"You can't study for the Stanford"

Today I went to a 'moving up' meeting at Alex's private school. (And, we are really leaning heavily towards homeschooling again next year!!!) Part of the talk was about the 'math tracks' and the fact that the 6th graders will be taking an "Alegbra readiness" test at the end of April. The Dean said "you can't study for it. It's a test to see if they're ready. They're either ready, or they're not."

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Alex will be taking the Stanford next week, and she was told there was "no way to study for it." REALLY???

I've heard this before! Another 'biggie' is "you can't study for the PSAT." Ugh! My sister and brother both studied pretty hard for the PSAT, and guess what? They were BOTH National Merit Finalists! And, I honestly don't know why I didn't study for it. I was really more laid back about my education and didn't care that much about it. But, I digress!

I bought Alex a test booklet to help her prepare for the Stanford. I found out she doesn't remember grammar topics such as direct objects and indirect objects, so we studied those. She doesn't remember helping verbs, so we went over that. She's having difficulty going back and forth between percents and fractions. So, we studied!!!

I'm just shocked that any person in education would believe (or say) you can't study for these tests!! And, yet it is something you often hear! Ugh! If you look at the tests (especially something like the Stanford), it looks just like a test you take in school! So, would you say you can't study for a test in math? You either know it or you don't? Or do you tell kids to STUDY?!?

Whew!