Reply #10: They are hated in NJ too

[karynnj]

They spend a huge amount of time preparing for the 4 th and 8th grade tests. They also have an 11th grade test, but a neighbor told me they were allowing a good score on the PSAT to count as a pass (and allow skipping the test). I hope this is true.

For the entire 8th garde, the kids had a class that had a meaningless name but was really a whole class to prepare for the test! So the 8th grade algebra students spent time in the math section doing problems they were bored with in about 4th grade. The English part was also very simplistic. They had added a writing part that used a very rigid rubric to grade the essays. (So, rigid most of the honors class scored as "average" as they failed to follow the magic guidelines.) This was a total waste of about 12% of their time in school!