Out of 45 elementary and 11 high schools in Buffalo district schools three are well known for its programs,class management,curriculum & organization. Those are City Honors School At Fosdick-Masten Park, PS 156 Frederick Law Olmsted High School and Hutch-Tech Technical High School. In order to get in there is an entrance test that students need to take.
The test is all about understanding what question is asking you. All they orare trying to test is your cognitive abilities and finding answer by looking through the references give. Let me just show you some questions that you might see on the test.
Math:
There are many Analogy questions. You know
"A is to B as C is to what?" type of questions. You can find sample questions about analogy in the following links:
Here: http://www.math.com/students/kaplan/sat_intro/sample_qs/analogy_sample_qs/ana1.htm
& Here: http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Analogies.htm [Scroll Down and you will see analogy questions based on grades]
->Some figure classification questions. You can practice yours
here.->Figure analogy questions which you can find
here.
->Figure analysis questions
here
You can also look up online to find more practice worksheets.
English:
I've also seen some verbal reasoning question where you're give some words and need to find a word that most likely to come next. An Example would be: Say like you are given Red,Yellow,Blue,White and then you have to select a word from some words that are give like Umbrella,Window,Green,Grass.Which one you think goes with Red,Yellow,Blue,White? Obviously every single one of them are colors so the most likely one is green.
Then there are sentence completion: How ___ make a cup of tea? A)to B)do C)for
and the answer is A [Real Easy].
You can find more about Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT)
here.Look at the type of question and search each one on google to find practice worksheets. The more you practice, the more likely that you will become good at it.
Essay:
The essay is pretty much about something general or dramatic. In 2012 it was about "a coin that been around many people..". There is not much to learn about an essay [I think] since you really don't know what it is going to be about. But they give you an extra page to make an outline of your essay which you should definitely use properly. Make a good outline and always start with the introduction. It should look something like:
->Introduction
(1-2 paragraphs)
Focus on explaining
the topic.
->Body
(minimum of 3 paragraphs but use as many as necessary ... several short paragraphs
are better than 1-2 overly long paragraphs)
Write your
body before your write your introduction and conclusion.
Examine all
aspects of the topic. Show
your knowledge and grasp of the material you have read.
Discuss the differing opinions of the topic as reflected in the research.
Discuss any
issues or problems.
Did you have enough information?
Did the research raise issues you hadn't considered?
Did the research contain confusing, incomplete or
contradictory
information?
Explain how your research influenced
your thinking.
If your thinking has changed, what changed it?
If your thinking has not changed, how did what you learned support your original
opinion?
If you're not sure about your opinion, what information might you need to form
an opinion?
->Conclusion
(generally 1 paragraph)
The conclusion
rounds off the essay.
Refer
back to your main ideas or points and reiterate your answer to the question.
NEVER introduce
new information in your conclusion.
The conclusion
moves from specific to general.
[From http://www.amyglenn.com/Courses/critical.htm]
Check
this link to find out more about writing a cognitive ability test.
I think that pretty much it. Always read the direction and time yourself during the test because I've seen a lot of people ran out of time.
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Its the same as City Honors.
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Hutch-Tech Admission Test is almost the same as City Honors or F. Olmsted. The only difference is that there is no essay on the test. There are some tricky math questions are given on the hutch tech test. Some Examples would be:
-> Equation Building
-> Quantitative Relations
-> There are some questions where you are give numbers and arrows to find a number. Its almost like you are given or you choose an input and then the input goes through subtraction,division,multiplication or deciding if its odd or even.I made up a weird example just to give you an idea which you can find here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw7J3hZvPhOcN1Z0SHM5UjdwMkk/edit?usp=sharing
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