I struggled with this, too - I felt like I risked repeating myself with longer answers to some questions. My gut feeling was this: if you are applying with scores and they are comfortably qualifying, brevity is probably fine. If you have scores that aren't quite there or a less strong portfolio, your answers are probably more critical to round out the application.

Best of luck!

My answers were just a few sentences.

Congrats to those that just got in! Welcome!

Hmm. Thanks for the info on fine motor confound and testing.

Those replies about essay length are very reassuring--thank you!

I just received an email indicating that the qualification criteria has changed. I submitted my material for evaluation this month. I haven't heard anything beyond the confirmation that they received the nominator form and the parent form. I don't know if this was a generic email or if I am missing something. He still meets the minimum criteria that was reported as being changed, so I am a little concerned. I e-mailed the office, but have not heard back yet. Has anyone else received this e-mail? Thanks.

Angelah, I don't know the answer to your question, but would you mind saying what exactly has changed. I took a look at the qualification criteria on the website and I didn't notice any changes, but then again, I might not notice.

Things that I've noticed that have recently changed are some EXPLORE test criteria and WPPSI criteria.

WPPSI-III was dropped. Must be WPPSI-IV now.

WPPSI-IV VCI can no longer qualify a child, but GAI can qualify (not sure if the GAI thing is new).

Yes, GAI for WPPSI is new. I think it is because WPPSI-III didn't have GAI tables. And the WPPSI minimum score went down from 150 to 145.

The WPPSI-III has probably been dropped because the WPPSI-IV has been out for two years now, so legit evaluators should have moved on to the current instrument a year ago. (Unless, of course, you are in AU/NZ, in which case it was just released this spring.)

Yes, GAI is new to the WPPSI-IV. Pearson is slowly revising all the Wechslers to something that will look more like the WPPSI-IV (viz, the new WISC-V, which has a very similar index structure to the WPPSI-IV).