GEP 2012 - Screening & Selection
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pecalis:
Yours is the first post I read that said your ds struggled with GEP despite the fact you didn't prep him in advance.
Not sure if the story of my son will encourage you - I knew he is good at math since young - he did not attend preschool as i taught him myself - he would tell me what he wanted to learn, say addition, then move on to subtraction and multiplication and so forth. He also asked about negative numbers at 5 yo and i briefly explained to him. I've always thought he's special but not sure if gifted or just advance. I sent him for testing, partly to confirm my suspicion but this cert came in handy when we relocated and had to transfer school at the end of P2.
I let him do Math Olympiad by Terry Chew, simply becos both of us enjoyed it. So is this considered training for GEP? He did not attend any other classes except for Chinese tuition. The 3 yrs in GEP was a struggle and learning process for him. He failed (did not make the 70% mark) the 1st math test in P4 and thus, had to go for math remedial by tr and he began to think that he is also not gd at math. Of course, this mother of his firmly believe that he is very good at math still and i was proven correct when he went into the special round of NMOS without any training - even his sch tr was surprised.
The purpose of agreeing to him attend GEP was to stress him a little and to humble him and i believe, it was achieved
Very often we read things like: \"If you prep your child, he'll struggle in GEP ... and so on and so forth.\" Well, I've friends who didn't prep their kids for GEP, and their kids are struggling too.
All these made me wonder, are those prep classes as bad as they are made up to be? Is the GEP standard stretched beyond that of the average GEP candidate. Interesting food-for-thought.
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3Boys:
No.[/quote]That makes you non-kiasu too. But most of us know that already.
Hypothetically speaking, if your ds didn't get in and you realised that your friend's ds - though not as gifted as your ds - got in and he went for prep class, will you be sore about it?FQW:
[quote=\"NotKiasu\"]
My DS1's Kindergarten principle keep remind us to send him for GEP prep class as she has identified him as gifted at end of K1. Her reason being not to let him be at a disadvantage ground.
In the end, we still did not send him for any prep class, want him know he get in by his own merit. Assume he is selected.
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I did not send my dd to any GEP Prep class, but I'm not against other parents doing that. After all, itz 天下父母心. Kids who attended such classes & got selected, may or may not be naturally gifted, nobody knows.
Before the GEP selection test, my dd (including myself) had not heard of the term \"GEP\" n knew nothing abt it, call me ignorant if u like. We just told her to do her best, like what she had done for any other school tests or exams so far, but better this time as she need not do any preparartion or study for it, it was stated in the MOE letter.
My dd was lucky enough to be selected. But my point is, even if she had not been selected, I guess she would still feel ok, as there was no pressure on her.
For parents who sent their kids to Prep classes, I may be wrong, but I guess it could be both parents n kids, or juz the parents or juz the kids who are putting high hopes in getting into GEP. Some kids may feel that they wud be a big disappointment if not selected, as their parents have spent so much money to prepare them for the test.
Regardless of whatever reason, whether its bcos of the GEP curriculum or due to peer pressure (siblings, cousins, friends in GEP), parents play a very important role in managing the kids expectation n emotion.
Personally I feel too much discussion abt GEP, especially in front of the kids sometimes do them more harm. I have seen a group of parents praising one child in front of many parents n other kids, \" dun worry...ur son no problem one lah, top student every year, if he cannot get in, who else can...\"
No problem if they were to be selected, but what if they are not. Before the result come out, prepare for the worst, plan what want to say to ur child, I dun think any parent wud want to see their child hurt bcos of a test like this. U may not need to wait until the result day, it wud be even better to start talking n conditioning them now, there's no harm to prepare for the worst while u r hoping for the best.
All the best to everyone... -
I didn’t send mine for GEP testing even… but if I had to do it again… I would send for prep and try hard for GEP. My biggest reason would be class sizes of 25 children only, better quality materials and teaching.
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Yup being gifted must also have the right attitude.
Everyone is gifted in one way, some in terms of academic.
Gifted child generally need shorter time to grasp a concept in the area that she is gifted in without much practice. -
My DD is 2nd kid of mine and she’s intellectually and academic better than my DS1, hence I had always wanna put her to the limit. However, through the years, I’d realised that she is not interested in scaling the limit beyond the curriculum, so I let her be. When she was selected for 2nd round, I msg my DH "surprise, surprise". I intend to do little preparation on the GA before the test so as to let her has some idea what it will be, but she was vomitting the day before test. Was already thinking for not letting her going but she pull herself up the night to ask me to go through the GA with her, that I know she is interested and not willing to give up her chance. DH was a little unhappy of me letting her continue with the test but I know if I do not let her taking the test, she may be sad and I may regret. Luckily she went throught 2 days and it’s done!
What I wanna say is, there are some kiasuism and some none-kiasuism in various situation but parents should understand the kid’s ability and interest and practice the kiasuism at their best interest!
There’s no right or wrong in many case, we are human after all. -
jershejos:
My DD is 2nd kid of mine and she's intellectually and academic better than my DS1, hence I had always wanna put her to the limit. However, through the years, I'd realised that she is not interested in scaling the limit beyond the curriculum, so I let her be. When she was selected for 2nd round, I msg my DH \"surprise, surprise\". I intend to do little preparation on the GA before the test so as to let her has some idea what it will be, but she was vomitting the day before test. Was already thinking for not letting her going but she pull herself up the night to ask me to go through the GA with her, that I know she is interested and not willing to give up her chance. DH was a little unhappy of me letting her continue with the test but I know if I do not let her taking the test, she may be sad and I may regret. Luckily she went throught 2 days and it's done!
What I wanna say is, there are some kiasuism and some none-kiasuism in various situation but parents should understand the kid's ability and interest and practice the kiasuism at their best interest!
There's no right or wrong in many case, we are human after all.
Where do you get the GA materials ? How do you DD feel about the 2 day test ? -
FQW:
That makes you non-kiasu too. But most of us know that already.[/quote]I want my kids to be happy and successful as much as the next parent, I just don't think GEP is necessarily the only way (or even an important way) to that goal.
No.3Boys:
[quote=\"FQW\"]
Hypothetically speaking, if your ds didn't get in and you realised that your friend's ds - though not as gifted as your ds - got in and he went for prep class, will you be sore about it?
As an experience, I'm sure GEP is worthwhile, for those who are GENUINELY equipped to deal with it. So, whilst I have NO expectations whatsoever, in the off chance my boy is selected, we will likely apply.
There is an upside and downside risk to GEP selection prep. To me, the downside risk of being a 'false positive', far outweighs the benefit of avoiding inadvertently being a 'false negative'.
So no GEP prep, and I am at peace with myself. Its just me, YMMV. -
DoDo Bird:
It's from word of mouths, my friends' kids, my nieces/nephews who had been through and basically GA is more or less IQ. I do not have specific material, just that I love IQ games and I played a lot of them, so I selected some basic ones to go through with her.jershejos:
My DD is 2nd kid of mine and she's intellectually and academic better than my DS1, hence I had always wanna put her to the limit. However, through the years, I'd realised that she is not interested in scaling the limit beyond the curriculum, so I let her be. When she was selected for 2nd round, I msg my DH \"surprise, surprise\". I intend to do little preparation on the GA before the test so as to let her has some idea what it will be, but she was vomitting the day before test. Was already thinking for not letting her going but she pull herself up the night to ask me to go through the GA with her, that I know she is interested and not willing to give up her chance. DH was a little unhappy of me letting her continue with the test but I know if I do not let her taking the test, she may be sad and I may regret. Luckily she went throught 2 days and it's done!
What I wanna say is, there are some kiasuism and some none-kiasuism in various situation but parents should understand the kid's ability and interest and practice the kiasuism at their best interest!
There's no right or wrong in many case, we are human after all.
Where do you get the GA materials ? How do you DD feel about the 2 day test ?
She's glad that I went through stuff like \"ABCD\" is to \"BCDE\", hence \"CDEF\" is to \"DEFG\" kinda question and it did came out. Too bad that GA2 is all about shapes and patterns that I did not go through with her, but this is really IQ kinda Q that you can see it you can, you can't you can't.
My idea is just to let her see what kind of questions she may face and not to teach her hence I only do it the day before.
She is all along better in EL and hence she finds the EL paper easier than the MA paper, and GA papers are easier as compared. -
Ragamuffin shinobi:
Why do you say that tuition centres focus only on the child remembering the steps and not guiding them? Are ALL tuition centres like that or are you over generalising?
Not that I can resist, child did not do well in academic, however, have always believed that one should not depend on tuition to do well. When do we need to stop child from having tuition? Importantly is to cultivate the thinking process and learning, they need to enjoy their childhood. What happens when you drill a child? Will child be able to response well when she come across a problem that she has never encountered? Will she know what to do? If the tuition centre focus on child to remember the steps instead of guiding her or reasoning wih her why the steps need to be done, I do not see any advantage except in term of academic grades.baobei:
[quote=\"monmon31\"]
U r v strong to resist the urge to send your kid for any lessons. All of us would hv succumbed to 'peer' pressure to a certain extent w our kiasu streak... Tats why we join the kiasuparents forum...haha
I don't think we should depend on tuition or deprive our children of their childhood but sometimes, we are not the best in coaching our kids. I couldn't help my kid in science so I sent her for class. She learnt the logic behind the lesson a lot easier and faster than I could read/understand and explain to her.
Just my two cents worth here.[/quote]I would believe that the science teacher in school would have done the basic work. If gifted, the child would be able to perform higher order thinking and ask the school teacher. Anyway, just my believe that tuition should be for children who are struggling to pass and not for children who are to be tested if they are gifted.
For example, at the same age, my bro and myself, given the same question, bro who is smarter is able to answer the question without coaching. I need to be coached to do it. The next time, when the same question is asked, I would be able to do it. To me, he is a smarter child.
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