Anonymous wrote:We live in McLean & rumors rage about underground Asian test prep going on. That's the word on the street. But I think that relates more to the bigger picture--the TJ goal!!!! Some keep their eyes on the TJ prize--AAP is just the stepping stone.
Anonymous wrote:Ability tests (like the WISC, the NNAT and the CogAt) absolutely are designed to be taken cold. That's why you can only give them to a student once every 12 months. Familiarity skews the results.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:"They" even recommend books? Who are they?
AAP handouts from fcps
Anonymous wrote:"They" even recommend books? Who are they?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I didn't realize people prepped 1st and 2nd graders for these tests until after my kid had taken both of them. We didn't even know that they were administering the NNAT until we got the score report.
How do you even get a 6-8 year old to test prep? Practice tests? Games? I can't see either of mine being at all interested in that.
When I see kids with consistently high scores and a low GBRS, I assume that they are either shy about sharing their talents in class or have a personality conflict with their teacher, but I'm also not on the selection committee so my opinion probably doesn't matter.
It's big among certain ethnic groups. People sign their kids up for classes that teach them how to take the tests.
It is supposedly amongst Asians. Our family is Asian-American. DS scored 138, was 99th percentile and was admitted to AAP. 2 weeks prior to the exam, we bought a Cogat book and DS did a practice exam. We went over the wrong answers. I think the school was going over the test as well. We did not test prep him to death. We just wanted DS to be familiar with the questions. I don't think I would have been able to raise his score all that much with going over the one test. Perhaps a few careless mistakes on questions. I think some people on this forum may consider this cheating, which I think is ridiculous. He also has all 4s on his report card. I am sure DS would have gotten into AAP whether we went over the one practice test or not.
It's cheating. The tests are designed to be taken cold, as a pp noted. Familiarity with the types of questions artificially inflates the scores.
Did you mention on the parent form that he had reviewed testing material prior to the test?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I didn't realize people prepped 1st and 2nd graders for these tests until after my kid had taken both of them. We didn't even know that they were administering the NNAT until we got the score report.
How do you even get a 6-8 year old to test prep? Practice tests? Games? I can't see either of mine being at all interested in that.
When I see kids with consistently high scores and a low GBRS, I assume that they are either shy about sharing their talents in class or have a personality conflict with their teacher, but I'm also not on the selection committee so my opinion probably doesn't matter.
It's big among certain ethnic groups. People sign their kids up for classes that teach them how to take the tests.
It is supposedly amongst Asians. Our family is Asian-American. DS scored 138, was 99th percentile and was admitted to AAP. 2 weeks prior to the exam, we bought a Cogat book and DS did a practice exam. We went over the wrong answers. I think the school was going over the test as well. We did not test prep him to death. We just wanted DS to be familiar with the questions. I don't think I would have been able to raise his score all that much with going over the one test. Perhaps a few careless mistakes on questions. I think some people on this forum may consider this cheating, which I think is ridiculous. He also has all 4s on his report card. I am sure DS would have gotten into AAP whether we went over the one practice test or not.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: We did not test prep him to death. We just wanted DS to be familiar with the questions. I don't think I would have been able to raise his score all that much with going over the one test. Perhaps a few careless mistakes on questions. I think some people on this forum may consider this cheating, which I think is ridiculous. He also has all 4s on his report card. I am sure DS would have gotten into AAP whether we went over the one practice test or not.
Don't delude yourself. A few careless mistakes on a few questions IS the difference between a 138 and a mid 120's score. The scoring is very harsh at the top, and a single extra problem wrong can be the difference between a 140 and a 130 on any section.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I didn't realize people prepped 1st and 2nd graders for these tests until after my kid had taken both of them. We didn't even know that they were administering the NNAT until we got the score report.
How do you even get a 6-8 year old to test prep? Practice tests? Games? I can't see either of mine being at all interested in that.
When I see kids with consistently high scores and a low GBRS, I assume that they are either shy about sharing their talents in class or have a personality conflict with their teacher, but I'm also not on the selection committee so my opinion probably doesn't matter.
It's big among certain ethnic groups. People sign their kids up for classes that teach them how to take the tests.
It is supposedly amongst Asians. Our family is Asian-American. DS scored 138, was 99th percentile and was admitted to AAP. 2 weeks prior to the exam, we bought a Cogat book and DS did a practice exam. We went over the wrong answers. I think the school was going over the test as well. We did not test prep him to death. We just wanted DS to be familiar with the questions. I don't think I would have been able to raise his score all that much with going over the one test. Perhaps a few careless mistakes on questions. I think some people on this forum may consider this cheating, which I think is ridiculous. He also has all 4s on his report card. I am sure DS would have gotten into AAP whether we went over the one practice test or not.