What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about ADSA course? Heard it is very challenging? Teacher is tough.

Would like to hear more about it? Do kids have to self-study? What's so hard about it? Is there a textbook? Has anyone found a way to make this work for them? My kid will likely be taking this next semester.

Also curious about the algorithms and data structures class since DC will be taking it soon.

Can you explain why taking it next semester? I thought all magnet students took it throughout 10th grade, not half way through 9th or another grade.

Magnet kids can take an exam around the winter break to skip the 2nd semester of the first year CS class and begin the magnet equivalent of AP CS A a semester early. Kids that have had previous programming experience like the ones from TPMS, often do this but it's not necessary and not for everyone.

How do you learn about this? This hasn’t been shared with current students, and how do the PPs know that their kid is doing it if the test hasn’t happened yet?

It was true when my kid was there, but maybe it's changed. Ask Mr. O about it. I think the test was toward the end of Q2 and kids had to sign up for it. I think it's to allow kids who already have programming experience to skip ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about ADSA course? Heard it is very challenging? Teacher is tough.

Would like to hear more about it? Do kids have to self-study? What's so hard about it? Is there a textbook? Has anyone found a way to make this work for them? My kid will likely be taking this next semester.

Also curious about the algorithms and data structures class since DC will be taking it soon.

Can you explain why taking it next semester? I thought all magnet students took it throughout 10th grade, not half way through 9th or another grade.

Magnet kids can take an exam around the winter break to skip the 2nd semester of the first year CS class and begin the magnet equivalent of AP CS A a semester early. Kids that have had previous programming experience like the ones from TPMS, often do this but it's not necessary and not for everyone.

How do you learn about this? This hasn’t been shared with current students, and how do the PPs know that their kid is doing it if the test hasn’t happened yet?

This was shared at the information session, and many students heard this from older students.

What information session?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Magnet kids do not get all A’s. Every year I am amazed that people think they do. Why should they. The classes are harder and meant to challenge them.

Mine didn't. Had 2 Bs -- 1 in fxns (9th), 1 in Analysis 1 (10th). Did not prevent her from getting into 3 T15 and several top LACs. Some kids had more Bs and some a few Cs. Many had straight As though. I don't think a B or two makes a difference. A few more may.

And, they will be compared to their HS peers, so if one teacher is poor or deflates, or course is super challenging, that should reflect across the board. I am sorry to hear current precalc teacher isn't great. Definitely convey to Ostrander (kids shouldgo as group). If she doesn't teach anything else, it might be possible to look for a better option. The one many thought was sub par when my kid attended taught a niche math subject, so could not be easily replaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Magnet kids do not get all A’s. Every year I am amazed that people think they do. Why should they. The classes are harder and meant to challenge them.

Mine didn't. Had 2 Bs -- 1 in fxns (9th), 1 in Analysis 1 (10th). Did not prevent her from getting into 3 T15 and several top LACs. Some kids had more Bs and some a few Cs. Many had straight As though. I don't think a B or two makes a difference. A few more may.

And, they will be compared to their HS peers, so if one teacher is poor or deflates, or course is super challenging, that should reflect across the board. I am sorry to hear current precalc teacher isn't great. Definitely convey to Ostrander (kids shouldgo as group). If she doesn't teach anything else, it might be possible to look for a better option. The one many thought was sub par when my kid attended taught a niche math subject, so could not be easily replaced.

The one who taught the niche math subject. I'm guessing it's the teacher who I won't name but doesn't return grades in a timely manner and spends a lot of time on twitter?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?

They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.

I wonder if they regret it.

I’ve heard so.

Some can handle it, some can't. I wonder how students in both Functions and APUSH are faring. How many of them are there?

HW load
* for magnet 2-3 hours / night
* for APUSH 1-2 hours / night
* for Functions 3-4 hours /night

With those choices expect 6-8 hours of HW / night.

This is very inaccurate according to many students. Magnet classes have minimal HW and APUSH has an hour or so of homework every two classes. Functions HW varies between 1 hour and several hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?

They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.

I wonder if they regret it.

I’ve heard so.

Some can handle it, some can't. I wonder how students in both Functions and APUSH are faring. How many of them are there?

HW load
* for magnet 2-3 hours / night
* for APUSH 1-2 hours / night
* for Functions 3-4 hours /night

With those choices expect 6-8 hours of HW / night.

This is very inaccurate according to many students. Magnet classes have minimal HW and APUSH has an hour or so of homework every two classes. Functions HW varies between 1 hour and several hours.

True for my kid too. On average 2-3 hr/day homework time in total.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?

They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.

I wonder if they regret it.

I’ve heard so.

Some can handle it, some can't. I wonder how students in both Functions and APUSH are faring. How many of them are there?

HW load
* for magnet 2-3 hours / night
* for APUSH 1-2 hours / night
* for Functions 3-4 hours /night

With those choices expect 6-8 hours of HW / night.

This is very inaccurate according to many students. Magnet classes have minimal HW and APUSH has an hour or so of homework every two classes. Functions HW varies between 1 hour and several hours.

True for my kid too. On average 2-3 hr/day homework time in total.

My kid isn’t in functions and isn’t in APUSH and has 2 hours or so every night. Sometimes a little more, sometimes less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?

They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.

I wonder if they regret it.

I’ve heard so.

Some can handle it, some can't. I wonder how students in both Functions and APUSH are faring. How many of them are there?

HW load
* for magnet 2-3 hours / night
* for APUSH 1-2 hours / night
* for Functions 3-4 hours /night

With those choices expect 6-8 hours of HW / night.

That's about as accurate as anything based on my experiences sending two kids through SMCS and one to Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?

They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.

I wonder if they regret it.

I’ve heard so.

Some can handle it, some can't. I wonder how students in both Functions and APUSH are faring. How many of them are there?

HW load
* for magnet 2-3 hours / night
* for APUSH 1-2 hours / night
* for Functions 3-4 hours /night

With those choices expect 6-8 hours of HW / night.

This is very inaccurate according to many students. Magnet classes have minimal HW and APUSH has an hour or so of homework every two classes. Functions HW varies between 1 hour and several hours.

The consensus on several threads here with many many posts was 2-4 hours a night was the norm for functions.

Functions
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/legacy/posts/list/90/1112182.page

Blair magnet
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1127394.page

I'm sure you can find many more posts supporting these facts if you care to Google. There's even one poster who claims it's a lot less because kids are watching youtube videos and not focused but nobody else took them seriously and that wasn't our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the most challenging classes in the first two years? Any advice for a freshman to help them manage this? Should you buy textbooks for the classes where the teachers don't teach?

Challenging classes for DC are math and comp. sci. The rest are just 1 year science classes simply compressed into 1 semester per science subject. Not a challenge for kids with stamina and focus. If that is challenging, then taking notes in class is a good habit to cultivate. DC doesn't complain that teachers don't teach. But if that becomes a problem, have the kid should go straight to the source: ask the teacher how best to prepare for tests. And, if that doesn't produce positive results, email the teacher yourself and ask how you can best support your child at home. S/he would hopefully recommend strategies.

We have gotten a fair amount of negative feedback about the Precalculus teacher in 9th. We found a tutor that my DS meets with once every week or two and now he has an A, so I don't think it's that the material is too difficult but that the teaching isn't fantastic. Every other class has been great including non-magnet classes.

Surprised to hear this. DC and their friends think she's very good.

My DC says everyone in their class has problems with her. Most struggle to understand her teaching. Are you sure you aren’t confused? Lots of complaints. This year and last.

Is this the one that does reverse teaching? There was a long post about it last year. I think they may have videos of the material for the kids to watch and uses class time for kids to work on problems and answer individual questions,

So she basically does little instruction or teaching. She tells students to watch a video on the materials or pre-read, then work together on some problems during class while she sits there. “Flip the class.”

I remember Maret talking about that during a tour of their upper school. Sounded lazy there and then, as it does here.

This is what all the academically elite schools do. Paying a teacher to read the book to the kids is for remedial elementary-level students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People have been saying negative things about the computer science course and it being useless/too slow, what's going on in that course?

The first course is targeted to students who have no previous experience. More advanced students have the opportunity to test out of the year one course at the end of the 2nd semester and begin the magnet equivalent of APCS.

There are 2 AP CS classes, Principles and A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People have been saying negative things about the computer science course and it being useless/too slow, what's going on in that course?

The first course is targeted to students who have no previous experience. More advanced students have the opportunity to test out of the year one course at the end of the 2nd semester and begin the magnet equivalent of APCS.

There are 2 AP CS classes, Principles and A.

The real AP CS class which uses Java. Principles is a joke and nobody accepts credit for it, and it may be the single easiest AP course that exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Magnet kids do not get all A’s. Every year I am amazed that people think they do. Why should they. The classes are harder and meant to challenge them.

Mine didn't. Had 2 Bs -- 1 in fxns (9th), 1 in Analysis 1 (10th). Did not prevent her from getting into 3 T15 and several top LACs. Some kids had more Bs and some a few Cs. Many had straight As though. I don't think a B or two makes a difference. A few more may.

And, they will be compared to their HS peers, so if one teacher is poor or deflates, or course is super challenging, that should reflect across the board. I am sorry to hear current precalc teacher isn't great. Definitely convey to Ostrander (kids shouldgo as group). If she doesn't teach anything else, it might be possible to look for a better option. The one many thought was sub par when my kid attended taught a niche math subject, so could not be easily replaced.

The one who taught the niche math subject. I'm guessing it's the teacher who I won't name but doesn't return grades in a timely manner and spends a lot of time on twitter?

You are correct! Ding ding ding. And, he actually told the students he was too busy on social media to grade their work. So glad he's behind us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?

They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.

I wonder if they regret it.

I’ve heard so.

Some can handle it, some can't. I wonder how students in both Functions and APUSH are faring. How many of them are there?

HW load
* for magnet 2-3 hours / night
* for APUSH 1-2 hours / night
* for Functions 3-4 hours /night

With those choices expect 6-8 hours of HW / night.

This is very inaccurate according to many students. Magnet classes have minimal HW and APUSH has an hour or so of homework every two classes. Functions HW varies between 1 hour and several hours.

True for my kid too. On average 2-3 hr/day homework time in total.

My kid isn’t in functions and isn’t in APUSH and has 2 hours or so every night. Sometimes a little more, sometimes less.

I’m op that you reply to. For your information, my kid is taking function and apush, and spent 2-3 hrs/day on home work. More hours during weekends, like 4-5 hrs Sat and Sun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:80% have 4.75+ weighted gpa, omg

MASSIVE grade inflation.