<p>wow chaos theory--it's great to know before vacation was over!! I better run off and get the princeton version!! i thought the book just wasted a bunch of space without actually teaching anything-guess not LOL...</p>
<p>prettyckitty--thxxx u don't hafta find it for my sake haha;;;i just can't believe u guys r such geniuses!! how'd u study the verbal? just memorize memorize memorize? i try,,but sometimes i don't think that's the best method for me...</p>
<p>my D got into Andover with a 94% total:
Verbal - Questions testing your knowledge of words (synonyms) and
your ability to relate ideas (analogies).</p>
<p>Synonyms: Right 27 Wrong 2 Omitted 1
Analogies: Right 27 Wrong 2 Omitted 1 99%</p>
<p>Math- Questions testing your knowledge of number properties and
relationships, basic computation, elementary concepts of
equivalencies, geometry, measurement, and interpretation
of charts/graphs.</p>
<p>Number Concepts
& Operations: Right 14 Wrong 7 Omitted 2
Algebra, Geometry 61% bombed!
& Other Math: Right 16 Wrong 10 Omitted 1</p>
<p>Reading</p>
<p>Questions regarding the main idea and supporting details
of a passage or requiring higher order skills, such as
deriving the meaning of words from context, extracting the
meaning of a passage, or interpreting an author's logic,
attitude and tone.</p>
<p>Main Idea: Right 20 Wrong 1 Omitted 0 96%
Higher Order: Right 17 Wrong 2 Omitted 0</p>
<p>OVERALL SCORE 94%</p>
<p>checkwriter -- if you don't mind sharing the info, was your daughter a recruited athlete, under-represented minority or a legacy? From what I read quite often, if you aren't in one of those three categories, you don't get admitted to Andover.</p>
<p>Don't believe that rumor hsmomstef. Being in one of those categories is helpful, but is not necessary. I go to Andover and am not an athlete, urm, or legacy. I have many friends who do not fit into those categories either. I have other friends who do fit into those categories, but most didn't get in because of one of those factors. Minorities, legacies, and athletes also need to have good stats to gain acceptance. Of course many people will argue that standards are lower for exceptional athletes. Andover and other top schools wants diversity in all forms, not just racially. They look for well rounded kids who are willing to work hard.</p>
<p>sugerkim is right. I got into Andover (attending in autumn) this year, and I was not a recruited athlete, URM, or legacy, at least to my knowledge. That you must have one of the three if false.</p>
<p>I'm another Andover student that doesn't fit into any of hsmomstef's categories.</p>
<p>thanks to all of you! That is good to know!</p>
<p>OP -- your posts scare me. Do you study to get good grades? Because that's not what these schools want. The "[overachievers]" my Andover interviewer noted are the people that you're starting to seem like. Studying only to get good grades and scores, no team sports, typical activities, no authentic community service, and no adults to write you a glowing rec that you've had contact with in the past few years.. you need to ask yourself: why do you want to go to boarding school? Is it to say "I go to ________", to make your parents proud, to hold a higher status in korean society? if these are you're only reasons, i think you may be mistaken about what prep school is really about.</p>
<p>sorry if my posts sounded like that,,because i'm really not trying to just "get good grades" i really care about other activities too! you know i really work hard on my music, and believe or not, i did community service just today with my neighborhood community group,,i love golfing, and am improving at it over the summer, i work on photography frequently and have quite a few years experience at it in korea's most beautiful scenery,,i am quite sure my teachers will be delighted to write me my recommendations (don't take that as bragging-that's not how i mean it) and i am pretty sure my teachers have seen enough leadership and role modling enough in me to give me the principal's award...and also,,,i do love being in leadership positions like the student council-i just love having the responsibility of doing something...i mean...i have lots more out there...i was just asking around about the grade thing because that's the only topic i really don't know about...and i am sure i'm not an "overachiever"...btw,,i was in a basketball team too! and i have my own reasons that i want to go to boarding school that i can't all write up here!! sooo....thanks for your warning,, but hopefully, i'm really ok..thanks anyway =)</p>
<p>@hsmomstef
no, my d is not a urm, legacy or recruited athlete. she is a very well-rounded person, however. she is popular and well-liked, a natural leader-but also a prolific and precocious reader from a very early age and a gifted writer. i think she did especially well in the essays and her interviews. but it's difficult to pinpoint why someone is accepted. we were afraid her math score would hurt her chances, but she had a great rec from her math teacher, and is in fact quite good at math-just not quick and therefore doesn't test well.</p>
<p>It's important to remember when giving 'chances' guesses for students that ability to pay plays an important part. Admissions people are seeking balance in the student body and in the bursar's office.</p>
<p>OP -- that's exactly it. I suggest you look through the past posts of kids who were accepted. You'll find that their EC's were not limited to once being on a recreational sports team or playing around with an art. They had gallery exhibitions for their photography work and were recruited for their bball skills.. an EC is something you're doing right now. Otherwise, I would have listed like 50 activities.. but I'm not involved in 50 activities on a daily basis. Yeah, i used to be a great softball player. I don't play softball anymore, so it wasn't even mentioned.. not even a little bit.. not even in my interview. Softball is irrelevant to my EC list.. you can't just say, "I was on a softball team once, so..".. that's not gonna fly. You have to DO it.. not in the past, not in the future. the kids your competing against are doing 10 activities a week.. in depth. it's not about, "yeah, i did an hour of community service yesterday, so i'm set". how about opening a charity or something? THEN you're involved.</p>
<p>And you'll find the kids here love to study.. it's not a chore, and it's not something their parents even have to puch them to do. They love to work and study and learn.. these are the only kids who will survive at any top school in America. Western education is different than Eastern education in that learning is more progressive and takes place over a longer period of time.. education is not something you can acquire in a hagwon here... we don't even have hagwons here. It goes against everything that western education is built upon.. discussion, reflection, etc. NOT short term memorization.</p>
<p>also, just as a friendly tip that maybe you haven't noticed, but ellipsises do not involve commas.. something you might want to note for the essays and whatnot.</p>
<p>the commas ion the ellipsises are just a habit of mine~ i should seriously stop it haha anyway thanks!</p>
<p>i got a 99th percentile in all three (nearly perfect score)
and got waitlisted at sps
probably cause my interests didn't line up very well...but w/e</p>
<p>Same with me, pumpkinyaz. Exact same, actually. Interesting. I guess they have their reasons.
Sorry to nitpick, blairt, but I would refute the claim that Western education is based on "discussion, reflection, etc. NOT short term memorization." What you were probably referring to was the top boarding schools. However, the public schools in America (yes, even the highest-ranked with the most art and sports and elective choices) are based on short-term rote memorization.</p>
<p>Western education has its roots in western philosophy.. the Socratic method (much like the Harkness method), etc. has influence a lot.. the enlightenment has influenced the essay, the novel, scientific evaluation.. These are western... and they have traveled to the east, but their roots are western. A huge problem with kids from Asian countries coming over here for an education is that they have a hard time with critical thinking ( <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/soraj/web/APPEND.html%5B/url%5D">http://homepage.mac.com/soraj/web/APPEND.html</a> ) since a typical Asian education is more about facts and memorization than from exploration, skepticism (not prevalent in commie countries or neighbors)... for example, in Japan, it's custom to conform and accept standards.</p>
<p>See: <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/soraj/web/APPEND.html%5B/url%5D">http://homepage.mac.com/soraj/web/APPEND.html</a></p>
<p>and a host of others</p>
<p>yeah, you need to memorize things with any education. but memorization is not the center of learning, let alone healthy learning. learning is the acceptance of new facts and their application to other facts and problems.. this is critical thinking..</p>
<p>Of course memorization isn't the center of learning. It is, however, the center of the majority of public schools. Come on, blairt. You've been to some public schools, haven't you? Thirty, thirty-five kids in a fifth grade classroom with one teacher and no recess, their supplies being textbooks crafted so that as little critical thinking and as much blind acceptence as possible takes place. Socratic method? You can't possibly think that that's going to be able to happen. The goal is to keep the children quiet, obediant, busy, and hopefully literate and knowing their multiplication tables (though, through the extensive time I spent working with sixth graders, I know that it is quite possible to get through seven years of the system without knowing how to really read or know what 3X6 is). </p>
<p>Yes, there is less rote memorization than in the Eastern Method, but that does mean that that isn't the foundation of it. We in the United States pay lip service to the ideas of free play, explorative learning, and the Socratic method, but in truth, anyone who attends a public school (at least one of 99% of them, charter and magnet schools not necessarily included) can explain that the way to pass school is to memorize rules and jam it into your head for the exam. Much of it (like the main exports of the United States or what the geography of Greece looked like in ancient times) can be forgetten once the exam has passed. I would know. I look at history tests I took in the seventh grade, just a year ago, and I have absolutely no recollection of any of the answers I filled in. That is because I have aboslutely no need to, nor any way of connecting it to what I was memorizing this year in history.</p>
<p>"Ninety-nine [students] out of a hundred are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed custom. This is not an accident but the result of substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual." -William Torrey Harris (U.S. Commissioner of Education 1889-1906)</p>
<p>Another quote from this great guy (I'm ashamed to admit that he went to Andover) who helped lay the foundation of mandatory public American schooling:</p>
<p>"The great purpose of school can be better realized in dark, airless, ugly places... It is to master the physical self, to transcend the beauty of nature. School should develop the power to withdraw from the external world"</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Indeed. Here, you will relearn the same grade 12 times. ;)</p>
<p>given, but my argument pertains to someone educated under the Asian methods who then attends a top American prep school. If you can't critically think, you won't even get through the interview.. let alone the essays.</p>