I would hope any new parent who posts a question about resources doesn't feel that more experienced members view him or her as an anti-social, uninvolved, and uneducated parent!
Agreed. The statement "
Individuals most often aware of free practice tests online may be those who are educators, have an older child in the system, volunteer at school, research extensively online, join forums, and/or socialize with other parents having an older child in the system" provides ideas as to local sources of information which may be available IRL. There may be many reasons why parents are unable to avail themselves of these information flows, and there is no judgment stated or implied as to a parent being "anti-social, uninvolved, and uneducated."
I think it would make more sense if we each offered advice from our own experiences
Absolutely. The original post was without reply for about three weeks, therefore I posted a broad and generic reply.
If prepping were really that easy, every HS kid would be getting perfect ACT/SAT scores
CogAT is among the former classification, while ACT/SAT are achievement tests.
Prep for IQ/ability tests may be frowned upon as gaming the system and yielding an inaccurate score,
while prep for achievement tests is well accepted. But I guess I don't view a targeted test prep as really that different than doing Sudoku or logic puzzles with my kids, listening to Grammar Girl podcasts, or having them work on Khan Academy.
Thank you for sharing your view. Some may say that general enrichment, especially child-led, is different than purchasing a targeted CogAt test prep and teaching to the test.
"Some" may immediately assume a parent who buys some test prep materials may be a lying, unethical, vain, tiger parent, but I would prefer not to immediately jump to that conclusion.
Agreed. The post was not about judging, labeling, or immediately jumping to conclusions, it was about test prep for gifted screening and/or identification, specifically for the CogAt. Previous threads on related subjects were mentioned.
I think it's more important to advocate to keep gifted classes geared towards gifted students, and to help teachers and administrators understand how differently gifted kids can present.
Agreed. Some may say this is dependent upon having an accurate test result.
