Anonymous wrote:2300...we're in the same boat. My child is currently in an independent private that is fairly rigorous; has gotten mostly A's, but some B's the last 2 years; took the SSAT, ISEE and HSPT and did extremely well on the SSAT/HSPT and pretty good on the ISEE; was one of the first finished with the SWW test and said it was a breeze....then today i get an email stating we're out of the running -_- I'm absolutely baffled....

Baffled? It is one of the best high schools in the city and it is free. Hundreds of exceptionally smart kids from all over the city sit for that test. Many will get a perfect score.

Anonymous wrote:I take issue with the folks who complain about the essay. While I concede the grading of an essay may be subjective — it is valid for Walls to test whether a student writes well, since it is a humanities based curriculum that calls for students already having basic writing skills. It is fair for them to want to see a writing a sample from prospective students.

I agree with this. Asking kids to write the essay there is also the most fair way to get a writing sample. The SSAT and the ISEE also have essays. No one complains about that.

I am posting this not as a humble brag but for context for others because I had such a hard time finding info when we were waiting.

My DC received an invite. DC is a straight A student at Deal, has always gotten 5s on the PARCC with one exception (was about 1 question off a 5 on the Algebra I PARCC last year, but was taking as a 7th grader). DC said the test was hard and was worried about having skipped Math 8 as there were some concepts on the test DC had never been taught. DC also said some of the ELA questions were hard and this is a child that has always scored better than 97-99% of the students in DC’s current school (JKLM and then Deal) as well as across the city on the ELA sections of tests.

My DC is a child that always does well on standardized tests and said this was a hard test. DC never finds standardized tests hard and spent 3 hours on the test. I would have been surprised had DC not received an invite but it was not outside the realm of the possible.

I take issue with the folks who complain about the essay. While I concede the grading of an essay may be subjective — it is valid for Walls to test whether a student writes well, since it is a humanities based curriculum that calls for students already having basic writing skills. It is fair for them to want to see a writing a sample from prospective students.

Anonymous wrote:Not sure why everyone is upset about SWW admissions. They are clear about the criteria to take the test (GPA and specific score on standardized test). They are clear that the top 250 scorers on the test get an interview. What does it matter what the specific score was? Then there is an interview, which is, of necessity, subjective. For private schools they just tell you to submit everything and do an interview and then they decide. There are no criteria, other than telling you they are looking for 'fit' or something.

Because the essay is also subjective, no one knows how much it counts toward the decision to invite a student to interview and whether they grade all the essays and if it's the same person reviewing all of them.

Anonymous wrote:We got an email from see today notifying that my child didn't meet the test requirements and is out. Ok.
The big puzzle is that he is almost all a student in a private Catholic school and took 3 he tests recently with the following results: ssat 97% average, isee 94-98, Catholic hs test 99%. He said sww test was very easy. Someone else on this forum said their test is a joke.wtf?? Can anyone explain this?

My DC took the SSAT, HSPT and Walls test this year. From easiest to hardest: HSPT, SSAT, Walls test.

Not sure why everyone is upset about SWW admissions. They are clear about the criteria to take the test (GPA and specific score on standardized test). They are clear that the top 250 scorers on the test get an interview. What does it matter what the specific score was? Then there is an interview, which is, of necessity, subjective. For private schools they just tell you to submit everything and do an interview and then they decide. There are no criteria, other than telling you they are looking for 'fit' or something.

Anonymous wrote:

Essays...

Interviews...

Sounds like SWW is maximizing the chances for subjetivity and corruption, instead of hard data.

Why would that be?

The SWW application process couldn't be less subjective. The test is really the only criterion. The top 250 scorers get to the interview round. Then 150 get accepted. After that they go to the waitlist. Last year they went pretty far into the wait list so most of the 250 top scorers were eventually offered a spot.

If you want to know your DCs score and what this year's cutoff was, they will give it to you. Very transparent process.

+100

Essays...

Interviews...

Sounds like SWW is maximizing the chances for subjetivity and corruption, instead of hard data.

Why would that be?

The SWW application process couldn't be less subjective. The test is really the only criterion. The top 250 scorers get to the interview round. Then 150 get accepted. After that they go to the waitlist. Last year they went pretty far into the wait list so most of the 250 top scorers were eventually offered a spot.

If you want to know your DCs score and what this year's cutoff was, they will give it to you. Very transparent process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got an email from see today notifying that my child didn't meet the test requirements and is out. Ok.
The big puzzle is that he is almost all a student in a private Catholic school and took 3 he tests recently with the following results: ssat 97% average, isee 94-98, Catholic hs test 99%. He said sww test was very easy. Someone else on this forum said their test is a joke.wtf?? Can anyone explain this?

Maybe his essay was bad. None of those tests mentioned above grade their essays. Maybe SWW gives more weight to the essay in case the kids have similar scores.

I hope your child will go to another good school. Good luck!

Essays...

Interviews...

Sounds like SWW is maximizing the chances for subjetivity and corruption, instead of hard data.

Why would that be?

So they should focus on standardized tests only? What suddenly happened to the well-rounded concept? Give me a break. Accept you won’t always win. Some people here is absolutely crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got an email from see today notifying that my child didn't meet the test requirements and is out. Ok.
The big puzzle is that he is almost all a student in a private Catholic school and took 3 he tests recently with the following results: ssat 97% average, isee 94-98, Catholic hs test 99%. He said sww test was very easy. Someone else on this forum said their test is a joke.wtf?? Can anyone explain this?

Maybe his essay was bad. None of those tests mentioned above grade their essays. Maybe SWW gives more weight to the essay in case the kids have similar scores.

I hope your child will go to another good school. Good luck!

Essays...

Interviews...

Sounds like SWW is maximizing the chances for subjetivity and corruption, instead of hard data.

Why would that be?

Anonymous wrote:2300...we're in the same boat. My child is currently in an independent private that is fairly rigorous; has gotten mostly A's, but some B's the last 2 years; took the SSAT, ISEE and HSPT and did extremely well on the SSAT/HSPT and pretty good on the ISEE; was one of the first finished with the SWW test and said it was a breeze....then today i get an email stating we're out of the running -_- I'm absolutely baffled....

Being one of the first to finish does not mean highest score. As a PP stated 1000 kids took the test, the cutoff is based on top 250 and maybe finishing first led to a few careless errors. That's all it takes to be below the cut off score. It doesn't mean your child isn't qualified, or wouldn't be able to succeed at Walls.

About 400 of the thousand+ kids taking the test will tell their parents it was easy. Unfortunately, it is a hard line cut score so only the top 250 of them can get an interview, and then only 150 of them will get a spot. It is very competitive.

The excess of confidence can be a trap. You two sound too entitled. Some disappointment will be good for your boys, honestly.

Anonymous wrote:We got an email from see today notifying that my child didn't meet the test requirements and is out. Ok.
The big puzzle is that he is almost all a student in a private Catholic school and took 3 he tests recently with the following results: ssat 97% average, isee 94-98, Catholic hs test 99%. He said sww test was very easy. Someone else on this forum said their test is a joke.wtf?? Can anyone explain this?

Maybe his essay was bad. None of those tests mentioned above grade their essays. Maybe SWW gives more weight to the essay in case the kids have similar scores.

I hope your child will go to another good school. Good luck!