Its early April and Brooklyn is finally starting to wake up. I am glad to see the sun shining just a little brighter, the birds singing just a little louder and the children seem to be growing quite a bit faster. But its April and that means every few days I get a phone call from a concerned parent. “Do you do G&T prep?” they ask. “Should we start now?”

I understand and appreciate these parent’s concerns. After all our local school system leaves much to be desired and scoring well on a gifted and talented test allows a bright child admission into a special class or even a special school, where they will be challenged and receive more attention. However, my response to these questions is always “No, its too early to prepare.”

The truth is, if you walked in to Brainy Academy tomorrow, if you put your checkbook on my desk and if you attempted to write me out a check to prep your child for this test starting in April or in May or any time before September I would try to talk you out of it. It’s not because I don’t enjoy running a profitable business… But as a mother who’s been through the system and an educator that’s helped prepare dozens of kids I know that preparing too early could lead to unintended disaster. I know over prepping to be the number one reason why children who could do well on the test do not.

What do I mean by over prepping? Let’s take a step back and look at the test first. The current nyc elementary g&t test is an iq test broken up into two distinct portions. The first is the NNAT2 and the second is the OLSAT. Your child spends a portion of his time on each test, is graded one a curve and must do well on both tests in order to get a passing score that will allow admission into either a district program or a city wide gifted school. Simple enough (and if it’s not feel free to stop by my office, I will be happy to explain how the system works). But what are these tests? They are iq tests administered to hundreds of thousands of children throughout the world. They are not simple memorization tests. What is being tested are your child’s abilities to reason and to think clearly. Ability to create patterns, ability to observe evidence and draw conclusions. Basically the ability to think. But as complicated as this sounds there are about 12 distinct types of questions on the entire test. That’s it… Just 12 questions. Every single question that will be given to your child follows the model of one of these 12 prototypes (if you aren’t sure what that means stop by my office and I’ll show you what some of them look like). It takes an average child about 12 to 14 sessions to cover and recover every single question and all of their variations. As the test progresses the questions grow in complexity, the first few of the same type are simple, the next few are harder and the last few are very difficult. If you understand what is being asked, and you understand what kind of response should be provided this is more than half the battle. But in the end the hardest questions can only be answered if you not only understand the question but also have some natural ability or affinity for this type of question.

And here is the moment of truth. Neither I, nor my competitors are capable of performing miracles. We simply can’t take a child who would have gotten a 50 on this test and get them to a 99. It can’t be done. I am sorry, I wish it could be. However here is what those of us who understand the test and how to teach it can do: We can take a child who would have gotten a 90 and get him to a 99. We can take a child who would have gotten a 75 or an 80 and get them to a 90 or a 95. This makes a difference between a general program and a gifted program. And it could make a huge difference in the environment your child will be educated in. This is the big secret in preparation… The other big secret is that long term studies show absolutely no difference between children who attended NYC G&T schools and those who didn’t. See this book for more in depth information. So even if you don’t get into one of these great schools, don’t despair. In the long run your involvement in your child’s education makes much more difference than what school your child will attend. Having said that, as a mother I would prefer my child to go to a citywide gifted school, and I understand you do too.

So now let’s take a look at preparation again. Imagine you had to learn how to answer 12 different types of questions, fairly simple questions once you understood what was being asked. And imagine that you spend not 2 month learning these questions, not 3 months, but 9 or 10 repeating the same thing over and over and over again, as my competitors try to get you to do. How would you feel? Frustrated? Bored? Like you really didn’t want to ever see these questions ever again? What would you feel the day of the test? Would you feel like you were playing a fun game with your proctor and it was important to “win” or would you gaze to the side because you were so terribly sick of seeing these questions over and over again for almost a year. It is unfortunate how many bright kids we have coming in September for their test prep and they are already bored with the test itself. They start elsewhere and transfer to us. And my teacher’s big dilemma is not teaching to the test… its to interest the child enough to want to do well on the day of the test.

So ok, you say. What am I supposed to do? It’s April and this test is very important… I have a terrible zone school my child simply can’t attend. Here is my advice as an educator and a mother: play manipulative based logic games with your child. Patterning, sequencing and all the rest of the skills can and should be taught using manipulative first, so that the child can “get” it using real world examples, and only after that using paper based means similar to the exam. And here comes the shameless plug: in my Montessori classes we teach children all the logic and critical thinking skills using manipulative work. Then when they start the test prep all they have to do is transition from using these skills with manipulative to using these skills on paper. Simple and logical (we are big on logic around here). Unlike our G&T prep program, Montessori classes run the entire year and you can start any time (we have no contract options to make enrollment easy). In addition to logic your child will learn reading, writing and mathematics (all using child friendly manipulatives). But you don’t need to attend my class to learn these things. If you have time and availability of effort you can do many of these things at home. At the bottom of this post I include a few sources of materials to get you started. Many of the materials we use are created by our in house psychologist who administered the olsat and NNAT test for 5 years in Moscow.

And as for my own children? My eldest one got into the citywide gifted school after attending a Montessori program. And my little one, the one who is due to take the next test… I could start him today if I wanted to. I could assign him the best teachers and ensure he got more prep than any child in this entire city. But I understand how much harm that would do. My little one attends my Montessori program and will be starting his prep in September.

Viktoria Altman
Mother of two amazing boys
Owner of brainy academy

Sources for manipulatives:
http://products.lakeshorelearning.com/math-learning-products
http://www.alisonsmontessori.com/Mathematics_s/35381.htm