GoCAT: Follow the money $$$
It is a multibillion dollar industry in the US (WPPSI,GoCAT, SSAT,ERB, ISEE, ACT, SAT, AP, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, Toeffl,WISC, MSA, Pearson, Washington Post, Princeton review, Aristotle, Kaplan, State tests, Explore, Raven...feel free to add to the list
Do I have to show you how to read stock market reports, too?
There are people from other countries who assume that every country is just like their old country. It is difficult for them to understand that things are different here, because the idea of one test deciding the rest of a young person's life is so ingrained in their thinking. They hear about this AAP program and think that it must be the golden ticket to a good life here. They think that AAP must be a "better" program and don't realize that it is just a different program for those who learn in a different way. Prepping to do well on the second grade test will not change the way a child learns, it will simply cause a false result on the test.
And then they get their kids into AAP and complain that it is not so great after all!
Anonymous wrote:Sorry, no one buys the whole "entitled culture" thing. There were numerous posts discounting that idea and showing why it does not pertain here.
Wrong. I do. Your posts confirm its' application here.
Sorry, no one buys the whole "entitled culture" thing. There were numerous posts discounting that idea and showing why it does not pertain here.
Anonymous wrote:...asked the homemaker.Why prep or prepare at all if the gains are artificial?
And the lawyer,
and the policy wonk.
These gains can never be permanent.
...asked the homemaker.Why prep or prepare at all if the gains are artificial?
These gains can never be permanent.
Yes, the point of "prepping" is to raise the measured score, but the "score" is not useful if it has been artificially inflated.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:the issue is not prepping per se. It is prepping using a copy of the test, presumably with the right answers. It is like taking an IQ test when someone gave you the answers the day before. It does not make you smarter, but it will raise your measured score.
So, you can raise your score on the CogAT (maybe), but the raised score does not make you smarter, and does not make you more capable of doing AAP work. That is the issue.
The think is, in some countries, test prep is the standard operating positions....where there is one chance to excel, and if you "blow" the test you can not succeed. In the USA, one test never defines you. There are multiple second chances, whether it be taking a WISC for AAP appeal to multiple SAT's to open enrollment community colleges.
It does not matter where you start your education. It matters where you finish. In the USA, prepping for the CogAT will have minimal impact on your overall life.
the same "form" of the test apparently was being used for prep - not a test with the exact same questions. Nobody had the correct answers ahead of time. Practicing the materials would presumably raise a kid's measured score - that's the whole point of prepping.
CogAT, not GoCAT.