Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the main CES acceptance letter thread, there is mention of kids undergoing prep courses for the Cogat. Is this really s thing? If your kid was accepted into CES, did they take a prep course or other study in an attempt to score well
on the cogat?

My son was accepted with MCPS 95%, National 99%. No test prep.

Accepted, no test prep, and it's not really a thing. There's a lot of racism and misunderstanding on this board from insecure parents looking to blame something or someone for their child not getting in. The afternoon or Saturday classes are enrichment so they will do extra math and extra writing packets just like many many parents do at home. And believe me I know a ton of parents who roll their eyes at these Chinese programs but they have books upon books at home and even demand that teachers let their kids do enrichment workbooks at school because their kids are so "bored." There is not much difference in these two approaches, except many of the parents who sent their kids to these after school programs are first-generation immigrants and may not have the same background to be able to do the enrichment at home.

Some of these providers do give a limited amount of standardized testing overview like how to guess on questions that are multiple choice, but you cannot prep for an IQ test which is what Cogat is. You can familiarize yourself with the format of the questions but that's about it. My child said that when they took the Cogat screener test a large number of kids -- all white kids, FWIW -- came out saying they were surprised it was only however many sections it was instead of having more sections and why weren't those sections included. Obviously they had done some test "prep" at home but their parents would never call it that.

It has definitely been a thing in the past. There were whole courses for the testing for HGC, middle and HS magnet tests by several companies. You seem to be drawing attention to the fact that many of the preppers were Asian? That's the only thing I can think of when you start spewing about "racism." Well, they were. My kid at TPES saw lots of kids carrying A++ test prep books throughout Fall of 8th grade -- they had weekly classes and period mock tests. They's complain about being up past midnight to get it all done. And, yes, they ones my kid knew happened to all be Asian.

I don't know if the test changes have changed any prepping, but I'll bet it's still going on. Also, a specialized class towards prepping for a specific test is a lot different than reading with your kid or doing some math problems together.

You really believe in these "classes" they teach you useful "tactics"? I sort of knew that was not the case but to be safe I still sent DC to one of the classes during summer. It turns out that they were no different than reading with your kid or doing some math problems together.

You see many Asians doing that just because: (1) Asian parents tell each other about these things (2) many Asian parents were not really confident about themselves making the right decisions (as immigrants who may not know everything about this country) so sometimes they resort to these schools/classes to help their kids.


I prepared with DC on the high school magnet CoGAT and did the problems together. Did not send DC to any classes for those, and I believe some prep for the CoGAT is useful for getting the children used to the type of problems. But no extensive prep is really needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the main CES acceptance letter thread, there is mention of kids undergoing prep courses for the Cogat. Is this really s thing? If your kid was accepted into CES, did they take a prep course or other study in an attempt to score well
on the cogat?

My son was accepted with MCPS 95%, National 99%. No test prep.

Accepted, no test prep, and it's not really a thing. There's a lot of racism and misunderstanding on this board from insecure parents looking to blame something or someone for their child not getting in. The afternoon or Saturday classes are enrichment so they will do extra math and extra writing packets just like many many parents do at home. And believe me I know a ton of parents who roll their eyes at these Chinese programs but they have books upon books at home and even demand that teachers let their kids do enrichment workbooks at school because their kids are so "bored." There is not much difference in these two approaches, except many of the parents who sent their kids to these after school programs are first-generation immigrants and may not have the same background to be able to do the enrichment at home.

Some of these providers do give a limited amount of standardized testing overview like how to guess on questions that are multiple choice, but you cannot prep for an IQ test which is what Cogat is. You can familiarize yourself with the format of the questions but that's about it. My child said that when they took the Cogat screener test a large number of kids -- all white kids, FWIW -- came out saying they were surprised it was only however many sections it was instead of having more sections and why weren't those sections included. Obviously they had done some test "prep" at home but their parents would never call it that.

It has definitely been a thing in the past. There were whole courses for the testing for HGC, middle and HS magnet tests by several companies. You seem to be drawing attention to the fact that many of the preppers were Asian? That's the only thing I can think of when you start spewing about "racism." Well, they were. My kid at TPES saw lots of kids carrying A++ test prep books throughout Fall of 8th grade -- they had weekly classes and period mock tests. They's complain about being up past midnight to get it all done. And, yes, they ones my kid knew happened to all be Asian.

I don't know if the test changes have changed any prepping, but I'll bet it's still going on. Also, a specialized class towards prepping for a specific test is a lot different than reading with your kid or doing some math problems together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the main CES acceptance letter thread, there is mention of kids undergoing prep courses for the Cogat. Is this really s thing? If your kid was accepted into CES, did they take a prep course or other study in an attempt to score well
on the cogat?

My son was accepted with MCPS 95%, National 99%. No test prep.

Accepted, no test prep, and it's not really a thing. There's a lot of racism and misunderstanding on this board from insecure parents looking to blame something or someone for their child not getting in. The afternoon or Saturday classes are enrichment so they will do extra math and extra writing packets just like many many parents do at home. And believe me I know a ton of parents who roll their eyes at these Chinese programs but they have books upon books at home and even demand that teachers let their kids do enrichment workbooks at school because their kids are so "bored." There is not much difference in these two approaches, except many of the parents who sent their kids to these after school programs are first-generation immigrants and may not have the same background to be able to do the enrichment at home.

Some of these providers do give a limited amount of standardized testing overview like how to guess on questions that are multiple choice, but you cannot prep for an IQ test which is what Cogat is. You can familiarize yourself with the format of the questions but that's about it. My child said that when they took the Cogat screener test a large number of kids -- all white kids, FWIW -- came out saying they were surprised it was only however many sections it was instead of having more sections and why weren't those sections included. Obviously they had done some test "prep" at home but their parents would never call it that.

It has definitely been a thing in the past. There were whole courses for the testing for HGC, middle and HS magnet tests by several companies. You seem to be drawing attention to the fact that many of the preppers were Asian? That's the only thing I can think of when you start spewing about "racism." Well, they were. My kid at TPES saw lots of kids carrying A++ test prep books throughout Fall of 8th grade -- they had weekly classes and period mock tests. They's complain about being up past midnight to get it all done. And, yes, they ones my kid knew happened to all be Asian.

I don't know if the test changes have changed any prepping, but I'll bet it's still going on. Also, a specialized class towards prepping for a specific test is a lot different than reading with your kid or doing some math problems together.[/quote]

You really believe in these "classes" they teach you useful "tactics"? I sort of knew that was not the case but to be safe I still sent DC to one of the classes during summer. It turns out that they were no different than reading with your kid or doing some math problems together.

You see many Asians doing that just because: (1) Asian parents tell each other about these things (2) many Asian parents were not really confident about themselves making the right decisions (as immigrants who may not know everything about this country) so sometimes they resort to these schools/classes to help their kids.


I prepared with DC on the high school magnet CoGAT and did the problems together. Did not send DC to any classes for those, and I believe some prep for the CoGAT is useful for getting the children used to the type of problems. But no extensive prep is really needed.