<p>Just kidding goodnoodle, just kidding, promise! :D</p>
<p>Yeah, for real, I remember in elementary school they had them…I never got in, probably because I was never the best math student. I thought it was dumb because they got out of class to do fun stuff and I was stuck in class, and in all honesty, maybe I wasn’t the best math student, but I was the only 3rd grader who knew as much as I did about history.</p>
<p><em>shrug</em></p>
<p>Oh well. </p>
<p>But what do you mean by “then there’s me”. If you had to describe yourself in a paragraph or less, what would you say?</p>
<p>^Oh yeah you’re the one that said, “It’s so hard to give a description without sounding pretentious.” and then said how you’re the cool nerd who everyone (even the gangsters) like, haha.</p>
<p>I like how you side-stepped the complete first half of my previous post.</p>
<p>Haha I wanted to specific how pretentious I was going to sound.</p>
<p>And I’m sure that you were more than qualified for the gifted program CEM :)</p>
<p>I really question the usefulness of “gifted programs.” Only the people who made a certain IQ cutoff were considered gifted. Everyone else in the class was placed there pretty much through test scores or teacher recs. What if someone is a bad tester? What if they’re intelligent but dont behave in class? Is there really that big of a difference between an IQ of 129 and 130 (not that I put value in IQ scores.)</p>
<p>Also I feel like the classes socially hindered all of its inhabitants. After being with the same group of 30 similar minded people for 7 years, everyone was somewhat behind when it came to high school and interacting with a general population. Some of us have been more successful than others in social skill developement, but pretty much everyone who was in the gifted class sports some level of awkwardness.</p>
<p>I really think the gifted programs are dumb. First of all, I don’t think IQ tests measure true intelligence. That is arguable. Secondly, at least at my school, it seemed like getting into the gifted program was somewhat political (knowing the right people, if you get my drift) and I really feel that I was qualified, so I’m confused as to why I was never in it, because I wouldn’t think just me not being great in math (wasn’t even THAT bad) would hinder me. But anyhow, also, the whole education system’s way of measuring intelligence, and GPAs and all of that is somewhat useless, because they are not measuring intelligence or smartness, but the ability one has to memorize information. Which is not intelligence or smartness.</p>
<p>Good news! My newest blog post, “Ordinary Leadership”, is coming out on The Huffington Post in a couple days. I’ve worked really hard on it, so I hope the interest is there. I’ll keep you guys notified.</p>
<p>It snowed last night! Only about an inch I think, but we don’t normally get snow until mid-january at the earliest, and then it’s still pretty rare :)</p>
<p>I got into another two schools today! That’s 4 out of all the 4 I applied to, and I’m going to Westminster School. Even you guys have probably heard of it :p</p>
<p>@UKGirl congrats! How does the whole sixth form thing work though? Do all high schools only go up to 10th grade and then you have to go to a separate sixth form school or do you choose whether you want to? And then is it difficult to get into the type of schools you applied to? Over here, I go to a private high school and these types of schools are very common in my area but not too hard to get into. Out of the all-girls schools in the area, mine is the most prestigious though. And also how far are all the schools you applied to away from home?</p>
<p>Most high schools go 6th-12th but a few only go up to 10th. It’s more that the last two years are aimed at a different set of exams, so it’s a lot more normal to move then. There are also sixth form colleges, just for these two years to take different exams or focus your studies more.
I applied to top private schools, which are particularly hard to get into at this stage. Westminster take about 60 girls (the lower schools is all boy) and 10 boys each year, which is about 9% of total applicants… The others take 15-25% of applicants, so still hard, but not so ridiculous!
I’m going to board at Westminster, because it is over an hour away by train, in the centre of London. One other was boarding, and that was about 2 hours away. The other two schools were about an hour away, but didn’t offer boarding, which was one reason I wasn’t so keen on them!
I really wish we had the flexibility of the American system, here we’re stuck with major external exams at the end of 10th, 11th and 12th grade, forming two lots of two year courses. (9-10 and 11-12) We have to specialise earlier, as we only take the same 3-4 subjects from 11th grade.</p>
<p>Oh I’m glad you explained UKgirl… I’ve had no idea what you’ve been talking about for the past 10 posts haha. Hopefully you get into the one you want… That’d be kinda cool if they did that here… And I don’t know if these are boarding schools or anything but I’ve always kinda wants to live at school, one of the classic schools you always see in movies that’s all Victorian with big libraries and leather chairs and stone walls… Haha sounds like a lot of ivy leagues:) . My grandma works at Hampton Sydney university and I just love that feel!!</p>
<p>I got into Westminster, which was my first choice There’s been a school there for over a thousand years, so it is pretty old! It’s not one of the traditional ‘public’ (type of private school) schools because it’s in the centre of London so doesn’t have the place. Still has the big libraries though [Boys</a> Boarding and Day School, Co-educational Sixth Form, Central London independent school, UK](<a href=“http://www.westminster.org.uk/]Boys”>http://www.westminster.org.uk/)</p>
There’s been a school there for over a thousand years, so it is pretty old! It’s not one of the traditional ‘public’ (type of private school) schools because it’s in the centre of London so doesn’t have the place. Still has the big libraries though 
[Boys</a> Boarding and Day School, Co-educational Sixth Form, Central London independent school, UK](<a href=“