Anonymous wrote:OP here, that isn't my point. We did prep. I find it annoying that we had to because MCPS seems to be planning to give the kids a test that depends on higher level knowledge they they have no opportunity for the kids to learn in school. Will report back after Saturday and if this is really the case or not.

Why are you annoyed that the test is hard? Fifth grade isn't designed to prep kids for the test. The process is to target those who need accelerated learning. Possibly it will include kids who were sent to boot camp to score well on the test, but that's doing a disservice to the kids who will now be in thag accelerated environment for 3 years.

My daughter got into a middle school magnet -- the test was very very hard, and she was exhausted. The curriculum is very hard, too.

^^up

Though same applies- since TPMS typically makes us between 40-60% of incoming class to Blair- you are tracked once you get there. Mag Alg 1 at TPMS is very very different than Alg 1 anywhere else in MoCo.

Anonymous wrote:OP- what math are your kids in now. If in Alg 2 or Mag Alg 2 they shouldn't need to prep. If you need for prep
for the math on the test, you won't do well at Blair. You do understand the 9th grade year - they do an entire year of Physics in 1 semester, and an entire year of Chem in 1 year. Very math heavy, besides the math itself. If you need to prep your kid much, they are going to be the low low low kids...

OP's child is a fifth grader. Her questions relate to TPMS, not to Blair.

Anonymous wrote: The point is to pull out the very best kids for the program. Aside from test preppers, kids who are really into math do lots of it on their own,.,on line, camps, games, books. It sounds like you are saying that your 5 year old should not be excluded from the high reading group because the school has not taught him to read yet.

Well, that's the idea, but the actual result is to pull out the very highest-scoring kids for the program. "Very best" and "highest scoring" are not necessarily the same.

OP- what math are your kids in now. If in Alg 2 or Mag Alg 2 they shouldn't need to prep. If you need for prep
for the math on the test, you won't do well at Blair. You do understand the 9th grade year - they do an entire year of Physics in 1 semester, and an entire year of Chem in 1 year. Very math heavy, besides the math itself. If you need to prep your kid much, they are going to be the low low low kids...

The point is to pull out the very best kids for the program. Aside from test preppers, kids who are really into math do lots of it on their own,.,on line, camps, games, books. It sounds like you are saying that your 5 year old should not be excluded from the high reading group because the school has not taught him to read yet.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, that isn't my point. We did prep. I find it annoying that we had to because MCPS seems to be planning to give the kids a test that depends on higher level knowledge they they have no opportunity for the kids to learn in school. Will report back after Saturday and if this is really the case or not.

You might save some emotional energy if you waited to be annoyed until after you found out for sure that there was grounds for annoyance.

We prepped our child last year (at home, didn't take a class). He said that the prepping helped a lot and that the math section was much easier than the prep questions.

OP here, that isn't my point. We did prep. I find it annoying that we had to because MCPS seems to be planning to give the kids a test that depends on higher level knowledge they they have no opportunity for the kids to learn in school. Will report back after Saturday and if this is really the case or not.

I think at this point your child is either ready or not. If you wanted to prep, it should have started a while back. Many kids get in without prep. Assume whatever happens is for the best.

If the student starts calculating they will not finish on time. They need to be able to understand that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/clementems/upcountycenter/faq.aspx

For students applying to the Mathematics, Science, and Computer Science program, a mathematics computation test (SCAT) will be given.

OK, but the SCAT is not a mathematics computation test.

http://cty.jhu.edu/talent/testing/about/scat.html

I am pretty sure they mean this part of SCAT (and you're right - not computation - but quantitative):

"Quantitative Section
The quantitative section measures a student’s understanding of fundamental number operations. The quantitative questions are multiple-choice mathematical comparisons, which require a student to compare two mathematical quantities and determine which is greater. Problems are intended to measure mathematical reasoning ability and thus often do not require computation."

Anonymous wrote:http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/clementems/upcountycenter/faq.aspx

For students applying to the Mathematics, Science, and Computer Science program, a mathematics computation test (SCAT) will be given.

OK, but the SCAT is not a mathematics computation test.

http://cty.jhu.edu/talent/testing/about/scat.html

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/clementems/upcountycenter/faq.aspx

For students applying to the Mathematics, Science, and Computer Science program, a mathematics computation test (SCAT) will be given.