Magnets address the outliers. They are not appropriate for everyone.

Actually not. MCPS simply needs a hybrid curriculum of the best of Takoma Park (Math, Science, and Computer Science) and Eastern (humanities/social studies/languages: reading, writing, speaking) for K through 8...one curriculum!

Magnets address the outliers. They are not appropriate for everyone.

Yes, by and large under the bulk of the Bell shaped curve. I am not addressing outliers at the tails.

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:

There's a difference between getting a little familiarity with the type of questions and prepping to the point that the child's results don't reflect the chIld's educational needs.

Paradoxical pigeon sh_T. Akin to advice not train or exercise for your athletic contest since the familiarity and confidence this breeds will gain you results that don't reflect the child's athletic needs.
Some uneducated folk are plain dumb. They lack any life's preparation.

Sooo, you think everyone learns in exactly the same way?

Yes, by and large.

So, you believe that people do not have individual differences and that one size fits all when it comes to learning new things? That people learn at the same rate and some people don't grasp new ideas and concepts more quickly than others?

Anonymous wrote:

There's a difference between getting a little familiarity with the type of questions and prepping to the point that the child's results don't reflect the chIld's educational needs.


Paradoxical pigeon sh_T. Akin to advice not train or exercise for your athletic contest since the familiarity and confidence this breeds will gain you results that don't reflect the child's athletic needs.

Some uneducated folk are plain dumb. They lack any life's preparation.

Sooo, you think everyone learns in exactly the same way?

Yes, by and large.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had our child take a COGAT practice test. She said the real test was very similar (though the real test is about 190 questions and the practice had 90). She did well on the practice. No results yet but she did finish each section unlike most of her friends and I imagine being familiar helped.

My son got into both the programs in MS.
He must have done around 4000 questions over 4 months of prep. Around 4 hours of work every week - so 40 minutes or so every day. Some of the questions were more advanced than what was asked on the test or taught at school. However, having that practise meant that the actual test was easy and he could easily finish on time. He scored on or above median on all the 4 tests.

I was another PP who mentioned trying a cogat practice test as prep for the HGC test. What test preps does one use to test into the math and science magnet? Or has someone already mentioned what those tests are?

Here is what we did for SMACS.

1) SCAT test prep books and Raven prep - books from Amazon.com
2) Content and Standardized test questions from some old textbooks (pre-2.0).
3) 2 Prep centers - 2 in MoCo.
4) Math workbooks

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The questions have not been changed. The scores will be lower though. It's a very hard test.

Guess what? Median scores of accepted children 1 point higher in every section of the test compare to 2 years ago. ( I have kids who are 2 years apart.)
So answer is - we have bad curriculum, and now knowing it, most kids are prepped outside of school. Scores are higher.

The scores are higher, and that proves that the curriculum is worse?

I can think of a simpler explanation.

Anonymous wrote:

There's a difference between getting a little familiarity with the type of questions and prepping to the point that the child's results don't reflect the chIld's educational needs.

Paradoxical pigeon sh_T. Akin to advice not train or exercise for your athletic contest since the familiarity and confidence this breeds will gain you results that don't reflect the child's athletic needs.

Some uneducated folk are plain dumb. They lack any life's preparation.

Sooo, you think everyone learns in exactly the same way?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had our child take a COGAT practice test. She said the real test was very similar (though the real test is about 190 questions and the practice had 90). She did well on the practice. No results yet but she did finish each section unlike most of her friends and I imagine being familiar helped.

My son got into both the programs in MS.
He must have done around 4000 questions over 4 months of prep. Around 4 hours of work every week - so 40 minutes or so every day. Some of the questions were more advanced than what was asked on the test or taught at school. However, having that practise meant that the actual test was easy and he could easily finish on time. He scored on or above median on all the 4 tests.

I was another PP who mentioned trying a cogat practice test as prep for the HGC test. What test preps does one use to test into the math and science magnet? Or has someone already mentioned what those tests are?

We were more interested in getting my child into the magnet MS and HS programs, because the home ES was pretty decent and anyways, even the HGC was teaching 2.0.

However, when DC got into HGC, we realized that the peer group raised the bar on achievement and that proved to be the the best impetus to do well for our child.

There's a difference between getting a little familiarity with the type of questions and prepping to the point that the child's results don't reflect the chIld's educational needs.

Yes, this expert actually thinks each child has different nutritional and educational needs?

There is no significant variability around the nutritional or educational needs of MCPS children.

Good nutritional and academic slop is good for all in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:We had our child take a COGAT practice test. She said the real test was very similar (though the real test is about 190 questions and the practice had 90). She did well on the practice. No results yet but she did finish each section unlike most of her friends and I imagine being familiar helped.

My son got into both the programs in MS.
He must have done around 4000 questions over 4 months of prep. Around 4 hours of work every week - so 40 minutes or so every day. Some of the questions were more advanced than what was asked on the test or taught at school. However, having that practise meant that the actual test was easy and he could easily finish on time. He scored on or above median on all the 4 tests.

We had our child take a COGAT practice test. She said the real test was very similar (though the real test is about 190 questions and the practice had 90). She did well on the practice. No results yet but she did finish each section unlike most of her friends and I imagine being familiar helped.

Why are people so hesitant to answer questions? I have no idea what the middle school magnet tests are based on. My DS didn't prepare for that at all (and didn't get in.) But he also didn't prepare for the HGC test a couple years ago, except for like 2 sample questions, and he did get in. Those two sample questions I found by googling "Cogat sample questions" because I saw (on DCUM, I think) that the HGC test was cogat, or something like it.

for my second ds, I did buy this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981581099/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll admit it. No idea if it helped or not. It's a very short book, and just gives sample questions. I don't think it teaches the child much, but gives them an idea of how to take such a test. I didn't want him to fail just because he misunderstood the instructions. But maybe that IS giving him an unfair advantage. But this forum gave me the impression that that's what people are doing.

Anonymous wrote:The questions have not been changed. The scores will be lower though. It's a very hard test.

Guess what? Median scores of accepted children 1 point higher in every section of the test compare to 2 years ago. ( I have kids who are 2 years apart.)
So answer is - we have bad curriculum, and now knowing it, most kids are prepped outside of school. Scores are higher.