Ignore that awkward post.
My Blockbuster DVD was scratched and it messed things up.

I knew a lot of people that went to the private highschools UTS, Greenwood and some other random school called Country Day School or something like that. I would hardly call most of them gifted; it was more along the lines of they had a lot of money and their parents were some how affiliated with someone on staff.

In regards to this gifted thing, man, I've known so many jackasses that were declared gifted at a young age. I think it's stupid to do gifted tests on 5 or 6 year old kids - some people are really good at getting the "basics" down (i.e. basic pattern recognition, basic math, basic spelling), which you are tested on at that age, but completely suck in later years when it extends beyond that. It also inflates your ego at a young age, which probably screws you up in the long run. Half my spoiled 5 or 6 year old cousins in the US were declared "gifted", and I feel like backhanding them across the face every time I see them... (okay, maybe that's going a bit too far :p)

I remember back in the good ol'days of crazy bones and pokemons there was always some kid in my class that had to mention on practically an hourly basis that he or she was in the "gifted" program. I'm pretty sure the majority of them are still in highschool.

And now that's all I have to say about that.

/rant

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Ignore that awkward post.
My Blockbuster DVD was scratched and it messed things up.

I remember the last time I rented a DVD... that was a looonnggg time ago. lol

Originally Posted by PTGregD

I took the gifted test in grade 3 and got streamed into the gifted program from Grades 4-10. I'm not sure if the program itself helped me, but being surrounded by 29 other gifted kids I think definitely helped. I don't think it's a scam (the gifted program is @ a public school, so you don't pay tuition).

And I mean, the results show for themselves. One of my friends who was in the program is now in Health Sci, and just made it on to Provost's Honor Roll, I made it into Commerce (not health sci hard, I know lol ) but I just got on Provost's Honor Roll as well, and another went to Harvard (no his parent's weren't rich ).

Before people (if anyone cares that is xD) think I'm a bitter old crank or something, I was declared gifted as well...but I didn't want to change schools.

The problem is, a person's experience is their own...I've had almost the exact opposite experience. I know some people who went to the gifted school, came back in high-school and not only acted superior (and got their heads beaten in for it) but were also socially awkward. Nowadays it really does seem to me as though the 'non-gifted' students are more successful.

-I know one gifted student who got into humanities, got pissed off about not getting an A+ on his essays, freaked out and flunked out in his first year.
-I do know one who is in Commerce and doing quite well, entering his 5th year (of a Co-Op program)...and he's a good guy, but he's still kind of socially awkward.

As for the 'non-gifted' students, I also know someone who just finished up in Health Sciences, got something like 98th percentile on the MCAT and got in just about everywhere for med school besides John Hopkins (I dunno wtf it takes to get in there S: ). Think they picked Washington State (though I was badgering him to pick Harvard :p). I know some others who are largely successful...I admit I don't know anyone getting provost (straight 12s?) but I can't say I really care about that to be frank xD. It's one of those 'good for you' kind of things where congratulations are most certainly in order, but you have to weigh the pro's and con's of the process.



As for myself, I'd like to think I'm doing reasonably well despite not having had a gifted school...I certainly didn't need any extra social awkwardness (for lack of a better word). The only thing I can really commend myself for, besides graduation with distinction and getting into grad school (I picked Mac over U of C Berkeley), is that I always did superbly on math contests. I consistently got certificates for top x% on contests like the Euclid, Fermat, Pascal, etc...and at McMaster, I got the highest rank to date on the Putnam contest, just this past year...and no, it's not really that great, all of the Harvard, MIT kids pwned me, but I'm still proud of that. There's not much more I could expect from myself right?

I scored a 20 out of 120 points, and got a rank of about 550th place...but since the median grade (over about 7500 students) is 0, I actually did quite well. xD

CDDHS in Shelburne (aka, The Boonies).......there' s no place in Ontario that can possibly be more redneck than that school.

Originally Posted by PTGregD

I took the gifted test in grade 3 and got streamed into the gifted program from Grades 4-10. I'm not sure if the program itself helped me, but being surrounded by 29 other gifted kids I think definitely helped. I don't think it's a scam (the gifted program is @ a public school, so you don't pay tuition).

And I mean, the results show for themselves. One of my friends who was in the program is now in Health Sci, and just made it on to Provost's Honor Roll, I made it into Commerce (not health sci hard, I know lol ) but I just got on Provost's Honor Roll as well, and another went to Harvard (no his parent's weren't rich ).

I was but through a psychoeducational analysis in first grade where it was determined I was gifted because I had already known how to read for a couple of years. My parents didn't want me to be switched into another school for grades 2-3 to go into a gifted class, so I had a special teacher come in once a week to give me more enriched learning in reading/writing etc. Instead of being removed from class during the reading/writing times I was taken out of math...which was a terrible idea on the school's part.

For grades 4-8 I was in a core gifted class at my elementary school. I found it funny that all of the other kids in my elementary school that suddenly became gifted in grade six didn't go through the testing I did though. I assume they wanted to decrease the size of the normal class. We did a lot of self-directed learning so instead of learning things I should have (multiplication, division) I learned how to do stuff like probability. That screwed me later in life.

In grades 9-10 I was in a enhanced core program (math English, Science, Geography and History) in my high school, because I didn't want to go to a crappy highschool for an enriched highschool program. Similarly there were lots of kids from other schools who suddenly became enhanced in ninth grade but were never in an enhanced program previously.

I think a lot of us became socially awkward, at least a little bit, because we were bullied and teased by the regular classes while in elementary school. A lot of the 'regular' students were still *******s to us in high school.

A. Y. Jackson north york

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I knew a lot of people that went to the private highschools UTS, Greenwood and some other random school called Country Day School or something like that. I would hardly call most of them gifted; it was more along the lines of they had a lot of money and their parents were some how affiliated with someone on staff...

Yeah, same for my high school. I see some people there and think to myself, "How did HE manage to get in? Oh right, he could play football."

I remember I applied for UTS. I passed the exams pretty well, but I couldn't get in for financial reasons.

Originally Posted by PTGregD

I know for sure you need to pass some sort of admissions standard. Most likely a test, and an interview process.

Yup, Greg's correct. Admission to UTS consists of two stages. The first stage is a multiple choice exam, which is written by rougly 1500-1750 students. The top 200-250 are then invited back, and write another exam with an interview. Out of those 200-250 students, they accept about 100 students. This was the procedure when I was there, however, I'm fairly certain it has changed this year.

Originally Posted by Joseph

Yup, Greg's correct. Admission to UTS consists of two stages. The first stage is a multiple choice exam, which is written by rougly 1500-1750 students. The top 200-250 are then invited back, and write another exam with an interview. Out of those 200-250 students, they accept about 100 students. This was the procedure when I was there, however, I'm fairly certain it has changed this year.

Yeah, those are the same two stages when I tried for admission. I didn't even get an interview, although I felt I did well on the multiple choice exam. Oh well.

Originally Posted by Joseph

Yup, Greg's correct. Admission to UTS consists of two stages. The first stage is a multiple choice exam, which is written by rougly 1500-1750 students. The top 200-250 are then invited back, and write another exam with an interview. Out of those 200-250 students, they accept about 100 students. This was the procedure when I was there, however, I'm fairly certain it has changed this year.

Wow that is hectic lol, did you get accepted?

Fletchers meadow SS .... Brampton

Originally Posted by Jake

Wow that is hectic lol, did you get accepted?

In an earlier post it says that he went to UTS, so I presume he did...

I think they also accept people later on to fill up spots in certain years when some students choose to leave the school. This was a pretty long time ago, though, so I'm not entirely sure if this still exists.

Originally Posted by Jake

Wow that is hectic lol, did you get accepted?

Yup, I just recently graduated from the University of Toronto schools.

Originally Posted by Joseph

Yup, I just recently graduated from the University of Toronto schools.

Awesome! No wonder you're in Health Sci lol