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    Joined: Sep 2011
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    Hello,
    My ds gave Terra Nova 2nd grade test in Spring and we received his results yesterday.

    We're utterly confused as well as bit disapointed in 2 subjects by his result as he is a bright kid.

    Reading - 61
    Language Arts - 73
    Math - 99
    Total score - 95

    We're confused for the fact that Total score is so high and it doesn't tally with his low score of Reading and Language Arts.

    Could this be an error? Or, we're just dreaming that our son is good and this is the reality though!

    Appreciate any feedback to guide us in right direction so that we can work with our child.

    Regards,
    Loving Mommy

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    I don't really know much about Terra Nova, other than it is a group achievement test.
    Is this it?: http://www.ctb.com/ctb.com/control/ctbProductViewAction?p=products&productId=745

    Were social studies and science portions also given?

    Achievement test scores are highly correlated to IQ scores, but they aren't perfect by any means. How gifted/bright did you expect?

    99% in Math is very high. Some kids are gifted in Math and 'Above Average' in other subjects. But if you aren't seeing scores that reflect what you see at home, full testing, from the school or privately might be a big help.

    Best Wishes,
    Grinity


    Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
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    we did the Terra Novas a few years ago and were told not to put much weight on it, that just 1 or 2 wrong answers can really throw off the score (like that 61 and 73) Do you know how many he actually got wrong? I don't think there are many questions in each section. We were also told that gifted students often over think the questions and sometimes give the wrong answer on this test because it seemed too easy or obvious.

    Take a look at the raw scores if you can, that may explain things. If I can find DS's scoring I will let you know what I figure out from that...it's been a few years!

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    The school hasn't shared any details besides the ones I posted above. Not even Grade Equivalent. The test was only for Reading, Language Arts and Math and the above score are National Percentile.
    But we're unsure how there could be a such a huge gap between total score vs individual score.

    We will definitely be talking to school about individual scores and its breakdown as this is not making sense to us.
    The results baffle us a lot.

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    The total score looks right -

    DD took it twice in second grade and once in third.

    It wraps the performance on those three subtests for a composite of sorts. From the different instances of the scores I've seen, it can be brought up to the 95%ile with 1 high score. Social studies and science, if given, are not part of the total battery.

    There are 25-30 questions per test.

    From the bits I've seen and pieced together, the second grade 99%ile in math is an artificial score - more than 1% get them all right, so the statistics would actually lead it to be a 94-97 depending on the year and test version.

    The reading and language arts was not well aligned to the way that reading and language arts were taught in our schools. Reading was a focus on reading comprehension, but generally focusing on making inferences as much as understanding content. LA has a huge focus on spelling and grammar at this level (commas and capitalization).

    Because of that, it's not surprising if the reading and LA were lower than you might have expected, or otherwise out of sync with his math score.

    In second and third grades, there are also a lot of parts of the test that were given orally, with the entire class moving through the test together. This drove my daughter nuts, and once the pressure was off (our schools use it for gifted admission which she hit in second grade) then she did not do well because of irritation at the format.

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    The total percentile isn't an average of the other percentiles. It's (probably) based on the total of the scaled scores, and his total scaled score was equal or higher than 95% of the kids.

    I'd interpret the low scores as "he missed at least one problem (because TN sets a perfect score = 99 no matter how many kids scored perfectly) and the test has a low ceiling."

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    I see both of the above post that what you're saying but we didn't receive any composite scores. The Total score is drawn on the same "National Percentile" graph as the Reading/LA/Math.

    There is a asterik next to "Total Score" which explains as:
    "Total Score consist of Reading, Language Arts and Mathematics"

    It doesn't say word "Composite" and the strange thing it is drawn on "National Percentile" bar graph so I would assume the unit as "National Percentile"

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    Ok, I pulled out DD's test scores from the TerraNova. Indeed, what we in this thread have been calling the composite or total battery, TerraNova calls the Total Score. It's displayed very oddly on the report and pretty confusing in how it's shown on the chart, but yeah, that's the percentile of where the reading, LA, and math total ends up in the population by grade.

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    Thanks geofizz...
    So if it is percentile can the total score percentile be so skewed?

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    I would definitely not doubt your child based on the Terra Nova. My oldest took the k, 1st and 2nd grade versions of that test about a decade ago and score consistently in the high nineties percentiles. I do remember that one year he only missed one or two questions out of almost 200 to hit the 99 percentile. Yet he was not more than MG and I can easily see a more intelligent child missing more questions from carelessness alone. The test is simply too basic to differentiate at the higher end. You need to go above level with something like SCAT with Johns Hopkinds or Explore to get a better read.


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