Anonymous wrote:Op here Original Poster here.
Oh, guys—you’ve turned my post into a battleground!

I really don’t want to continue the back-and-forth, but let’s be honest: if you can guarantee that no one prepares their child, then I won’t either. That would make it a fair competition. Otherwise, I’ll prepare my child too.

To be clear, this isn’t just about preparation. Some kids just aren’t natural test takers. As I mentioned, my child didn’t take the test seriously at first grade and was just answering randomly. It wasn’t until second grade, when I taught him how to approach exams seriously, that things changed. For example, his iReady scores jumped from the 80s to 99%.

Some parents give their children IQ books just to keep them busy—not necessarily to prepare them. Their kids naturally start to understand patterns and how to approach certain types of questions. So why shouldn’t I do the same for my child? There’s nothing wrong or illegal about that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Suit yourself. Your child, your choice. Most kids will get some sort of support in their studies, even though yours may not. No tutoring, no SAT prep? I believe it's not cheating to provide a child with resources to master topics and tasks that they will be facing. That's how they learn and working at something is a good practice in various life stages.

DP. You’re cheating if you “prep” your kid for AAP selection (whether that be nnat, cogat, “helping” with work samples, “suggesting” projects, etc.) You believe it’s not cheating to give your kid an advantage over all of the thousands of other kids who don’t cheat.

It’s not cheating in your mind, because it benefits YOUR kid. (Any unfair advantage another parent provides to your kid that you don’t provide for yours is suddenly cheating in your mind, after all).

All the other kids can go to hell, right? Obviously their parents just don’t care as much as you, or they’re too stupid to want the best education for their own kids. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with other people having integrity and you having none, right?

FYI, “believing” something not to be true doesn’t make it not true.

You can "believe" it's cheating, but that doesn't make it true. I believe you are completely incorrect and reject your position that this is a matter of integrity or cheating. Your position is wrong. Period.

The test is puzzle games. Letting your kid play puzzle games is not cheating. Are parents supposed to not let their kids do any pattern matching or logic games at all until after 2nd grade, when they complete the nnat and cogat? That's a ridiculous and wrong take.

Your theory even goes farther. As I parent, am I no longer allowed to teach my kid math and writing, or anything else, at home because it BENEFITS only my kid, and not other kids? And that's an unfair AAP advantage as well? Your take gets more and more ridiculous as I write this. Your opinion is just, so wrong, on so many levels. You should stop and reevalute your logic here before preaching to others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Suit yourself. Your child, your choice. Most kids will get some sort of support in their studies, even though yours may not. No tutoring, no SAT prep? I believe it's not cheating to provide a child with resources to master topics and tasks that they will be facing. That's how they learn and working at something is a good practice in various life stages.

DP. You’re cheating if you “prep” your kid for AAP selection (whether that be nnat, cogat, “helping” with work samples, “suggesting” projects, etc.) You believe it’s not cheating to give your kid an advantage over all of the thousands of other kids who don’t cheat.

It’s not cheating in your mind, because it benefits YOUR kid. (Any unfair advantage another parent provides to your kid that you don’t provide for yours is suddenly cheating in your mind, after all).

All the other kids can go to hell, right? Obviously their parents just don’t care as much as you, or they’re too stupid to want the best education for their own kids. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with other people having integrity and you having none, right?

FYI, “believing” something not to be true doesn’t make it not true.

You can "believe" it's cheating, but that doesn't make it true. I believe you are completely incorrect and reject your position that this is a matter of integrity or cheating. Your position is wrong. Period.

The test is puzzle games. Letting your kid play puzzle games is not cheating. Are parents supposed to not let their kids do any pattern matching or logic games at all until after 2nd grade, when they complete the nnat and cogat? That's a ridiculous and wrong take.

Your theory even goes farther. As I parent, am I no longer allowed to teach my kid math and writing, or anything else, at home because it BENEFITS only my kid, and not other kids? And that's an unfair AAP advantage as well? Your take gets more and more ridiculous as I write this. Your opinion is just, so wrong, on so many levels. You should stop and reevalute your logic here before preaching to others.

You are pretending to argue something totally reasonable in order to suggest the poster is off base. There is nothing wrong with teaching your kid stuff. There IS something wrong with doing their work samples for them or sending them to a 6-week CogAT camp.

If just going over a couple of tests to understand the format to make sure no silly mistakes are made, that's not cheating in my mind, but that's not really what we're talking about here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Suit yourself. Your child, your choice. Most kids will get some sort of support in their studies, even though yours may not. No tutoring, no SAT prep? I believe it's not cheating to provide a child with resources to master topics and tasks that they will be facing. That's how they learn and working at something is a good practice in various life stages.

DP. You’re cheating if you “prep” your kid for AAP selection (whether that be nnat, cogat, “helping” with work samples, “suggesting” projects, etc.) You believe it’s not cheating to give your kid an advantage over all of the thousands of other kids who don’t cheat.

It’s not cheating in your mind, because it benefits YOUR kid. (Any unfair advantage another parent provides to your kid that you don’t provide for yours is suddenly cheating in your mind, after all).

All the other kids can go to hell, right? Obviously their parents just don’t care as much as you, or they’re too stupid to want the best education for their own kids. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with other people having integrity and you having none, right?

FYI, “believing” something not to be true doesn’t make it not true.

You can "believe" it's cheating, but that doesn't make it true. I believe you are completely incorrect and reject your position that this is a matter of integrity or cheating. Your position is wrong. Period.

The test is puzzle games. Letting your kid play puzzle games is not cheating. Are parents supposed to not let their kids do any pattern matching or logic games at all until after 2nd grade, when they complete the nnat and cogat? That's a ridiculous and wrong take.

Your theory even goes farther. As I parent, am I no longer allowed to teach my kid math and writing, or anything else, at home because it BENEFITS only my kid, and not other kids? And that's an unfair AAP advantage as well? Your take gets more and more ridiculous as I write this. Your opinion is just, so wrong, on so many levels. You should stop and reevalute your logic here before preaching to others.

You are pretending to argue something totally reasonable in order to suggest the poster is off base. There is nothing wrong with teaching your kid stuff. There IS something wrong with doing their work samples for them or sending them to a 6-week CogAT camp.

If just going over a couple of tests to understand the format to make sure no silly mistakes are made, that's not cheating in my mind, but that's not really what we're talking about here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Suit yourself. Your child, your choice. Most kids will get some sort of support in their studies, even though yours may not. No tutoring, no SAT prep? I believe it's not cheating to provide a child with resources to master topics and tasks that they will be facing. That's how they learn and working at something is a good practice in various life stages.

DP. You’re cheating if you “prep” your kid for AAP selection (whether that be nnat, cogat, “helping” with work samples, “suggesting” projects, etc.) You believe it’s not cheating to give your kid an advantage over all of the thousands of other kids who don’t cheat.

It’s not cheating in your mind, because it benefits YOUR kid. (Any unfair advantage another parent provides to your kid that you don’t provide for yours is suddenly cheating in your mind, after all).

All the other kids can go to hell, right? Obviously their parents just don’t care as much as you, or they’re too stupid to want the best education for their own kids. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with other people having integrity and you having none, right?

FYI, “believing” something not to be true doesn’t make it not true.

You can "believe" it's cheating, but that doesn't make it true. I believe you are completely incorrect and reject your position that this is a matter of integrity or cheating. Your position is wrong. Period.

The test is puzzle games. Letting your kid play puzzle games is not cheating. Are parents supposed to not let their kids do any pattern matching or logic games at all until after 2nd grade, when they complete the nnat and cogat? That's a ridiculous and wrong take.

Your theory even goes farther. As I parent, am I no longer allowed to teach my kid math and writing, or anything else, at home because it BENEFITS only my kid, and not other kids? And that's an unfair AAP advantage as well? Your take gets more and more ridiculous as I write this. Your opinion is just, so wrong, on so many levels. You should stop and reevalute your logic here before preaching to others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Suit yourself. Your child, your choice. Most kids will get some sort of support in their studies, even though yours may not. No tutoring, no SAT prep? I believe it's not cheating to provide a child with resources to master topics and tasks that they will be facing. That's how they learn and working at something is a good practice in various life stages.

DP. You’re cheating if you “prep” your kid for AAP selection (whether that be nnat, cogat, “helping” with work samples, “suggesting” projects, etc.) You believe it’s not cheating to give your kid an advantage over all of the thousands of other kids who don’t cheat.

It’s not cheating in your mind, because it benefits YOUR kid. (Any unfair advantage another parent provides to your kid that you don’t provide for yours is suddenly cheating in your mind, after all).

All the other kids can go to hell, right? Obviously their parents just don’t care as much as you, or they’re too stupid to want the best education for their own kids. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with other people having integrity and you having none, right?

FYI, “believing” something not to be true doesn’t make it not true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Suit yourself. Your child, your choice. Most kids will get some sort of support in their studies, even though yours may not. No tutoring, no SAT prep? I believe it's not cheating to provide a child with resources to master topics and tasks that they will be facing. That's how they learn and working at something is a good practice in various life stages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

LOL--great rationalization. But the parent prepped work examples are "a bridge too far"...

If a parent completes the work samples, the kid likely is lacking in talent and this will show pretty quickly in the classroom...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…

I don't believe prepping is "cheating" because the child is the one taking the exam and getting the score. Period. If that child learns well enough to achieve a great score on the exam, he or she has the ability to do well in the AAP program. AAP is not for geniuses, but for kids willing and able to learn and to work (a little for some, a lot for others).

Parents who prepare work samples and present them as their child's are being dishonest. That's a bridge too far and definitely cheating the process. Most likely, these samples don't count for much anyway, especially if they are outliers compared to the rest of the AAP packet. Perhaps most importantly, you are teaching your child the worst kind of lesson about how to get by in life.

Anonymous wrote:I got advice that this wasnt a good idea, but our work samples were his outside music performances and lego building. Both were beyond the age norm and something he spent considerable time and effort with. I thought they best showed his personality and creativity. He got in. It wasnt an appeal, but was after 3rd grade. He didn't have any math worksheets or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:AAP is mostly a farce. If you want him to have a shot, YOU invent something and pretend he did, like all the other uber competitive mommies do…