TJ Prep Blog

Dr. Tripathi shares his experience from 28 years of TJ Prep success. During this time he has seen and adapted to many changes in the TJ admission process. Crucial requirements for success on the new TJHSST (TJ) admission policy are discussed.

Top Three Reasons Smart Students Don't Do Well on the TJHSST Admission Test

A careful analysis of students' performance data – over the past twenty years – who have gone through our training or gone to another TJ Prep program but contacted us after finding out that they did not do well on the test, has revealed the most important reasons why many smart students do not do well on the TJHSST admission examination. The most important reasons are slow speed of computation, slow speed in solving word problems and generally slow reaction to unfamiliar problems. The next important reason is the poor ability to reason critically in reading and logic problems. Both these weaknesses can be corrected with expert individualized guidance by Dr. Tripathi and due diligence by the a student. One typical example of such improvement is a rising sophomore at TJ who at the outset found word problems, logic problems and scrambled paragraphs very difficult. Within a period of several months she went from one or two correct out of five scrambled paragraph questions to a point where she got one or none wrong. Similar improvements were observed on math – she ended up with 47/50.

What is the lesson from this for future TJ aspirants? The main message is do not overestimate your abilities and do not underestimate your competition (other applicants). At the same time do not get lulled by a false sense of security rendered by your high GPA. The knowledge base of students having the same GPA varies from school to school! I meet dozens of 7th through 12th grade students each year who have a GPA of 3.8 or above yet who can't solve simple word problems.

You are welcome to share your own experience or ask a question by commenting on this post.