Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

Thank you for the Curie mention. Your hallucination has given a lot of attention to Curie, but all year long classes are full, especially the advanced track. Others, please do not join Curie without doing your research, and complain how difficult the curriculum is. Most of Curie middle school students enter High School to begin Precalculus, and the remaining enroll in Algebra 2.

DP. People like me who post about the Curie situation do not care about whether or not it remains in business. We post only to highlight the reasons why standardized testing cannot and should not be used as a gatekeeper for access to exceptional educational opportunities like TJ.

The more you talk about Curie's success, the more you make our point for us. Go on, knock yourselves out. Make your millions off of families who feel like they have to consume your product in order to be considered "good parents" in your community. Continue to apparently limit your consumer base to only one ethnic demographic. We don't care.

We just don't want admissions processes to reward the people who pay large amounts of money to consume your product.

And guess what? We won.

Your entire reasoning is oddly irrational and your obsessive grudge against Curie appears crazy deep, yet quite intriguingly fascinating. Did you attend Curie yourself?

Quant-Q is a third-party test, widely available with numerous $20 prep books found all over the internet. Yet, you seem to believe that Curie couldn't have utilized any of those resources to compile their training material, but relied on this one eidetic kid to gather questions that are already out there? Even so, how is it different from the countless training institutes preparing students for exams like the SAT, LSAT, MCAT, COGAT, GRE, etc., where they are simply rehashing the same problem types found in $20 prep books like Barron's, Princeton Review, etc.?

Let's roll with your crazy reasoning, for a bit. While you may view the admissions change as a win in your head, but how can it be considered a win for the 160+ Algebra 1 students who are being placed at the bottom of the TJ class, tasked with struggling to catch upto the top-performing students who are two years ahead of them?

1) The students mentioned that they saw questions that were exactly the same as the questions that were on the exam in their classes at Curie. That's not coming from a review book - it's coming from a student who memorized a question. And you don't have to have an eidetic memory to be able to recall those questions - to this day I still recall several of the ones that I've seen.

2) The difference between the Quant-Q and the other exams is that the Quant-Q is intended to be secured. None of those other exams tout that they are.

3) There is no sense in which the number of students entering from Alg1 are "being placed at the bottom of the TJ class" or trying to "catch up to students who are two years ahead of them". They're not taking additional math classes to close that gap, nor do they need to.

It's a win for them because, like every single TJ student that has ever existed, they are receiving a stronger educational product than they would at any other school available to them, both in terms of coursework and cohort.

It's a win for TJ because a huge chunk of those students are coming from disadvantaged economic backgrounds, creating the sort of experiential diversity that will pay of in huge dividends for students who have never been around such students in the past.

And it's a win for Northern Virginia because there is now one fewer reason for parents to try to hyper-accelerate their children beyond what their ability would prescribe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

Thank you for the Curie mention. Your hallucination has given a lot of attention to Curie, but all year long classes are full, especially the advanced track. Others, please do not join Curie without doing your research, and complain how difficult the curriculum is. Most of Curie middle school students enter High School to begin Precalculus, and the remaining enroll in Algebra 2.

DP. People like me who post about the Curie situation do not care about whether or not it remains in business. We post only to highlight the reasons why standardized testing cannot and should not be used as a gatekeeper for access to exceptional educational opportunities like TJ.

The more you talk about Curie's success, the more you make our point for us. Go on, knock yourselves out. Make your millions off of families who feel like they have to consume your product in order to be considered "good parents" in your community. Continue to apparently limit your consumer base to only one ethnic demographic. We don't care.

We just don't want admissions processes to reward the people who pay large amounts of money to consume your product.

And guess what? We won.

Your entire reasoning is oddly irrational and your obsessive grudge against Curie appears crazy deep, yet quite intriguingly fascinating. Did you attend Curie yourself?

Quant-Q is a third-party test, widely available with numerous $20 prep books found all over the internet. Yet, you seem to believe that Curie couldn't have utilized any of those resources to compile their training material, but relied on this one eidetic kid to gather questions that are already out there? Even so, how is it different from the countless training institutes preparing students for exams like the SAT, LSAT, MCAT, COGAT, GRE, etc., where they are simply rehashing the same problem types found in $20 prep books like Barron's, Princeton Review, etc.?

Let's roll with your crazy reasoning, for a bit. While you may view the admissions change as a win in your head, but how can it be considered a win for the 160+ Algebra 1 students who are being placed at the bottom of the TJ class, tasked with struggling to catch upto the top-performing students who are two years ahead of them?

Ranking high schools in a country this huge has to be one of the dumber vanities.

If kids were getting in because of this program they also had a good chance of not belonging without a lot of extra work. Many kids get in with nothing but a good breakfast before the test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

Thank you for the Curie mention. Your hallucination has given a lot of attention to Curie, but all year long classes are full, especially the advanced track. Others, please do not join Curie without doing your research, and complain how difficult the curriculum is. Most of Curie middle school students enter High School to begin Precalculus, and the remaining enroll in Algebra 2.

DP. People like me who post about the Curie situation do not care about whether or not it remains in business. We post only to highlight the reasons why standardized testing cannot and should not be used as a gatekeeper for access to exceptional educational opportunities like TJ.

The more you talk about Curie's success, the more you make our point for us. Go on, knock yourselves out. Make your millions off of families who feel like they have to consume your product in order to be considered "good parents" in your community. Continue to apparently limit your consumer base to only one ethnic demographic. We don't care.

We just don't want admissions processes to reward the people who pay large amounts of money to consume your product.

And guess what? We won.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a “magnet” schools which was previously accepted as a top school when academics (courses, essay, gpa, testing, etc.) was the only criteria when now the criteria includes points for experiential factors having absolutely no bearing on academic ability? Anyone who says TJ is as good as always is blind to what everyone else sees.

Well, that's not exactly accurate. Previously the only criteria was whether you could buy the test answers. These days it's at least based on merit.

Merit? Please define experiential factors.

Still seems better than memorizing test answers purchased from a prep center.

which prep center is selling test answers? Name it!

I'm not the PP, but IIRC, the TJ students were openly talking about it on a FB page a few years ago.

Curie did not "sell test answers". They charged about $5K for their flagship TJ prep course, a significant feature of which was preparation for the "Quant-Q" exam. The Quant-Q is a secured exam whose purpose is to evaluate students' native problem-solving abilities by confronting them with problems of types they've never seen before (this is critical) and challenging them to solve those problems at relatively high speed.

The vast majority of Quant-Q problems are not especially difficult, but they can be tedious and time consuming if your mind doesn't naturally progress towards creating a simpler solution. I know this because I've seen multiple forms of it in different circumstances not relative to TJ admissions, and every time I saw it I was required to sign a statement indicating that I would not discuss any specifics or problem types with anyone.

The moment that a student learns how to solve one of the types of problems that is found on the Quant-Q from someone else, the exam becomes not only pointless, but obscurative to the goal of selecting students for programs. The entire point of the exam is to test the student's ability to come up with a method of solving the problem quickly on their own.

TJ students in the Classes of 2023 and 2024 openly reported on a Facebook Page called TJ Vents (first anonymously, and then confirmed by named students) that when they sat for the Quant-Q, there were a few problems on it that they'd seen word for word in their time at Curie. Given the length and complexity of most of the problems on the exam, it is obvious that somehow the folks at Curie got a hold of those problems when they weren't supposed to. Some individual - almost certainly their students who took the exam to get into TJ and then reported back - had memorized the problems, allowing Curie to both place those problems in their own question bank and to develop strategies to teach the students for how to solve them.

Given that, because Curie published the first and last names of its students who were admitted to TJ (as well as AOS and AET) we know that they essentially exclusively serve Northern Virginia's South Asian community, it's instructive to look at the data for Asian admit percentages over four of the years in question alongside the success of Curie students in gaining admission to TJ.

Class of 2021: 74.9% Asian, Curie not available (the last year of the SHSAT process)
Class of 2022: 65.2% Asian, Curie 50 TJ admits (the first year of the Quant-Q)
Class of 2023: 72.1% Asian, Curie 95 TJ admits
Class of 2024: 73.2% Asian, Curie 133 TJ admits (the last year of the Quant-Q)

Re: the kids who were admitted in this manner for 2023 and 2024 - it's not their fault that their parents signed them up and paid for a boutique service that afforded them access to some of the answers and, likely, all of the question types on the exam that was the primary separator for the admissions process. But the bottom line is that they did have that access.

It's also worth noting that simply the introduction of a new suite of exams to the TJ admissions process had almost exactly as great an impact on the raw number of Asian TJ admits (367 in '21 and 316 in '22, -51) than did the implementation of the new admissions process (355 in '24 and 299 in '25, -56). But there was no broad outcry about a racist change to the process because the Asian community knew that it would just be a matter of time before things would be back to normal through the nine-figure TJ prep industrial complex.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

You said you are an AoPS tutor, and it's understandable if you harbor resentment towards the more successful Curie. However, present your arguments as pros and cons of your company compared to your competitor Curie, rather than resorting to baseless and fabricated gibberish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

Thank you for the Curie mention. Your hallucination has given a lot of attention to Curie, but all year long classes are full, especially the advanced track. Others, please do not join Curie without doing your research, and complain how difficult the curriculum is. Most of Curie middle school students enter High School to begin Precalculus, and the remaining enroll in Algebra 2.

Our child attends Curie, and we came to know about it from this forum. DC has been attending for past two years, and looks forward to the in-person class every week. Not an easy syllabus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

Thank you for the Curie mention. Your hallucination has given a lot of attention to Curie, but all year long classes are full, especially the advanced track. Others, please do not join Curie without doing your research, and complain how difficult the curriculum is. Most of Curie middle school students enter High School to begin Precalculus, and the remaining enroll in Algebra 2.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a “magnet” schools which was previously accepted as a top school when academics (courses, essay, gpa, testing, etc.) was the only criteria when now the criteria includes points for experiential factors having absolutely no bearing on academic ability? Anyone who says TJ is as good as always is blind to what everyone else sees.

Bro you don’t have better things to worry about? None of your
Children go to tj anyway 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

Hope your kid will survive remedial math

May I ask why do you think my kid is not good at math? Do you know my child's math level?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a “magnet” schools which was previously accepted as a top school when academics (courses, essay, gpa, testing, etc.) was the only criteria when now the criteria includes points for experiential factors having absolutely no bearing on academic ability? Anyone who says TJ is as good as always is blind to what everyone else sees.

Well, that's not exactly accurate. Previously the only criteria was whether you could buy the test answers. These days it's at least based on merit.

Merit? Please define experiential factors.

Still seems better than memorizing test answers purchased from a prep center.

which prep center is selling test answers? Name it!

I'm not the PP, but IIRC, the TJ students were openly talking about it on a FB page a few years ago.

I believe it was some kids and one year similar to the AAP test that got out a few years ago. One year…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a “magnet” schools which was previously accepted as a top school when academics (courses, essay, gpa, testing, etc.) was the only criteria when now the criteria includes points for experiential factors having absolutely no bearing on academic ability? Anyone who says TJ is as good as always is blind to what everyone else sees.

Well, that's not exactly accurate. Previously the only criteria was whether you could buy the test answers. These days it's at least based on merit.

Merit? Please define experiential factors.

Still seems better than memorizing test answers purchased from a prep center.

which prep center is selling test answers? Name it!

I'm not the PP, but IIRC, the TJ students were openly talking about it on a FB page a few years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

If standing is based on equity and not true merit, standing will improve. Otherwise 👎. Period.

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

The drop in stature just lags behind the changes which should improve TJ's standing just like it has greatly detoxified the schools environment.

Cure's ad showed over a third of entering class under the old process were their customers who also had access to their question bank. The old process was rewarding those who could afford to buy access. It was definitely not merit.

Anonymous wrote:TJ admissions is trying to pick better students in the last couple of years but there will always be ones that get through. Parents keep your cheating, low performing students at the base school. They will go to better colleges from there we promise.

Rinse and repeat your gobble de gook.