Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 2nd grade. The kid is pretty smart, not genius level or anything, but he gets by. He’s incredibly creative, though, so I thought he would be a good fit for AAP. So, like all the parents in my neighborhood, I bought a couple of books over the summer and had him practice for 20 minutes a day until the test. I got the results—105 NV, 119 Q, 135 V. My kid has never been good at math or special reasoning, but I figured with enough prep he would figure it out. Well, he didn’t. He told me he could study 24 hours a day and still won’t be able to flip an image in his head. How do parents prep their kids to overcome an inmate lack of aptitude in math or spatial reasoning?

A lot of these posters will try to discourage you. Their goal is to thin the herd. They aren't being honest. The books won't cut it for most kids and having a parent do it is also not ideal. If you're serious, check out one of the prep centers. These places are packed so despite their denials many kids are there prepping for this test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 2nd grade. The kid is pretty smart, not genius level or anything, but he gets by. He’s incredibly creative, though, so I thought he would be a good fit for AAP. So, like all the parents in my neighborhood, I bought a couple of books over the summer and had him practice for 20 minutes a day until the test. I got the results—105 NV, 119 Q, 135 V. My kid has never been good at math or special reasoning, but I figured with enough prep he would figure it out. Well, he didn’t. He told me he could study 24 hours a day and still won’t be able to flip an image in his head. How do parents prep their kids to overcome an inmate lack of aptitude in math or spatial reasoning?

A lot of these posters will try to discourage you. Their goal is to thin the herd. They aren't being honest. The books won't cut it for most kids and having a parent do it is also not ideal. If you're serious, check out one of the prep centers. These places are packed so despite their denials many kids are there prepping for this test.

What centers prep for COGAT?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 2nd grade. The kid is pretty smart, not genius level or anything, but he gets by. He’s incredibly creative, though, so I thought he would be a good fit for AAP. So, like all the parents in my neighborhood, I bought a couple of books over the summer and had him practice for 20 minutes a day until the test. I got the results—105 NV, 119 Q, 135 V. My kid has never been good at math or special reasoning, but I figured with enough prep he would figure it out. Well, he didn’t. He told me he could study 24 hours a day and still won’t be able to flip an image in his head. How do parents prep their kids to overcome an inmate lack of aptitude in math or spatial reasoning?

A lot of these posters will try to discourage you. Their goal is to thin the herd. They aren't being honest. The books won't cut it for most kids and having a parent do it is also not ideal. If you're serious, check out one of the prep centers. These places are packed so despite their denials many kids are there prepping for this test.

What centers prep for COGAT?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test can absolutely be prepped. But to be really effective you’d have to plan for long term over years to introduce and solidify concepts. The brain, especially at that age is really maleable and plastic. Of course the child needs to have some ability on his own, but a 50 percentile average student can easily get to the 90th percentile with appropriate instruction and practice in less than 2 years. It won’t happen in a month if this is what you understand by prepping.

To the posters that think it’s impossible, just look up how intelligence tests are developed, what kind of subject matter is tested, it can be learned.

I do however question how useful it is to put that much effort into it though. I think your child would be better off learning actual math, reading, doing sports or just developing hobbies and interests.

At that point, doesn’t it qualify as enrichment? Spending years molding an average child into a bright one, I mean. Or are you talking about signing up 3 and 4 year olds for CoGat boot camps? I think most “prep” looks more like what OP described—workbooks for a few weeks/months at months. Years of prepping seems like an extreme outlier.

i know many who did years of Kumon and Mathnasium.

Lots of people do Kumon and Mathnasium but, as PP said, that's more about general math enrichment than prepping for the CogAT specifically.

I apparently live a sheltered life because I know exactly no one whose kids do either, unless it's on the down low.

At least 1/4 of DS’s class goes to RSM or Mathnasium and we are not in an AAP obsessed school. Most of the kids selected for LIV stay at the school and we have a cluster model for LLIV so they are not staying because their kids will be in a LLIV class. And those are the kids we know of because we are friends with the families or they have talked about it at school, there might be more. We have a Sylvan learning center walking distance from us that seems to be busy enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 2nd grade. The kid is pretty smart, not genius level or anything, but he gets by. He’s incredibly creative, though, so I thought he would be a good fit for AAP. So, like all the parents in my neighborhood, I bought a couple of books over the summer and had him practice for 20 minutes a day until the test. I got the results—105 NV, 119 Q, 135 V. My kid has never been good at math or special reasoning, but I figured with enough prep he would figure it out. Well, he didn’t. He told me he could study 24 hours a day and still won’t be able to flip an image in his head. How do parents prep their kids to overcome an inmate lack of aptitude in math or spatial reasoning?

A lot of these posters will try to discourage you. Their goal is to thin the herd. They aren't being honest. The books won't cut it for most kids and having a parent do it is also not ideal. If you're serious, check out one of the prep centers. These places are packed so despite their denials many kids are there prepping for this test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test can absolutely be prepped. But to be really effective you’d have to plan for long term over years to introduce and solidify concepts. The brain, especially at that age is really maleable and plastic. Of course the child needs to have some ability on his own, but a 50 percentile average student can easily get to the 90th percentile with appropriate instruction and practice in less than 2 years. It won’t happen in a month if this is what you understand by prepping.

To the posters that think it’s impossible, just look up how intelligence tests are developed, what kind of subject matter is tested, it can be learned.

I do however question how useful it is to put that much effort into it though. I think your child would be better off learning actual math, reading, doing sports or just developing hobbies and interests.

At that point, doesn’t it qualify as enrichment? Spending years molding an average child into a bright one, I mean. Or are you talking about signing up 3 and 4 year olds for CoGat boot camps? I think most “prep” looks more like what OP described—workbooks for a few weeks/months at months. Years of prepping seems like an extreme outlier.

i know many who did years of Kumon and Mathnasium.

Lots of people do Kumon and Mathnasium but, as PP said, that's more about general math enrichment than prepping for the CogAT specifically.

I apparently live a sheltered life because I know exactly no one whose kids do either, unless it's on the down low.

Anonymous wrote:I think the real secret here is that the families that prep are likely the families that are just...very very smart and invested in educational achievement and have been this way since Day 1 and have seen dividends pay off already so they know it's a fair and safe bet that prepping will take what would have been an amazing score and turn it into an amaaaaaazing score.

So...I guess the answer is you don't. Your kid sounds self-aware which is great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test can absolutely be prepped. But to be really effective you’d have to plan for long term over years to introduce and solidify concepts. The brain, especially at that age is really maleable and plastic. Of course the child needs to have some ability on his own, but a 50 percentile average student can easily get to the 90th percentile with appropriate instruction and practice in less than 2 years. It won’t happen in a month if this is what you understand by prepping.

To the posters that think it’s impossible, just look up how intelligence tests are developed, what kind of subject matter is tested, it can be learned.

I do however question how useful it is to put that much effort into it though. I think your child would be better off learning actual math, reading, doing sports or just developing hobbies and interests.

At that point, doesn’t it qualify as enrichment? Spending years molding an average child into a bright one, I mean. Or are you talking about signing up 3 and 4 year olds for CoGat boot camps? I think most “prep” looks more like what OP described—workbooks for a few weeks/months at months. Years of prepping seems like an extreme outlier.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test can absolutely be prepped. But to be really effective you’d have to plan for long term over years to introduce and solidify concepts. The brain, especially at that age is really maleable and plastic. Of course the child needs to have some ability on his own, but a 50 percentile average student can easily get to the 90th percentile with appropriate instruction and practice in less than 2 years. It won’t happen in a month if this is what you understand by prepping.

To the posters that think it’s impossible, just look up how intelligence tests are developed, what kind of subject matter is tested, it can be learned.

I do however question how useful it is to put that much effort into it though. I think your child would be better off learning actual math, reading, doing sports or just developing hobbies and interests.

At that point, doesn’t it qualify as enrichment? Spending years molding an average child into a bright one, I mean. Or are you talking about signing up 3 and 4 year olds for CoGat boot camps? I think most “prep” looks more like what OP described—workbooks for a few weeks/months at months. Years of prepping seems like an extreme outlier.

i know many who did years of Kumon and Mathnasium.

Lots of people do Kumon and Mathnasium but, as PP said, that's more about general math enrichment than prepping for the CogAT specifically.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 2nd grade. The kid is pretty smart, not genius level or anything, but he gets by. He’s incredibly creative, though, so I thought he would be a good fit for AAP. So, like all the parents in my neighborhood, I bought a couple of books over the summer and had him practice for 20 minutes a day until the test. I got the results—105 NV, 119 Q, 135 V. My kid has never been good at math or special reasoning, but I figured with enough prep he would figure it out. Well, he didn’t. He told me he could study 24 hours a day and still won’t be able to flip an image in his head. How do parents prep their kids to overcome an inmate lack of aptitude in math or spatial reasoning?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test can absolutely be prepped. But to be really effective you’d have to plan for long term over years to introduce and solidify concepts. The brain, especially at that age is really maleable and plastic. Of course the child needs to have some ability on his own, but a 50 percentile average student can easily get to the 90th percentile with appropriate instruction and practice in less than 2 years. It won’t happen in a month if this is what you understand by prepping.

To the posters that think it’s impossible, just look up how intelligence tests are developed, what kind of subject matter is tested, it can be learned.

I do however question how useful it is to put that much effort into it though. I think your child would be better off learning actual math, reading, doing sports or just developing hobbies and interests.

At that point, doesn’t it qualify as enrichment? Spending years molding an average child into a bright one, I mean. Or are you talking about signing up 3 and 4 year olds for CoGat boot camps? I think most “prep” looks more like what OP described—workbooks for a few weeks/months at months. Years of prepping seems like an extreme outlier.

i know many who did years of Kumon and Mathnasium.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 2nd grade. The kid is pretty smart, not genius level or anything, but he gets by. He’s incredibly creative, though, so I thought he would be a good fit for AAP. So, like all the parents in my neighborhood, I bought a couple of books over the summer and had him practice for 20 minutes a day until the test. I got the results—105 NV, 119 Q, 135 V. My kid has never been good at math or special reasoning, but I figured with enough prep he would figure it out. Well, he didn’t. He told me he could study 24 hours a day and still won’t be able to flip an image in his head. How do parents prep their kids to overcome an inmate lack of aptitude in math or spatial reasoning?