Is EPGY hard to get into?

Question

Is EPGY hard to get into?

Answer 1

Anyone is allowed to sign up for EPGY. In theory even an idiot could sign up and formally participate in the course. When it comes to passing the classes, they're about the same difficulty level as the average high/middle/elementary school class.

Answer 2

We tried EPGY.  We had to show a copy of achievement test- the CAT test is what my daughter had taken, so we sent them a copy of it.  I think you had to be in the top 95% or so.

I liked the concept of EPGY with individualized learning.  It sort of adjusts to your child's level.  You can quickly go through material if you master it quickly- a grade level in 6-8 weeks is not uncommon.  However, there are lots of bugs in the system and it needs to be worked out more before I would sign more daughter up for it again.

First, even though my daughter had a teacher, she wasn't instantly available.  And, there wasn't really any on-line assistance available.  So, if my daughter got stuck on a question, there was no help available.  That was very frustrating for my daughter.  

And, most of her questions were not about the math really- it was about how to use the graphics program (no tutorial or other way to get the info.) required to answer a question.  If she got a question wrong because there wasn't any assistance, it would just keep asking her the same question.  Then, it would keep counting it as another wrong answer, so the poor child would rack up these wrong answers and get a terrible score all because they couldn't get the help they needed.  Very frustrating experience.

A week after you missed a question, the instructor would e-mail you with explanations of the problems you missed.  Well, by that time, you had figured it out somehow and the explanations were worthless.  

I suggest if you do it, get an instructor who works in the office, not one who works from home, so you can at least call them and ask for help.  Have a phone next to the computer.  Also, have your child do his or her work during the west coast office hours.  We did it in the a.m. on the east coast when there was no one in the west coast office because of our schedule.

Also, I suggest that you don't just leave your child to do it on his or her own, at least not for a month or two.  You don't have to hover, but at least be available so that if there is a question, you can immediately come and try to figure it out.  I am highly educated, but even I couldn't figure out sometimes what they were asking for.

On the other hand, the races thing in the beginning is a good way to do the drills.  You can do a swimming race or a car race- drilling basic facts.

It is expensive, however there is some financial assistance available, even for middle-class families.

We ended up dropping out of it because even after talking to them, we weren't able to get any assurances that there would be assistance when needed.  We went back to our old-fashioned regular curriculum, which is not great, but works.  I think the EPGY computer-based curriculum is a great concept, but the bugs need to be worked out before we will do it again.

Best wishes.

Answer 3

The online high school, or just the individual classes?

The individual classes, at least at the elementary level, require test scores that don't seem extremely high.  It is designed for gifted kids, but moderately gifted should get in without much problem.  

The online high school is pretty rigorous and may be more difficult, but we don't have a personal experience with that yet.