While thousands of fifth graders will hand in their middle school applications on Friday, approximately 2,000 sixth graders will sit for the Hunter High School admissions exam. A recent Times article showed how seriously some of those students have been preparing for the exam: taking up coffee, reading the dictionary, and spending weekends and holidays at costly Asian-inspired test-prep boot camps. Meanwhile, another section of the venerable newspaper urges parents of 5 year-olds who are sitting for gifted and talented testing to "stay sane." Sage advise but, as Liz Belkin wrote in a blog entry about the Obama girls first day at a new school, many (otherwise sane) parents still find it hard to drop their children off and then go home, wait, and hope for the best.