and be there to pick them up when they fail - not to clear the road for them, but to prepare them to select and navigate their own road.

Having interviewed hundreds of young people for various selective processes over the years, by far their biggest difficulty was inauthenticity. Students whose paths were prepared for them by their parents were frequently able to sound polished in short, generic settings, but when I dug deeper to beyond where they had been prepared, they fell apart. Students who were allowed to seek their own path, by constrast, were light-years ahead of the others when it came to being able to communicate beyond what had been handed to them.

So you want cookie cutkids from your own cookie cutter.

In top of that, you want them to not focus on their skills, but improve humanity based on feelings.

You want to find individuality in kids, who may not have the means and the opportunities that those means buy. You would probably find the poor kid who studies all day bland and uninteresting, because he hasn't seen the works enough.

....

And the above comment is a perfect example of the flawed thinking that holds so many students in this area back from reaching their true potential as their parents seek to place a hard floor on their starting salary. Kids HAVE individuality. They can work on and develop their skills WHILE having a life that is fulfilling and helps them to discover their purpose and passion. And yes, if a person spends all day studying, they will be bland and uninteresting - especially if they are shoehorned into studying only one area.

This is why we have doctors who lack the ability to empathize with their patients. This is why we have engineers who can optimize performance but not utility. And this is why we have hundreds of seniors at TJ walking around every year wondering why they didn't get into their school of choice - because elite universities are looking for interesting kids, and the TJ admissions process isn't....yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is going to be a huge shake-up soon in how TJ admissions are handled. Don't waste your time or money prepping to game the current system.

Disregard this. I have no dog in this fight as I have a rising 5th grader and a k and FOR SURE my rising 5th grader won't be going to TJ (she has an artistic bend). But prepping and improving is always good. I not for TJ, it will serve your child in other ways and aspects of life - maybe even the SATS?


For instance, even though my child has an "artistic bend" as I mentioned, she is still doing AoPS during next year and many other extracurricular activities.

SATs are becoming less relevant as well as more and more schools move in a test-optional direction. You'd be better served developing a child who is, you know, interesting and self-motivated.

What is an interesting child, and how do you develop one?

Allow them to have a multitude of different experiences with diverse people that they select on their own.

Encourage them to reflect on those experiences to help them determine what they do and do not enjoy, and how they can best serve humanity.

Encourage them to express their feelings about those experiences, so that they will be prepared to write about them in an essay or discuss them in an interview.

Teach them about the importance of learning how to interact with people and to treat them as ends unto themselves, rather than as means to an end.

Most importantly, give them the agency to seek their own path, allow them to struggle, and be there to pick them up when they fail - not to clear the road for them, but to prepare them to select and navigate their own road.

Having interviewed hundreds of young people for various selective processes over the years, by far their biggest difficulty was inauthenticity. Students whose paths were prepared for them by their parents were frequently able to sound polished in short, generic settings, but when I dug deeper to beyond where they had been prepared, they fell apart. Students who were allowed to seek their own path, by constrast, were light-years ahead of the others when it came to being able to communicate beyond what had been handed to them.

So you want cookie cutkids from your own cookie cutter.

In top of that, you want them to not focus on their skills, but improve humanity based on feelings.

You want to find individuality in kids, who may not have the means and the opportunities that those means buy. You would probably find the poor kid who studies all day bland and uninteresting, because he hasn't seen the works enough.

....

And the above comment is a perfect example of the flawed thinking that holds so many students in this area back from reaching their true potential as their parents seek to place a hard floor on their starting salary. Kids HAVE individuality. They can work on and develop their skills WHILE having a life that is fulfilling and helps them to discover their purpose and passion. And yes, if a person spends all day studying, they will be bland and uninteresting - especially if they are shoehorned into studying only one area.

This is why we have doctors who lack the ability to empathize with their patients. This is why we have engineers who can optimize performance but not utility. And this is why we have hundreds of seniors at TJ walking around every year wondering why they didn't get into their school of choice - because elite universities are looking for interesting kids, and the TJ admissions process isn't....yet.

Stop attacking TJ students and stop stereotyping TJ students as uninteresting. Conclusions as to whether someone is interesting or not is purely subjective. Trump maybe be interesting but certainly lacking in other areas and I will puke if I see another use of “passion” in education and college admissions context.

[Anonymous]

When looking for doctors or any other professionals, I'm looking for their skills, not their empathy, because empathy won't save my life, but good skills and knowledge have a chance of doing so.

Long live the nerds!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is going to be a huge shake-up soon in how TJ admissions are handled. Don't waste your time or money prepping to game the current system.

Disregard this. I have no dog in this fight as I have a rising 5th grader and a k and FOR SURE my rising 5th grader won't be going to TJ (she has an artistic bend). But prepping and improving is always good. I not for TJ, it will serve your child in other ways and aspects of life - maybe even the SATS?


For instance, even though my child has an "artistic bend" as I mentioned, she is still doing AoPS during next year and many other extracurricular activities.

SATs are becoming less relevant as well as more and more schools move in a test-optional direction. You'd be better served developing a child who is, you know, interesting and self-motivated.

What is an interesting child, and how do you develop one?

Allow them to have a multitude of different experiences with diverse people that they select on their own.

Encourage them to reflect on those experiences to help them determine what they do and do not enjoy, and how they can best serve humanity.

Encourage them to express their feelings about those experiences, so that they will be prepared to write about them in an essay or discuss them in an interview.

Teach them about the importance of learning how to interact with people and to treat them as ends unto themselves, rather than as means to an end.

Most importantly, give them the agency to seek their own path, allow them to struggle, and be there to pick them up when they fail - not to clear the road for them, but to prepare them to select and navigate their own road.

Having interviewed hundreds of young people for various selective processes over the years, by far their biggest difficulty was inauthenticity. Students whose paths were prepared for them by their parents were frequently able to sound polished in short, generic settings, but when I dug deeper to beyond where they had been prepared, they fell apart. Students who were allowed to seek their own path, by constrast, were light-years ahead of the others when it came to being able to communicate beyond what had been handed to them.

So you want cookie cutkids from your own cookie cutter.

In top of that, you want them to not focus on their skills, but improve humanity based on feelings.

You want to find individuality in kids, who may not have the means and the opportunities that those means buy. You would probably find the poor kid who studies all day bland and uninteresting, because he hasn't seen the works enough.

....

And the above comment is a perfect example of the flawed thinking that holds so many students in this area back from reaching their true potential as their parents seek to place a hard floor on their starting salary. Kids HAVE individuality. They can work on and develop their skills WHILE having a life that is fulfilling and helps them to discover their purpose and passion. And yes, if a person spends all day studying, they will be bland and uninteresting - especially if they are shoehorned into studying only one area.

This is why we have doctors who lack the ability to empathize with their patients. This is why we have engineers who can optimize performance but not utility. And this is why we have hundreds of seniors at TJ walking around every year wondering why they didn't get into their school of choice - because elite universities are looking for interesting kids, and the TJ admissions process isn't....yet.

Stop attacking TJ students and stop stereotyping TJ students as uninteresting. Conclusions as to whether someone is interesting or not is purely subjective. Trump maybe be interesting but certainly lacking in other areas and I will puke if I see another use of “passion” in education and college admissions context.

You are correct that a great amount of determining if someone is interesting is subjective - as are college admissions processes and job interviews. We definitely agree on Trump though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When looking for doctors or any other professionals, I'm looking for their skills, not their empathy, because empathy won't save my life, but good skills and knowledge have a chance of doing so.

Long live the nerds!!

And what has been proven is that this is a false choice. There are many things that a doctor does in addition to saving lives, and in order to be most effective, they must have both a deep fundamental understanding of medicine and an ability to communicate effectively with patients.

[Anonymous]

What does a doctor do, and why do you pay him/her $500/hr? I hope not for the chit chat. But then maybe you don't care about a good doctor. It seems you can afford to get sick and die. I on the other hand prefer to live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does a doctor do, and why do you pay him/her $500/hr? I hope not for the chit chat. But then maybe you don't care about a good doctor. It seems you can afford to get sick and die. I on the other hand prefer to live.

It's a false dichotomy. A doctor who knows you well both medically and interpersonally is going to provide you with better advice that you will be more comfortable with. It's possible to do both and the best doctors do.

The best doctor isn't the one who knows the most or went to the best finishing school - it's the one who delivers the best care. And yes, the interpersonal connection is a part of that care.

[Anonymous]

The doctor doesn't need to know me well. The doctor needs to know his subject well, and accurately connect my medical history and the subject matter. That is how I am confident in the doctor, not by him knowing how I feel when my dog barks.

It's funny, because while we denigrate our school system and ask for empathy, individuality, and interestingness, we keep importing knowledge from abroad, while not looking for empathy, interestingness, and coolness from the new arrivals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The doctor doesn't need to know me well. The doctor needs to know his subject well, and accurately connect my medical history and the subject matter. That is how I am confident in the doctor, not by him knowing how I feel when my dog barks.

It's funny, because while we denigrate our school system and ask for empathy, individuality, and interestingness, we keep importing knowledge from abroad, while not looking for empathy, interestingness, and coolness from the new arrivals.

You are not everyone. And talking about how a dog barks is a red herring meant to obscure the broader point that it is both possible and desirable for folks in any number of higher-order STEM professions to have people skills. Grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The doctor doesn't need to know me well. The doctor needs to know his subject well, and accurately connect my medical history and the subject matter. That is how I am confident in the doctor, not by him knowing how I feel when my dog barks.

It's funny, because while we denigrate our school system and ask for empathy, individuality, and interestingness, we keep importing knowledge from abroad, while not looking for empathy, interestingness, and coolness from the new arrivals.

What exactly is the benefit to the patient of a doctor NOT having people skills? Some of the people on this forum are just so myopic and immature in their thought processes. Good grief.

[Anonymous]

1. False choice
2. False dichotomy (repeat)
3. Red herring
4. (Soon to come) straw man

Advising people to forgo knowledge and competence for interestingness is ill meant.

Saying that it's preferred for one to be interesting in addition to being competent makes sense, but jeopardizing competence for coolness is just reckless.
Thankfully we live in a free country, where you can hire the cool plumber who will flood your house, the interesting electritian who will burn down your kitchen, the stem guy/gal who will poorly design your security system, and most importantly you are free to hire the interpersonal doctor who will kill you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. False choice
2. False dichotomy (repeat)
3. Red herring
4. (Soon to come) straw man

Advising people to forgo knowledge and competence for interestingness is ill meant.

Saying that it's preferred for one to be interesting in addition to being competent makes sense, but jeopardizing competence for coolness is just reckless.
Thankfully we live in a free country, where you can hire the cool plumber who will flood your house, the interesting electritian who will burn down your kitchen, the stem guy/gal who will poorly design your security system, and most importantly you are free to hire the interpersonal doctor who will kill you.

Great response.