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Should we or shouldn’t we prep our 4-5 year olds for G&T testing? And if we did, would we admit it to other parents or our friends? Or would we keep our little G&T secret to ourselves?

I recently took a survey on my (non-GothamSchools) blog to find out the general sentiment toward test prepping a 4-5 year old for gifted and talented programs. Here are the results from the question: What type of tutoring and prep for NYC gifted and talented testing is appropriate for 4-5 year olds (pre-k to kindergarten)?

 47% — A solid combination of tutoring experts for NYC gifted and talented programs along with parents’ heavy involvement in the tutoring as well.

27% — Parents should be the only tutor or prep giver for the NYC gifted and talented testing at the ages of 4-5. (more…)

If OLSAT, BSRA, ERB, G&T and Stanford-Binet don’t ring a school bell for you then you’ve mostly likely not experienced the entrance exams for NYC private schools or the tests for the NYC public school gifted and talented programs.

Since our child (at the ripe age of four) took the 128-question OLSAT/BSRA test (yes, 128 questions!) in February and got accepted to a public school gifted and talented program, I’ve become quite familiar with the ins and outs of the G&T program from a parent’s perspective. Between the OLSAT testing, obsessing, waiting on the results, obsessing some more, receiving the test results, touring the the G&T schools, obsessing again, prioritizing the schools we wanted, receiving the school placement letter from DOE, going to parent orientation, and finally having the first day of school it’s been quite a ride! 

Now I want to share my expertise as I continue to learn more. (more…)