NYC Department of Education Gifted and Talented Parents Information Session – Upper Westside

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - October 17th, 2011

The TestingMom.com team took the Upper West Side by storm, discussing our services to the mob of NYC parents that attended the NYC Department of Education’s Gifted and Talented Information Session at Brandeis High School. There were well over 700 parents there wanting to know how their child could get a coveted seat in the prestigious NYC G&T program. The dept of ed. discussed the OLSAT test and how parents should prepare (or not prepare their kids).

Despite the long line and wait to sign in, the multitudes of parents that attended the meeting were able to get their DOE handbooks (in addition to TestingMom.com OLSAT practice questions), as well as talk directly with DOE representatives during the Q&A session. Here are just a few of the many questions asked by the anxious parents taking non-stop notes:

• How to prepare a child for the tests? 
• Does the Dept of Ed have any more OLSAT sample or Bracken questions?
• What’s the busing situation to the G&T citywide programs?
• What’s the difference between a gifted and talented, private school and general education program?

It was an exceptionally crowded meeting, far exceeding our anticipated crowd count. That’s still promising though; hopefully it means we have even more gifted and talented students in NYC than last year!

Parents Wonder "What will be my child's OLSAT score?"

We spoke to a few parents who said:

“It was a good event but I needed to know more about the OLSAT test. The dept of ed just didn’t elaborate enough on what’s on the test!” Susan – Mother from Upper Westside

“Now I realize how many smart and bright kids are in NYC. After seeing the scores of parents here I realize this is no joke and that if I don’t prepare my son for this test his chances will be slim. Luckily we are zoned for a good public school as a last resort in case his OLSAT test results don’t qualify him for the program.”  Paul – Dad in Tribeca