OP here again.
For the "no-prep-for-my-kids" crowds, you are loud and clear, no need to repeat.
Talking about negative points, I can think some for the "prep"
1) ROI on the money/time spent on it, if the benefit is only marginal
2) over-expectation, if parents think "prep" can help greatly on the overall package but ended up not eligible
3) stress on the kids to go through "prep", and maybe on the parents to get the kids going through.
Anything else?
Again, no need to post in this thread if you don't have anything to contribute.

Anonymous wrote:Let's break this down, OP. You "had words DCUM-style" with another poster on another thread about prepping your child (an act you assumed everyone considers a legitimate act of good parenting). Now you start a new post trying to scientifically "prove" that there is nothing wrong with prepping. My armchair psychology tells me you have some deep issue that probably involves your prepped and AAP-bound child. Get treatment, seriously. At least, step back and absorb the utter strangeness of your inquiry here.

Maybe it's a matter of feeling better if "everyone else is doing it"? The OP does seem genuinely surprised at the number of people who are not getting on board the S.S. Prep.

"We did have to arrange for a hit against the AART's poodle."

This should become part of classic DCUM lexicon. Priceless.

Anonymous wrote:Let's break this down, OP. You "had words DCUM-style" with another poster on another thread about prepping your child (an act you assumed everyone considers a legitimate act of good parenting). Now you start a new post trying to scientifically "prove" that there is nothing wrong with prepping. My armchair psychology tells me you have some deep issue that probably involves your prepped and AAP-bound child. Get treatment, seriously. At least, step back and absorb the utter strangeness of your inquiry here.

I think you are correct. Ok. Here is how we prepped. First I broke into the school before the test and found a copy of the test. I used my iphone to photograph the exact form of the test. Then, I printed it. It remove any uncertainty, I took the sets myself. I then rwote the bubble pattern on my child's arm. I was not sure if DC had the memory to remember the order.

I guess that in type 1 prepping. DC got a perfect on the test. That coupled with a GPBR of 16 got the kid into AAP. We did have to arrange for a hit against the AART's poodle. The message was you are next. Our kid is in AAP.

Signed, Dom Corleone.

Let's break this down, OP. You "had words DCUM-style" with another poster on another thread about prepping your child (an act you assumed everyone considers a legitimate act of good parenting). Now you start a new post trying to scientifically "prove" that there is nothing wrong with prepping. My armchair psychology tells me you have some deep issue that probably involves your prepped and AAP-bound child. Get treatment, seriously. At least, step back and absorb the utter strangeness of your inquiry here.

How about 5) nobody cares, except you "The Person Who Insists Prepping is Part of God's Plan" and your nemesis "The Person Who Insists Prepping is Worthy of Criminal Sanctions" (who doesn't seem to be checking in to this thread).

OP here again. I just try to understand why the big no-no towards the legit "prep" for NNAT/CoGAT.
So far, what I heard for third degree "prep" as following:
1) nobody knows if it make much of a difference
2) it will not make kids smarter
3) it will make the kids getting use to the format of the tests, but might or might not have much of impact on the final results, since the scores are only part of the package
4) even if the "prep" pushed the borderline kids over into the "pool", there is not much difference, since parent referral does the same thing.

Did I miss any here?

^ OP: that's the truth, we did the third degree prepping but no way to know at all if it made much of a difference. I do think familiarity with the type of questions that would be asked helped a bit, but imposisble to know how many points it added or if it made the difference between being found eligible or not. I'm the one who said above the GBRS was probably a bigger factor since DC's test score was borderline.

I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish by this thread. Are you trying to show that there is a culture of prepping, that prepping helps, that prepping does't help, or what? The problem is, there is no basis for conclusions based on this thread.

What I suggest is to take a set of identical twins, raised the same. Prep one, don't prep the other, and see what happens.

Oh, and for the record, prepping for the SAT helped my a lot. I want from 380 verbal unprepped to 540 after studying. But that is a different test, designed to see how I will do in college, not how smart I am. How smart I am did not change.

I'll play.
We constantly doing above grade enrichment for our DC at home, generic math/reading etc. DC is also doing plenty sports, some healthy dose of video games.
For the AAP tests, we got some of those critical thinking/analogy question books as recommended by some websites. I don't think they helped a lot on the results, but definitely got DC familiar the format of the AAP tests as best as we can. I think it's much more like practice for SAT etc. They won't help kids on how much they know, but rather help them to express what they know in the tests.
BTW, DC got in with GBRS 16, so the test scores are not the only success factors.

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the weirdest OPs I've seen on any AAP thread. And that's saying something.

Yes!

We are also among the many non-preppers and child went through GT/AAP and TJ simply by doing normal school work. No outside extra help, no commercial materials. Spent after school time running around outside and playing sports.

This is one of the weirdest OPs I've seen on any AAP thread. And that's saying something.

OP here again. Now we captured almost all the born-genius here throughout the county, let's focus on our real-life not-born-genius kids for a minute.
Looks degree Forth Fifth and below are not considered "prep" AAP tests, and the Extreme and First degrees are definitely not OK even illegal.
For Second and Third, paid-service or in-home "prep" with materials close or targeting the AAP tests, certainly they are not illegal. The question comes to that if they make big enough difference or not.
I would think if the kids are on the borderline, those "prep" can push them into the pool, but so will the parent referral. If the kids are far from advance, "prep" probably won't help much, such as not every kids from those SAT camp got 2400.
For "prep" parents, mind to share if you think the "prep" made big enough difference for your DC to found eligible?

played the Mozart Effect to the baby in the crib and at bed time for a couple of years. AAP eligible!

I am not sure where this fits....I had my children take a summer class in calculus before the second grade. They did ok, but am not sure if the got the concept. WHen I talked to them, I talked about taking the limit as epsilon approach zero, and my 7 yo asked to go to the park.