Anonymous wrote:And learn to obsess over trivial details instead of learning to focus on the larger point or develop basic social skills?

Depending on your job, trivial details can be vitally important. That ranges from safety issues, to design flaws, to accounting and the like.

And learn to obsess over trivial details instead of learning to focus on the larger point or develop basic social skills?

All the stress is so that they learn how to spell acumen.

I don’t think prepping is a good idea for anyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity or whatever catagory that you want to use. And there is a huge difference between prepping a rising first or second grader to take a test and the SAT. The test for a first or second grader is a basic snap shot of how the child “ranks” in terms of intellectual accumine. It is not meant to be a measure of how much they have studied. A student who is well read, taken a deent amount of math should do fine on the SAT without prepping because the basics of the vocabulary and math section should have been covered in high schol English and math classes. Prepping for the SAT is more like a basic tune up for the kid.

Honestly, the pressure that we, as adults, are putting on 5-7 year olds is crazy. A large perentage of kids in FCPS will go on to good colleges from Gen Ed. Gen Edkids go on to take AP and IB classes. AAP idoes not have to be a life changing event but the way parents on this forum act makes it feel like their kid is a failure, or maybe they have failed thair kid, if the kid doesn’t get into AAP.

There are hundreds of good colleges that will do a very good job prepping your kid for life. Not everyone has to go to an Ivy League school to be successful. And your kid will be fine if they don’t get into AAP.

So why all the stress? If your child does well on the tests and has that option, great, but they will be fine if they don’t get into AAP as well. If you are this invested at the age of 5-7, then you are probably reading to your kid, doing extra math and science and looking for other ways to enrich your childs education. You are going to be involved in their education and that will increase the likelihood that they will do just fine.

As for prepping for the SAT, the SAT is important but so are letters of recommendations, transcripts and writing samples.

Prepping is better than going through an appeal process. If you prep and are in pool, it’s way better than not prepping and then having to go and get a WISC, etc....

Also- if you prep and are still not in pool, then you know that that the WISC is either more or less necessary- depending on your goals and perspective.

Anonymous wrote:This article written by the creator of the CogAT test about prepping is interesting: http://faculty.education.uiowa.edu/docs/default-source/dlohman/thoughts-on-policies-to-mitigate-effects-of-practice-tests-and-coaching.pdf?sfvrsn=2

One of his suggested solutions for widespread prepping is to just provide free prep materials to everyone.

The link dorn’t work, coulfn’t See the artical

Anonymous wrote:Did you practice your SAT when you went to college? Did you hide studying for your SAT among your friends because you thought it was unfair to others? DCUM is ridiculous. Don't worry about it. Do what you want. Good for you for being motivated and doing extra work with your kids.

OP here. First, as I said earlier, I am not going to prep. This was one day where I found out about a bunch of people prepping and had this moment if "am I doing this right?" But to answer the question above, no, I did not do any type of SAT prep and I didn't really think anyone did back then. I did take an LSAT prep course though and did not hide it.

If DS2 tanks the CogAT, we will get a WISC and I am pretty confident WISC will be strong. Also pretty confident he will have a really strong GBRS.

Anonymous wrote:Did you practice your SAT when you went to college? Did you hide studying for your SAT among your friends because you thought it was unfair to others? DCUM is ridiculous. Don't worry about it. Do what you want. Good for you for being motivated and doing extra work with your kids.

Did I practice or study for the SAT? No. The only kids I knew who did were my friends in private school.

My kids don't need to study for the NNAT or Cogat either. That's absurd.

Did you practice your SAT when you went to college? Did you hide studying for your SAT among your friends because you thought it was unfair to others? DCUM is ridiculous. Don't worry about it. Do what you want. Good for you for being motivated and doing extra work with your kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, the difference between 110 and 132 in a section is not that many questions. Absolutely preppable.
T

I doubt you can gain 22 points from prepping. You absolutely could gain 10, though, or maybe even 15 if you do one of those heavy duty classes. This means that kids who should have been borderline with a score of 125 become fairly solidly in with a prepped 135. And kids who shouldn't have even been in the running for AAP with a 115 can become borderline with a 125.

22 points is not that many more questions correct.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never in a million years thought I’d say this but I am thinking about doing some light CogAT prep with my first grader over the summer. More and more it seems like everyone preps and I should do the same to put him on a level playing field. Never prepped my older who had a NNAT in the low 120’s but then a CogAT in the high 140’s. I want to “trust the process” but I know DS2 would do well in the program and he really wants to be in it like his older brother. His NNAT score is a bit lower than DS1. I can’t believe I am considering this. Anyone else think they’d never do it and then change your mind?

Prepping is fine, but don't overthink it. We just ordered a book off of Amazon (that a school principal recommended) and did a couple of tests with our son. We just wanted him to have some exposure to the types of questions that would be asked Iwe were curious as well!) and guide him on how to approach them. His CogAT composite was much higher than his NNAT.

I've heard horror stories of parent group meetings and hiring of outside help, etc. Ridiculous!

I've heard horror stories of parents making their young kids work through prep books and take multiple home tests, etc. Ridiculous!

This article written by the creator of the CogAT test about prepping is interesting: http://faculty.education.uiowa.edu/docs/default-source/dlohman/thoughts-on-policies-to-mitigate-effects-of-practice-tests-and-coaching.pdf?sfvrsn=2

One of his suggested solutions for widespread prepping is to just provide free prep materials to everyone.

Anonymous wrote:I never in a million years thought I’d say this but I am thinking about doing some light CogAT prep with my first grader over the summer. More and more it seems like everyone preps and I should do the same to put him on a level playing field. Never prepped my older who had a NNAT in the low 120’s but then a CogAT in the high 140’s. I want to “trust the process” but I know DS2 would do well in the program and he really wants to be in it like his older brother. His NNAT score is a bit lower than DS1. I can’t believe I am considering this. Anyone else think they’d never do it and then change your mind?

Prepping is fine, but don't overthink it. We just ordered a book off of Amazon (that a school principal recommended) and did a couple of tests with our son. We just wanted him to have some exposure to the types of questions that would be asked Iwe were curious as well!) and guide him on how to approach them. His CogAT composite was much higher than his NNAT.

I've heard horror stories of parent group meetings and hiring of outside help, etc. Ridiculous!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like there is more than enough desire to roll out the AAP style curriculum ac cross all schools.

If I understand things correctly, all schools have pull outs for kids who are a bit more advanced. So that kids who are not at the Centers can have more advanced classes if it is needed. Parents can refer for level II and III services if their child is not in Level IV AAP program.

Many people here have complained that the pull outs are frequently canceled, and their kids are lucky to get 2 pull outs per month. Also, each school seems to handle level II services differently. Some schools do an excellent job with differentiation and groupings, and other schools seem to only focus on the bottom students.

Anonymous wrote:Sure, the difference between 110 and 132 in a section is not that many questions. Absolutely preppable.
T

I doubt you can gain 22 points from prepping. You absolutely could gain 10, though, or maybe even 15 if you do one of those heavy duty classes. This means that kids who should have been borderline with a score of 125 become fairly solidly in with a prepped 135. And kids who shouldn't have even been in the running for AAP with a 115 can become borderline with a 125.