Nerd school

[asterroc]

As if nerdcamp kids weren't strange enough, here's a whole NY Times article about people cramming for the entrance exam for the high school I went to. I can't recall being that insane about it myself.

Edit: The punchline at the end, what if they don't get in? "I’ll be sad, ... but there’s still Stuyvesant." LOL!

Comments

[oh-chris.livejournal.com]

wow. yeah, it was just "ok, kids, you're going to take the hunter test" for my class, and half a dozen of us got in. i didn't see it as make or break or anything.
i liked the stuy dig.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I think around 3-5 of my 6th grade classmates took it, which is surprising considering that we were in the "alpha" class - apparently my elementary school was one of the first in the city (borough?) to offer a gifted class, and that's what it was called, the alpha program.

[oh-chris.livejournal.com]

odd. we were a gifted program too, but called "gifted", and most of the class took it. and i'm pretty sure we didn't go to the same school...

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

You know that not just anyone can take it, you have to be invited based upon your city-wide standardized tests. Perhaps your school taught to those tests more than mine.

[rosefox]

For the Hunter Elementary students, hardly anyone cared; I don't know whether this was actually true, but there was a pretty sturdy rumor that if you went to HCES, you had a free pass to HCHS unless you completely bombed the exam.

This morning I took a taxi, and the driver had a Stuy bumper sticker on his Plexiglas divider, along with stickers from Smith and MIT. I decided not to ask him about them, but I do wonder what his story is.

[framefolly.livejournal.com]

Fewer than a dozen students from my school took the test, and four got in -- I remember I was very gleeful that I got a "day off" regular school and got to go to a faraway place. My sis had to talk me into going once I got in.

Ah nostalgia!

PS: I had to delete and re-post because I've got a free account and can't just edit, and I had made the kind of grammatical error that made me cringe...

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

Are you sure only 3-5 people in your class took the test? I thought our entire class took the test, and a lot of people got in or something from my class. It was even on the local news. If I recalled correctly, I thought only 3 people in your class PASSED the exam. I think we had 6.

Do you think people who get in because they went to a cram school like this would flourish at Hunter? I kind of think the freestyle approach and relatively relaxed attendance formula (what's a free period?) might not fit someone trained to study and memorize like that. I personally think that the best way to prepare for the test is just to have read lots of advanced books, and knowing your math.

Then again, I'm of the opinion that the Hunter test was biased, since the verbal section counted twice, and the essay seemed like a subjective way to weed out people. I don't know how the Stuyvesant test works now, but I never studied for either test... though in retrospect perhaps I should have studied for the Stuyvesant test because I really disliked Hunter...

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

It was my recollection that me, JT, and your sister took it, I don't recall if anyone else took it. I know only JT and I went, but I don't recall whether anyone else passed it.

I really disliked Hunter...

I never really did understand why you wanted to leave, and you never really did explain. I'm guessing part of that was how we were all trying to peer pressure you into staying, so it was easier to say nothing than to keep fighting us.

So now that time has passed, what didn't you like about Hunter?

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

I recall another kid whose initials was DH also made it in from your class. I think he used to live nearby to us and JT. Rumor is he became a hot shot lawyer who is really snobby.

Here are my top four reasons why I wanted to leave, by order of gravity:
1. The math teacher who kicked me and then threatened to bring me to the assistant principal unless I apologized to her for muttering within her earshot afterwards to my friends that 'she should have at least apologized for having to kick me' because I was sitting in the middle of the hallway. I still have nightmares about that. I deeply regret not calling her bluff and getting her sacked or stuck at a desk job for the rest of her life. And of course, you guys were like, "no, not her, she's the nicest teacher in the world!" You were brainwashed! I still get angry thinking about it. It was really humiliating.

2. The students. I really didn't like the students in my class. Especially the ones from the HCEE program. Examples of why pre-selection for gifted programs at age five can be mistakes and/or free passes into future programs.

3. The focus. I thought it was definitely a social sciences oriented school. I wanted something more mathematical and scientific bound.

4. No windows. How many of those inner rooms had the air conditioning broken in them?

And, as JT so eloquently put it in my yearbook, Stuyvesant "had more doohickeys than a Disney World Resort". It had escalators! Escalators! Who could refuse that? With a building like that, Hunter is just a holding tank for 7th and 8th grade... with sharks... and maybe a few windows.