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Another strike against genuine education. Now prep schools that have 17 valedictorians will help their students pad their applications with nonsense extra-curri

Another strike against genuine education. Now prep schools that have 17 valedictorians will help their students pad their applications with nonsense extra-curricular activities and experiences. However it's likely much easier to create the same pastiche of fluff in poorly-performing schools than it is to actually raise test scores. Now more than ever, college signals nothing other than the ability to follow rules and jump through hoops. Such a tragedy.

basementcat 6y ago
Alternatively, this may prompt more students to take the AMC examinations. https://www.maa.org/math-competitions https://www.maa.org/math-competitions
- zests 6y ago
  Good luck self studying for those -- I tried. I made AIME but had no chance there. There's no way a significant number of generic public high schools start caring about the AMC. It will just be helicopter parents, wealthy private schools and the odd self motivated student.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    You can study for the AMC–I used to (disclaimer: I knew a lot people who did so as well). However, doing well on the AMC usually means you need to actually understand what you're doing; it's fairly difficult to cheese your way through.
- papeda 6y ago
  If anything, I think the AMC exams are more vulnerable to prep than the SAT/ACT in the following sense: I think a bright and disciplined kid who does lots of self-study (e.g. using the free Khan Academy SAT materials [1]) has a decent chance to do well on the SAT/ACT, even compared to a bright and disciplined kid whose parents pay for classes. I think the gap is bigger for AMC stuff because, IMO, it's harder to teach yourself math competition skills. In that sense, access to paid instruction becomes a much bigger edge. Math competition skills also test something very specific and are a pretty useless metric for most people. [1] https://www.khanacademy.org/sat https://www.khanacademy.org/sat
collegeburner 6y ago
> 17 valedictorians You think that's bad? I know some kids at a public school in a rich neighborhood that had almost fifty valedictorians.

basementcat 6y ago

Alternatively, this may prompt more students to take the AMC examinations. https://www.maa.org/math-competitions https://www.maa.org/math-competitions

zests 6y ago
Good luck self studying for those -- I tried. I made AIME but had no chance there. There's no way a significant number of generic public high schools start caring about the AMC. It will just be helicopter parents, wealthy private schools and the odd self motivated student.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  You can study for the AMC–I used to (disclaimer: I knew a lot people who did so as well). However, doing well on the AMC usually means you need to actually understand what you're doing; it's fairly difficult to cheese your way through.
papeda 6y ago
If anything, I think the AMC exams are more vulnerable to prep than the SAT/ACT in the following sense: I think a bright and disciplined kid who does lots of self-study (e.g. using the free Khan Academy SAT materials [1]) has a decent chance to do well on the SAT/ACT, even compared to a bright and disciplined kid whose parents pay for classes. I think the gap is bigger for AMC stuff because, IMO, it's harder to teach yourself math competition skills. In that sense, access to paid instruction becomes a much bigger edge. Math competition skills also test something very specific and are a pretty useless metric for most people. [1] https://www.khanacademy.org/sat https://www.khanacademy.org/sat

collegeburner 6y ago

> 17 valedictorians You think that's bad? I know some kids at a public school in a rich neighborhood that had almost fifty valedictorians.