(
)
She didn’t swig Red Bull from a sippy cup to pull all-nighters, but Taylor Dior started cramming at age 3 for what some New Yorkers think is the most important test of her life — getting into kindergarten.
Her mom, Chavon Peele, paid up to $79 a month to a private service for access to 1,000 sample questions that she says gave Taylor the skills needed to ace the city’s Gifted and Talented test.
They worked together 45 minutes most nights so that tiny Taylor, soon after turning 4, could discern patterns, do analogies, understand concepts such as “greater than,” and recognize a rhombus, among other tough tasks.
CLICK HERE TO SEE SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR KIDS TRYING OUT FOR GIFTED AND TALENTED KINDERGARTEN IN NYC
“I’m a superstar, and I know everything!” said Taylor, who ranked in the 98th and 99th percentile on the two-part city test.
The city’s gifted kindergarten programs are so coveted — of 14,000 preschoolers who took the test this year, 2,700 snagged seats — parents bent on sending their kids to Harvard (in 14 years) are turning to commercial test-prep books and services like TestingMom.com, which Taylor’s mother used.
Experts agree that coaching bright kids can raise scores significantly.
“Even though I think it’s unfair that some people don’t have the resources to prepare, I’m going to be one of those who prepare,” Chavon Peele said. “I do it because she has to stay competitive.”
Michael McCurdy, a TriBeCa dad, relied only on the Department of Education’s parent handbook — with just 16 sample questions — to prepare his daughter for the 128-question kindergarten exam. After she scored in the 95th percentile, he asked to review her test — and was shocked.
“A 4-year-old has to know things like sphere, cylinder and trapezoid. You don’t go around telling your child, ‘Oh, there’s a cube,’ ” McCurdy said. Tots also must do basic math and use critical thinking skills.
McCurdy launched TestingMom.com with Karen Quinn, author of “Ivy Chronicles” and “Testing for Kindergarten.” For memberships starting at $14.99 a month, they peddle some 5,000 practice questions devised for various IQ tests, including those required by elite private schools.
Brooklyn mom Elena Walsh liked the daily e-mails to drill her 4-year-old, James.
“You must train your child to listen to instructions and be able to sit,” she said.
James liked it.
“He got up in the morning and said, ‘Mommy, I want to do the questions!’ ”
He scored the highest possible 99th percentile — earned by 6.6 percent of pre-K kids who took the test. But he still couldn’t get into the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a citywide gifted school. So many kids apply, they hold a lottery — and James didn’t have a winning ticket.