Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Numats Award Criteria

Hello Everyone!

We received Explore test scores last week in the mail from ACT. Numats toolbox has not updated and says that scores have not been received yet. Does anyone know a time frame that the 2013 Numats award criteria will be listed? The website just has the criteria for 2012.

Where is 2012 criteria?

I heard that the award criteria usually come out in late April or early May. That is the time when people receive the invitation to the award ceremony.

it takes a long time. sorry.

NUMATS toolbox is updated with the percentile comparing to the same grade. But it seems that the award criteria is still not available.

Xiangbaobao,

Would you be willing to share that percentile/grade info here?

We got an email from NUMATS a month or so ago saying that they were switching the awards ceremony from spring to fall, and that they would move the last date you could test and still qualify to later in the spring than in the past. I wonder if this will affect when they publish the award criteria.

Sure, DS9 is 4th grade. His composite score is 21, 98.6% percentile. Total score is 84.

I read on this forum before that the homepage of the toolbox tells you if the kid is qualified to go to award. Unfortunately I don't see such a message in our toolbox. We really hope that DS can go to the award as he took the the test very seriously this time. Especially he got a perfect score in math. We are all very proud of him for his scores.

The statistic data link in the toolbox is still 2012 data. NUMATS web page says that the top 2% go to the award. But in reality it seems only less than 2% went before.

I wish that I could find more award info from NUMATS via email/phone call. I tried to contact them. But no response. If anyone knows more, would you mind share here as well? DS9 keeps asking me if he is qualified to go to the award.

Aw, I hope your DS can go to the ceremony. And those are excellent scores!!

Thanks!

It is my understanding that the talent search does not send out the award notices until after all tests (ie all dates of the test) has been scored. Did he take Explore? If so, there was a test in mid February so maybe end of March beginning of April the award notices will go out.

See here for dates of other tests http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/numats/program/dates/

Deonne,

Yes, NUMATS replied that they are still waiting on Feb result to determine the award criteria. They will mail out invitation later in the spring. They also told me the mininum score for last year award is 85. That is above 99.1% percentile since 84 is 99.1% from last year data. This year 84 is only 98.6% percentile. This makes me feel that the award criteria of this year will be even higher.

Based on the last two year, it is only top 1% who will go to Northwestern ceremony.

But your kid is on the edge of cutoff, maybe the cutoff will be lower this year.

I think that your kid should qualify for state level ceremony.
Good luck for your kid.

Thanks, MidwestDad!

We are in IL. I don't think there is a state level ceremony. All I know is the one organized by CTD.

We are living in Wisconsin, there is a state level ceremony here.

By the way, I guess that your son took the test on January 26, 2013, so you got the score. My son took the test on February 16, 2013, we have not got his score.

So you will not get the cutoff score table until my son's score is available because the cutoff is based on both tests.

Let's wait for the cutoff scores table.

Anyway, I think that we will go for Northwestern this year because my daughter should make it.

Congratulations to your daughter! Also good luck to your son!

Yes, my son took the test in Jan. I am wondering how they calculated the percentiles for my son's scores if Feb's scores have not been out yet. (They gave us all the percentiles on each subtest and composite scores in the toolbox.)

I think the statistical data is from last two years (2011 and 2012), not current year.

So it sounds that the percentile might change after Feb scores. Am I right?

I do not think so. The scores from Jan and Feb 2013 will be used to do statistics for next two years (2014 and 2015).

Your son's percentage is based on the last two years scores (2011 and 2012). And current year is 2013.


Percentage for year 2013 is calculated based on the score data from 2011 and 2012.

Percentage for year 2014 is calculated based on the score data from 2012 and 2013.

Percentage for year 2015 is calculated based on the score data from 2013 and 2014.

hmm, then it doesn't make sense to me. In the tool box of 2013 Jan scores there is the link to 2012 data. But his 2013 score percentile doesn't match the 2012 data. For example, composite of 21 is 91.5% in 2012 data. But his report indicates 21 is only 98.6%.

I don't believe the data for a given year is normally released until April or May. It is based on the previous 2 years. If remember correctly the data is usually released at the same time as the award ceremony criteria. The percentiles listed in your child's NUMATS toolbox are the correct percentiles for this year.

Just fyi, we were notified on April 10th last year - and yes, it was after the Feb test takers.
In IL, there is a state ceremony, but unfortunately, it is sponsored by IMSA and they only invite 7th and 8th graders.
We did not end up going to the ceremony, but my son went with his godmother (our oldest daughter graduated from college on the same day) and he seemed to like it. The ceremony itself was somewhat long and the talk was probably over his head (a reproductive gynecological oncologist of sorts, who went into great detail - which resulted in an apology from NUMATS and a very educational conversation with him afterwards,lol!!).
Anyway, your sons scores are great and I hope he gets invited!

Thx, momtofour!

The presentations given by three Northwestern students before last year's award ceremony were quite inspirational. The ceremony itself was way too long and boring. I think that NUMATS better split it into two age groups.

FWIW, last year's 4th grader cutoff (85) was much higher than norm and 3rd grader cutoff (76) was much lower than norm, so statistically speaking, we should see 4th grader cutoff around 80-83 this year.

Erich, thanks for giving some more input. I have been telling DS that he only
has a very small chance to make the award. Hopefully he won't be too disappointed if he can not go in the end.

Fingers crossed for your DS!

Any one got the score for exam on Feb 16?

Should come in the week. In our case, the mail arrived 5-6 weeks after the test. Then the scores are uploaded in the online toolbox several days later.

FYI - I received an e-mail from NUMATS over the weekend saying that the awards ceremony had been moved to next fall and that those taking the ACT/SAT in April or May would also be considered for the awards. (My middle schooler took the ACT; I don't know if this is also applicable to those taking the EXPLORE.) Given all the juggling we did to make one of the test dates before the end of February, I'm really irritated that they changed the eligibility window just now. Smacks of salesmanship -especially "as parents are encouraged to have their children re-test" from the fall to measure academic growth. Sigh.

That means more students will compete for the Award Ceremony this year.

From what I remembered about 2012 & 2013 statistic data, there are much less kids participating 2013 NUMATS than 2012. Could it be the reason why they add more kids to the award pool?

The following is the cutoff and the number of students got invited from 2009-2011. I cannot find the number of students got invited for 2012:

2009
4th graders >= 81 38
5th graders >= 89 53
6th graders >= 93 41
Total EXPLORE Winners 132

2010
Grade 4 >= 80 34
Grade 5 >= 91 41
Grade 6 >= 94 31
Total EXPLORE Awards 106

2011
4th Graders >= 83 29
5th Graders >= 92 43
6th Graders >= 95 38
Total EXPLORE Winners = 110

2012
3rd Graders >= 76 6
4th Graders >= 85 20
5th Graders >= 90 37
6th Graders >= 95 23
Total EXPLORE Winners = 86
(the number of students attending the ceremony)

What's the point of repeating the talent search test?

The cutoff is 99 percentile of the grade participants.

For me, it is just a monitor for the academic improvement of my kids. The standard tests (such as WKCE or MAP) cannot tell us anything, because the scores touch the celling (such as 99%).

We do not need the scores to do anything. But from Explore or ACT exam scores, it can tell that my kids can improve in some areas.

The award ceremony is just a bonus, also it is an effective way to encourage kids to study and take the test.

It is my personal opinion.

Do you agree?

I totally agree with MidwestDad. I plan to have DS10 and DD7 take EXPLORE next year. DS's reading scores have been the same for two years. I am not sure if it is just bad luck or it should be a concern.

@MidwestDad I am fine with kid taking talent search test once a year to monitor the progress. But taking multiple tests within the same school year (just to get awarded) is kind of pointless.

@xiaobaobao My DS did not show progress in Reading for couple of years and then a giant leap the next year. Kids develop on spurts.

If the kids want to do it by studying hard voluntarily, it is a good thing.

NUMATS just updated 2013 statistics. It is pretty competitive year. Possible cutoff criteria fall in these range:

Grade 3: 76-80 (15 out of 1003)
Grade 4: 84-88 (37 out of 2587)
Grade 5: 92-96 (38 out of 3880)
Grade 6: 97-99! (30 out of 3024)

After reading all this, I am assuming that my daughter (11), DD11 will not get invited to this years award. She is in 5th grade and got English 22, Reading 21, Maths 20 and Science 25 so a composite of 88. Percentile of 97.50. Anyhow, please let me know how different ACT is compared to this. Also, what tips to improve scores for next year please?

My kids generally did similarly on the ACT and Explore, in terms of percentiles. For your dd, I don't think it makes sense to have her take the EXPLORE next year again. Her scores indicate only a couple wrong and I wouldn't be surprised if she got the exact same, lower or higher next year. For math, it's likely she'd do better, and that's always the easiest to improve, in my opinion, but for the others, it's very easy to miss one or two simply because the questions aren't well worded, she reads one quickly, etc... She may have gotten a few wrong, but she's pretty much topped out on the EXPLORE.
Personally, the awards ceremony didn't provide ANY incentive to my kids to study, and we don't study for these types of tests anyway(exception being in HS when it really counts, or I suppose if they wanted to apply to a HS or a scholarship or something where their score mattered). This year neither of my younger kids wanted to take an out-of-level test and that was fine with me. If you really want to track your dd's progress, I'd definitely have her take the ACT/SAT in 6th grade and just see where she is at. My ds took the SAT in 6th and didn't find it frustrating or particularly difficult and he didn't study at all in advance (this is NOT to say he knew eveything, because he didn't, but he found it interesting and didn't mind that he just randomly guessed on some!)

ok thanks for the tips. Any recommendations on how to improve maths scores please i.e. materials etc.? She didn't study for this year either..just a couple practice tests to be familiar with the pattern. Also, we are in Michigan. Any idea if there is a state award criteria?

Could someone let me know what the advantages and any disadvantages of participating in this kind of testing are? My child is 10.

I don't really have any great ideas on improving math scores. When my older ds took the SAT in 6th, he scored high enough for the awards ceremony in reading, but not in math. Although his math score was very good, there were too many unfamiliar concepts for someone who did no preparation. There are many SAT/ACT prep books out there, though, and I'm sure any of them would provide the framework for what you need. My older son really likes his AoPS class (he is taking his first now and I highly recommend them) and we've done SAT website's "question of the day" for summer practice, which are also nice for reviewing concepts and just making sure everything is right there at their fingertips. I'm sure if your dd takes a few practice tests, you'll be able to see any areas where she needs help (relatively speaking, of course!). If you stick with the EXPLORE another year, she probably has all the math she needs to get everything right - just a matter of being careful.
I don't know about the Michigan program, but there is a contact number you can call through MSU:
http://gifted.msu.edu/programs/hats
It looks like it might be older kids, similiar to IL's state ceremony.

Honestly, I don't see any disadvantages. Three of my four kids have done it and enjoyed it (the fourth never wanted to, even though she's now extremely successful in college and did very well on standardized testing in HS - but we always left it up to them). We didn't prepare in any way, but they never felt they were in way over their heads, and were okay with not knowing everything.
For us, it was most beneficial when it came to OTHER people - teachers, administrators, even family (explaining why a child who loved math and was very far ahead might want to learn something besides what was taught at school, or justifying why it was a good idea to send a child to the middle school for math). It's a great, objective way "explain" your child to other people.

Hey, just bumping an old thread to ask: Has anyone seen the 2015-2016 NUMATS awards ceremony criteria? Or gotten an invite to the awards ceremony? My rising 6th-grade son's scores (he got 93 on Explore) would have made the 2014 and 2015 criteria fairly comfortably, but I haven't heard anything from NUMATS one month out from the ceremony.

Thanks!

We got the invitation to the Grand Ceremony (at Northwestern) last week but it's for the SAT so it may be different for the Explore. However, I don't see a link to the 2016 criteria; I think it's because they still don't have the stats compiled for the new SAT that was given in March, May and June.

Just on a whim, based on Quantum2003 receiving one, I decided to check my Gmail spam folder, even though nothing important is ever filed in there. Boom.

So, any one else in my position in waiting for NUMATS, especially if you have Gmail -- check your spam folder.

NUMATS says the link for the criteria will be updated next week. Our sixth grade DS (entering 7th) received an invite last week, we are confident he qualified in math, and may or may not qualify for composite...he is right on the cusp. One thing that gets a little confusing...NUMATS says the top 2-3% of the students who test get invited. I think where some people get confused is if their child's score is in the 98th percentile they are think their child is in the top 2%....you have to add the total number of students who got the same score as your child to the number of students who scored better, and then determine what percentage of students got your child's score or better. As an example...an ACT reading score of 31 for a sixth grade student places them in the 97.1 percentile. That does not mean they are in the top 2.9%. They are actually in the top 4.3%. The NUMATS Stastical summary makes it very easy to do the math.

NUMATS 2015/2016 award criteria is now posted

Is it possible to post here what the scores are or PM me?

what grade/which test?

Send you a PM. Thks.