Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy OLSAT today...right now, I think...

DD9 is taking the Otis Lenon this morning. This test plus the State Mastery test is used to determine giftedness. I guess if your child gets a qualifying score, (which is not published) he/she is identified as gifted and a conference with the parents is held. My DD9, 4th grade is obviously gifted. I assume they are using last year's Mastery Test scores...which she did great on...perfect in writing, 1 wrong in Math, High School level for reading and comprehension.

So I got some samples of things they test on the OLSAT...Not actual test questions, just things like analogies and some pattern recognition...

She actually didn't do so great on what I gave her.
I was surprised that she didn't come up with some of the patterns on her own. Does this mean she isn't going to do well on this test?

How is it administered. I thought I read that this was not a timed test, but the note home said that they would have 40 minutes to complete it. Is this enough time? Does a teacher read the question, give a moment to answer and them read the next question, or do the students read the questions on their own? I have been asking to get her grade skipped, at least in Math, but have gotten nowhere. I'm hoping this test helps our case, but will the results show that she is advanced or are they able to show that she is way advanced.

Judging from the samples we looked at, there is no way she is going to get ALL the answers correct. So, I doubt she will hit the ceiling, but we shall see. She also scored 99.6% for a Woodcock Johnson achievement test recently...

Does this indicate she should do well on this OLSAT?

She slept well, ate a decent breakfast and "excersised this morning" to get her energy up...She is not a morning person...:)

No idea how she will do. You really have to wait and see. It is a timed test. It seems like it is an intuitive kind of test. I know it has analogies, so hopefully your daughter is somewhat familiar with that. Not every kid will do well every time on every test- that is why many G/T programs will accept outside testing. Good luck!

thanks

lol about 'programs' accepting outside testing...There is no program...so I don't know why I even care about this test...:) I guess I am hoping that it will make the teachers listen when I ask that she be given more advanced material...:) So, it is timed...interesting. I wish I had known so I could tell her..but I'm sure she figured it out..I just hope she wasn't a deer in the headlights when she found out. Her teacher didn't even tell them about the test...Other 4th grade teachers in the same school did. Well, we will wait and see.

So she took it...She said that she had 9 questions left, but the teacher told the class that this was a test that wasn't ment to be finished. Also, her table had to hand in their test first. She said that the 'other smart kid' in her class was able to work on his test until (without the teacher knowing) until she collected from his table and that he bragged that he only had two left because she did that....

But...she said the test was easy and she thinks she knew most of the answers. There were 72 questions...I wonder if they are comparing them to districts standards or national...

There was no test prep or anything...

The kid who cheated is the kid of a teacher at the school. I guess we shall see.

Well, first I would say, just try not to worry about it now. It will be what it is. It is good that she thought it was easy, though. And I believe the scores should give you a national percentile.

Our school did the OLSAT until last year. They switched to the CogAT this year. But for either, it was my understanding from the school that the teacher read the questions aloud. But this is for 2nd, it seems likely that 4th graders might be expected to take the test independently.

2nd graders in our school have never taken a standardized test before this one, so there was a bit of prep beforehand. And I saw practice worksheets with analogies, patterns, etc. coming home. They were told it was just a way to show "how awesome they are!" I thought this kind of lame, btw.

All in all, I do not think that giving your dd more advanced material should depend on THIS test, but regardless of how she scores her teacher should be able to recognize that she needs more advanced work. BUT, sadly in my experience as well is that this is not always how it works. I too am hoping that DS's CogAT performance will help my case with the school. Good luck!