Current TJ Student answering questions
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Anonymous
OP here: Hi, welcome to the area! Fairfax has great academics for advanced learners and Langley is a very very good high school. Most kids at TJ were in AAP from a young age, and they're normally prepared very well for the admission test and freshman year  But, elementary-age is really young for kids to know what they want -- if your sons end up not being interested in TJ or STEM that much as they get older, I wouldn't advise pushing them too much towards the school. A lot of the kids that burn out at TJ have been pushed very far academically by their parents for their entire lives and can't handle the pressure anymore, or never wanted to go into STEM in the first place.
At TJ there's a lot of high achievers and subsequent comparison. Burnout happens when kids extend themselves too far in taking hard classes or striving for only perfect grades, whether by their own choice or by their parent's choice, and lose their passion for learning. This is more students than one might expect -- but definitely not everyone. I haven't gone through junior year yet, but I know that after 3 years of TJ junior year is commonly where people burnout, if they do. Junior year is characterized as the hardest year in high school. But, participating in activities and extracurriculars that you genuinely love can help minimize the chance for burnout. For me, that's band--which is a good "chill" class to destress and be with friends doing something I love afterschool. For others this might be debate, or journalism, or other 8th period clubs (our club time is factored into the school day) where kids can kind of unwind if they're stressed academically. It's all about developing a personal balance concerning schoolwork, and knowing where your limits are. TJ's golf and tennis teams are very, very good. I would put these sports teams (as well as swim and dive) as TJ's most consistently successful competitive sports. The tennis team is large and very competitive to tryout for (unlike other sports at TJ, they make cuts), but I believe that they've won regionals for multiple years now, and also did well at states? Tennis is very respected at TJ and again, the people that do it tend to be very good and place well in competition. Golf at TJ is also very good competitively, though the tryouts are less rigorous. I think they'll teach anyone interested, and the coach is a really cool guy and they changed golf to be co-ed a couple years ago. TJ's golf team is actually pretty well known in the general area as being successful. Soccer at TJ is also a pretty large sport. There's a JV and V team--but they encourage all skill levels to try out, even if you've never played before, and start a student-led preseason in December. The students that do soccer always end up being pretty good friends due to the collaborative nature of the sport. The people that do it usually end up really, really loving it. It's a great way to make friends and have fun. Sports at TJ usually have daily practice for a couple hours and occasional games on the weekends. Depending on the sport, the required attendance might be different--but I'd bet it's highly encouraged to attend all the practices. Sports are a great and supportive community at TJ, and though it's a time commitment, it helps us learn to manage the time we do have efficiently. If you have any more questions feel free to ask
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Anonymous
OP here: I can give a few examples of the incidents that I know about. I don't know the punishments from before I attended TJ -- like the sophomore cheating ring was before my time. I assume that administration gave detentions or suspensions to the students found to be involved. Alternatively, they might have been sent to the TJ Honor Council which is a group of students that work with other students and teachers to positively build back the relationship marred by cheating. When the junior this past year was caught using a camera pen, the curve (grade raise) of the physics midterm was removed for many juniors in the class, negatively affecting their grades. I believe that this student was suspended and the people he had planned on selling the pictures to were given disciplinary warnings. News of this incident spread really quickly among the school though. A few of my close friends have been accused of cheating--they were pulled out of class silently by an administrator, who then proceeded to take them into their office and ask them for the truth. They then said that they had not cheated (which I believe to be true) and showed proof, to the suspicion of the administrator, but and all was well. I assume that most cheating cases are handled similarly, where the student in question is brought out to be talked to one-on-one by an administrator, then given a referral or worse consequences if found to be guilty of cheating. Two years ago a someone anonymously reported to admin on Ion (TJ internet server) that a few people had found all of the answers to a take-home chemistry test on Google and had cheated by copying the answers. This was only brought to light months later, where the teacher got very angry that no one had told her directly--and again removed the curve for all those chem students, negatively affecting people not involved. She also determined that she would write no teacher recommendations for any of her students in that grade. I remember this being really, really bad for some people, especially those who had nothing to do with the incident at all--the curve was removed months after the test was graded and their grades dropped a lot, not to mention the detriment of not being able to ask for a recommendation from an AP teacher. But this does go to show how seriously cheating is taken at TJ. I know someone who left the classroom for too long during the AMC and was given Saturday detention -- which I had never heard of existing at TJ before this. I'm not too knowledgable about the disciplinary system at TJ, but I know that multiple referrals can eventually lead to a detention, which goes on your record. There's also suspension, which is reserved for really serious cases, and expulsion, which I haven't heard of happening. |
Anonymous
| If TJ Vents were a movie, who would you cast (student and/or adult roles, your choice)? |
Anonymous
OP here: Lol sorry- I’m kind of confused by this question, what do you mean? |
Anonymous
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OP, Best wishes to you and thanks for doing this.
1) You have mentioned in one of the earlier posts that they follow a text book for RS-1.Which one is that? 2) We live quite far from TJ and the ride to TJ on the school bus would take well over an hour. Are kids allowed to eat on the bus? I am worried about my DS skipping the breakfast or being hungry on the way back home. |
Anonymous
| Can you please explain how the honors and AP grade bumps work? If you got a B+ in an honors class, does it already include the 0.5 bump or would you add the 0.5 bump when calculating GPA, that is, would it show as an A- after adding the 0.5 bump on the transcript? TIA |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
OP here: No problem anon! 1) After searching a little, I've found that it's Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data, 4th edition; Rossman and Chance, 2012. But, RS1 is only half of the AP Stats curriculum -- so there's a lot of stuff in the textbook that's not included in RS1. The units for the class are Unit 1: Probability Unit 2: Describing Data Unit 3: Experimental Design Unit 4: Z scores Unit 5: T-tests Unit 6: Scatterplots and Correlation 2) Your commute is on the higher end, but many people do it every year. I've always been allowed to eat on the bus and most of my friends have been able to too, and while I'm not sure if this rule differs for other bus drivers, I don't think it's enforced very heavily. So most likely yes, they can eat on the bus. (Also as a side note post-school hunger is definitely a real thing. I get so hungry right after school ends and I don't know why lol.) |
Anonymous
OP here: https://fallschurchhs.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting So this is the same for all FCPS -- honors classes (freshman year, this is Bio, English, Stats, Math, and Foundations CS) have a +0.5 grade bump, while APs (AP CS, APUSH, AP Calc, etc) and post-APS (Artificial Intelligence, Organic Chemistry, Multi, Complex, etc) have +1.0 grade bumps. This bump is only factored into WEIGHTED GPA calculation. So if I was taking Honors Bio and got a B+, my transcript will show a B+, but when my GPA is calculated it takes into account the honors bump. So it would be as if I got an A- in the class. To calculate GPA you can add +0.5 or +0.1 respectively to the grade you received in the class, then do that for all of your classes and then take the average. Make sure to count high school courses you took in middle school and divide by 2 if it’s a semester class. Here’s an example: Let’s say I took Algebra 1, Geometry, and Spanish 1 in middle school and I got As in all of those classes. Freshman year, I’m taking IBET, RS1, Math 3, AP CS, PE, and Spanish 2. I want to know what my GPA would be if I were to get an A in PE, biology, English, tech, stats, and AP CS, a B in Spanish, and a B+ in math 3. The values for each class would be as follows: Middle School Algebra 1: 4.5 (add 0.5 because it’s an honors class) Middle School Geometry: 4.5 Middle School Spanish 1: 4 --- Biology: 4 + 0.5 = 4.5 English: 4 + 0.5 = 4.5 Tech: 4 (don’t add anything because it’s unweighted) Stats: 4 + .5 = 4.5 / 2 = 2.25 (divide by 2 because it’s a semester class) Math 3: 3.3 + .5 = 3.8 / 2 = 1.9 (divide by 2 because it’s a semester class) AP CS: 4 + 1 = 5 (add 1 because it’s AP) PE: 4 Spanish 2: 3 Take the mean of those values, and that’s what your GPA would be. |
Anonymous
Not OP. A few years ago, one student in my DD graduation class was cheating. When came to letter of recommendation to colleges, the school provided hence in recommendation letters to colleges. She did not get into top school nor second tier schools. |
Anonymous
OP here: TJ is a little different than other schools in the way they handle band. Marching band at TJ (TJMC), unlike base school, is completely voluntary--that is, if you take the curricular band class as a class during the school day (we have two band periods and two percussion periods) and don't want to do marching band, then you don't have to. So I'll talk about curricular band and TJMC as separate things. Curricular: The two curricular band classes are the largest classes at TJ. Normally people try it out freshman year, take Foundations CS over the summer (taking CS is a requirement for us before junior year), then a solid amount (half the sophomores?) do a "band skip year" sophomore year in order to fit in all of their requirements for senior labs. Some never come back to band, but most rejoin junior and senior year. It's not uncommon at TJ to be a 4-year-elective student though, whether that's in band, orchestra, journalism, art, or the like. If you were not in marching band and only taking the curricular class then the time commitment (outside of personal practice and the occasional concert) is minimal. No auditions are required. You're not expected to stay afterschool for anything or use more than a couple blocks of your 8th period club time for band. Band is a class, while debate and MUN (model UN) are clubs that function in 8th periods and outside of the school day. So if you take band in the year and don't do TJMC, it's just another class you're taking and you're free to join however many other ECs you want/handle. Not every god-tier level band kid does TJMC, I can think of many people that are insanely good and only take the class. TJMC: TJMC acts effectively as a fall sport, so if you do TJMC you can't do a different fall sport (field hockey, cross country, football, maybe another that I'm forgetting). TJMC is literally the most fun group ever TJMC is a large afterschool commitment for the first quarter, but again -- your 8th period club time is still free for you to do whatever you want, so you could still participate in debate or MUN during these times, you just might not be able to go to some weekend competitions until after marching band ends. Then after first quarter/TJMC ends you have all the free time to do anything you want. I know personally some my TJMC friends do debate, CubeSAT (building satellites), and Quizbowl at the same time as marching band. They are involved when they can be during marching season and then are able to get even more involved after first quarter, which is when involvement starts to matter more imo. You can also do a winter sport (basketball, indoor track, gymnastics) or spring sport (crew, lacrosse, soccer, I'm definitely forgetting some sports somewhere).
A small minority of band students at TJ devote themselves entirely to band -- that is, taking 4 years of curricular, 4 years of TJMC, then 4 years of indoor drumline (fall + spring "sport" which any TJ student is allowed to join), spending 8th periods practicing or playing for drama's musical orchestra, getting into all-district and being super cool...etc. If they really enjoy music, then this is optimal for them. Most others combine their interest in band with other extracurriculars, since TJ's voluntary approach to things allows more flexibility in what you can do. Lastly a shameless plug for TJMC: it's so fun, it's the best time, definitely joining was the best decision I've ever made, if you don't take band you can be a total beginner with no music experience to join color guard and the front ensemble always needs piano players of any skill level, if you want to do the group we'll always find a place for you, we do generally well competitively and everyone's so passionate we looooove marching band
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Anonymous
Thank you |
Anonymous
Thank you so very much!
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Anonymous
Thank you so much for providing all of the above detail. Its amazing how well you write and how well you express your thoughts. Good to see your passion for band -
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