Middle School Magnet Test

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

New poster here.
Does test preparation enhance the odd for your child to get into the Highly selective program? Yes.
Is it fair? My DC got a great education at Blair. SAT-2300+ and 9 AP-5.
Years ago, she was bored in our MS and told me everyday that she learned nothing in school. In 8th grade, her math teacher inspired and woke her up. She was interested in learning and wanted to go to the magnet schools. Although she was an all A student, I knew she could not pass the test. We spent a lot of money send her to a prep class. Her test score improved 300 during the preparation. Long story short, she is studying math in a top college now.
If your kid is smart, motivated, well organized, and discipline, congratulation.
I will not hesitate to help my child to be the best of version of themselves.

Those of us who went to school understand the benefits of preparation and hard work for performance (in academics or other discipline). Even athletes, musicians and surgeons understand this concept. Most of the house wives and home economists on these boards have no experience and are clueless. They don't even understand the concept of preparation since to them it's looking for a couple of sample tests on the internet and bookstore with appropriate test label and bubbling...bubbling idiots...who beleieve their children were born smart, intelligent and knowledgeable.

Oh great. You don't have any research of your own to rebut all the evidence against you, so now you're calling us stupid. You realize, of course, that falling back on ad hominem attacks means you've LOST the argument.

I'm leaving now. You're an absolute twit with no actual arguments or evidence to offer, apart from some faked story about the Blair/RM magnet test. I'm off to use my IVY GRADUATE degree on a better cause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a prep class for magnet tests??

OF COURSE there are MCPS HS Magnet Prep classes. It's been years. Do a quick search on-line you will find at least 2 large private centers, and numerous smaller settings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There's a prep class for magnet tests??

Are you surprised? Get out of the kitchen. This is America and the nation of capitalism and free enterprise. If there is SAT prep why wouldn't their be magnet prep or catholic prep, or boarding school prep, or independent school prep, of SSAT prep, or TJ prep or GRE prep, or LSAT prep, of MCAT prep or PreK prep, or WPSSI prep? Do you want me to continue?

You can find any How to do book/manual or Sex for dummies manual if there is a buck to be made.

Uh oh, looks like PP got caught faking a story on DCUM. Sore Loser!

[Anonymous]

Oh great. You don't have any research of your own to rebut all the evidence against you, so now you're calling us stupid. You realize, of course, that falling back on ad hominem attacks means you've LOST the argument.

I'm leaving now. You're an absolute twit with no actual arguments or evidence to offer, apart from some faked story about the Blair/RM magnet test. I'm off to use my IVY GRADUATE degree on a better cause.

Well, we all know you are one of the rare anomalies (outside of the D.C. crowd) that never studied or prepped in school yet managed to obtain an Ivy graduate degree. I was certainly not as fortunate and lucky as you. I was not born with infinite knowledge and intelligence. My life was (and is) spent gaining this knowledge through hardwork, preparation and fun.

As for teh Blair/RM magnet test I have not a clue to whom or what you are referencing. Did you go to those schools too?

[Anonymous]

There is really no discussion had with an "individual" disputing the notion that hard work and preparation is not correlated with better performance. Much like vetinerary medicine ... you can't get a history from an animal speaking a different tongue.

[Anonymous]

This thread is off-track, so let us get back to the original discussion.

To answer the OP's question the type of questions for magnet tests are published.

To answer some of the other posters’ questions, yes there are prep classes. However, many prep classes do not teach the relevant test taking skills. I have some experience in this area. My DS is a smart kid, but performed poorly in HGC test. In spite of his need being recognized in the form of being placed in the wait pool, MCPS did not provide the appropriate service due to lack of spots in the HGC. He suffered through the next two years due to lack of challenge. As a risk mitigation strategy, I did prep him at home for MS magnet test and he was accepted into both MSCS and Humanities. I also prepped him for HS magnet test and he was accepted into all three programs at Poolesville and RM. I am not saying that I could have prepped him if he did not have the foundation to start with. But, the magnet tests are standardized test (similar to SAT) and the skills can be improved / developed. As a parent you have to know the difference between various prep classes though to know which one can really help your kids before handing them top dollars.

[Anonymous]

I don't know much about the format of the magnet entrance exam but the test prep cent used a SAT type of examine to assess the student. I strong ly agree that It may not work for everyone. It worked for my DD. On the first day she started, we saw the math teacher from her MS who inspired her, touring at the same center. I felt much better when I saw the prep center hired the best teacher from the public school. Disclosure: Her teacher did no teach the magnet prep class.

Test prep or not, you can decide for your child. A little help may benefit your child for the rest of his/ her life.
By the way, I am not here to promote the tutoring center so I would not mention if this is for TJ or MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:... the MCPS magnet programs are similar. These programs are for kids who do not study or prepare (prep).

Ugh. So disagree. I had kids in both HGC and middle school magnets. I thought that any kid who is either willing to work a little or naturally talented would do fine. Did not think either program was overly taxing.

[Anonymous]

Since you did not attend those programs I will discount what you say. I prefer the credibility of someone who has attended and walked the walk.

[Anonymous]

The parents of 2 kids in our community compared the MS magnet test result:

The kid who had above median in reading and writing parts, but lower in Raven was rejected in Humanity.

The kid who had median Raven and reading; but lower in writing was wait listed in Humanity.

The conclusion is, Raven test, which can't be prepped in some sense, seems to weight more then the other tests (reading, writing) in Humanity.

But at the same time, I am sure if a kid had above and beyond Raven point, but poor reading/writing (which CAN be prepped) will be rejected.

DD got in the computer science magnet. She intentionally didn't try her best in writing test to avoid Humanity program, is wait listed in Humanity.

[Anonymous]

These notes about "intentionally not doing her best" seem odd...why would you not try to do your best in any case? The final decision about whether to accept or not would be yours to make.

I also remember hearing a story about a few 3rd graders who "intentionally" bombed the test because they didn't want to leave their current school/friends/familiar environment. Sound odd to me....

or is it just the parents putting pressure on them to take the test without their input?

[Anonymous]

or is it just the parents putting pressure on them to take the test without their input? °

clarification: meant to say: is it just the parents putting pressure on their child to take the test without taking the child's input into account?

[Anonymous]

It's parents rationalizing why their child bombed on the test. Very common psychological behaviour. Kids not good in a subject and then parent goes on to explain the poor score in that subject was because the child didn't try.

We see this protective response all the time. Humans are frail beings indeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's parents rationalizing why their child bombed on the test. Very common psychological behaviour. Kids not good in a subject and then parent goes on to explain the poor score in that subject was because the child didn't try.

We see this protective response all the time. Humans are frail beings indeed.

No. The test has a carefully designed "escape hatch" for kids who are being pushed to take the test but don't actually want to attend the magnet. At the beginning of the test, the kid has to mark on a scale of 1-10 how much they want to attend the magnet. For a kid who wants to attend, the correct answer is obviously 10. The kid who has no interest in 3 intense years of science marks 1-5, and the test readers know how to interpret this as a lack of desire.

(Geez, some of you claim such familiarity with the magnets and magnet testing. But none of you knew this?)

[Anonymous]

No. The test has a carefully designed "escape hatch" for kids who are being pushed to take the test but don't actually want to attend the magnet. At the beginning of the test, the kid has to mark on a scale of 1-10 how much they want to attend the magnet. For a kid who wants to attend, the correct answer is obviously 10. The kid who has no interest in 3 intense years of science marks 1-5, and the test readers know how to interpret this as a lack of desire.

(Geez, some of you claim such familiarity with the magnets and magnet testing. But none of you knew this?)

Can you then explain why my kid put a 4 down (+/- interest) but then got in to both humanities and science/math schools. She ultimately decided to go in the fall after attending both open houses.

What "escape hatch" crap are you babbling about. If the child puts down a zero for this scaled question and then proceeds to score way above the mean in all subsections of both tests (including written response ) why would MCPS reject the kid (at their own potential legal peril). That would never happen. I assure you if the child bombed on the test -- bye bye. Yes, I have intimate familiarity with the process. You don't.

I can hear the lawyers now when MCPS states the child answered 0 to this question but had the highest score out of all 700 candidates. If the escape hatch was exercised it would have been when she signed to papers to go to the neighborhood school.