Anonymous wrote:I think we are talking about two different kinds of prep here.
It's one thing to make sure a child understands the directions for the exam. It's totally different to go over and over the various types of questions to the point where the child is so familiar with the questions that she could answer them in her sleep.
In the second case, the test is not showing anything about the child's ability, just how well the child can memorize how to answer different types of questions.

The whole idea of prepping is just sad. Why wouldn't a parent want a fair assessment of their child's potential ability? There's always individual IQ tests as backup if they don't do well in group testing and you think your snowflake belongs in AAP.

Obviously prepping definitely games the system. Unfortunately some of those kids get through and then struggle in AAP. I guess others may not have problems but AAP teacher friends say there are definitely kids who get in who have lots of trouble keeping up. Also, I'm amazed that kids would need tutors - if your kid needs a tutor then they shouldn't be in AAP.

Thank goodness they use more than test scores with the amount of prepping that seems to be going on!

Anonymous wrote:

The NNAT, or Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, is just that: a test of the child's ability.

Many children can learn how to answer the questions when taught how, but the idea of the test is to see how quickly a child can grasp a concept he or she has never seen before.

When a child practices taking the test ahead of time, the result is no longer a true measure of the child's ability.

Anonymous wrote:


As to my personal experience, I have now prepped two of my children for the NNAT and both have done outstanding. When they began the practice tests, their scores were good, missing 6 or 7 questions out of 39 or so. By the time we were done, they recognized patterns of questions (there are only so many ways to show patterns on a line, a checker board with a missing piece, etc.) knew a process of eliminating wrong answers first and closely studing the last two, when to guess, when to skip a question that was taking too long (but never leaving a blank), etc. At that point they were missing only an occasional answer. .

You have too much time on your hand. My only point was that prep if you want to - nothing wrong with that. But I doubt overall results will increase that much. You are fine to take a different view. And I do hope I insulted your intelligence, cause your point on hard work, blah, blah was moronic.

followed by...

PP - as you noticed, I was trying VERY hard to be civil - till this poster comes and claims that I am trying insult 'everyone's' intelligence ( please read again in case u missed it)- I was just trying to make sure this poster realized that there is no need to go there.

You have too much time on your hand. My only point was that prep if you want to - nothing wrong with that. But I doubt overall results will increase that much. You are fine to take a different view. And I do hope I insulted your intelligence, cause your point on hard work, blah, blah was moronic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is one line of thought on 'prepping' for NNAT.

Talking to the child about what kind of questions to expect, can certainly help prevent total blow ups ( Mommy I just did not understand what was I supposed to do).

But, after seeing some of my fellow Tiger Mom's trying to prep they child - I am a 100% sure that overall score will not change that much. If you child is a 99% one, then that is what he or she will get.

But if your child is a 85% caliber ( which is great in itself), its nearly impossible to prep this child to get a 99%.
And I strongly believe that the parent should talk to the child about what to expect in these test. I have no faith in the ability of FCPS to deliver consistent clear instructions to all the kids. There will be one teacher who is not clear enough and as luck would have it - your child will be in that class.

These kind of generalizations, without any supporting data are an insult to everyone's intelligence. Without a "prepped" group and a control group, and a measure between, you cannot make this kind of statement and present it as fact. Try, "in my limited opinion which is not substatiated by any marginally scientific data" as a preface next time.

As to my personal experience, I have now prepped two of my children for the NNAT and both have done outstanding. When they began the practice tests, their scores were good, missing 6 or 7 questions out of 39 or so. By the time we were done, they recognized patterns of questions (there are only so many ways to show patterns on a line, a checker board with a missing piece, etc.) knew a process of eliminating wrong answers first and closely studing the last two, when to guess, when to skip a question that was taking too long (but never leaving a blank), etc. At that point they were missing only an occasional answer. While I would agree that moving a 25%'er to 99% is a tall task, my personal experience (not scientific) is that the prep made my initially good performing kids confident and ready, and with excellent results. I agree with the Tiger Mom who said what is right for your family is fine, and what is right for hers (and mine) is our business. I could not care less if my kid “skews” the test because he was prepared and worked hard to do well. In our family, the importance of hard work, preparation, and good study habits are stressed, and if they just happen to lead to good performance so be it. There are many cultures that stress this these habits and others that do not, and I think the results speak for themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

good, as long as we established that you did it because you believe AAP program is superior i'm fine with it. i only have problems with those who prep because they think their kids are gifted and "belong" in AAP - that's cheating in my books.

This doesn't make any sense to me. Anyone who preps their kid for this test must think BOTH of these things: AAP is a superior program, AND their child belongs in AAP. Why would you prep if you didn't think your kid belonged in AAP? AAP is supposed to be for gifted kids - if you are prepping your child for a test to get him into a gifted program, you must think he is gifted, no? The alternative line of reasoning is something like "my kid isn't gifted and doesn't really belong in the program, but I want to prep for the test and get him in there with all the gifted kids because it's such a great program."

It seems you should be opposed to test prep across the board or not at all. How can you decide based on the parent's motivation for prepping, that one motivation is fine and the other is "cheating?"

I'm not opposed to test prep, btw. I don't care how much or little other people prep their kids. I care only how my child does on the test, and I don't think other kids prepping affects that. The percentile scores are nationally scaled. A very small group of these kids are prepped, and that is not going to affect the national percentiles.