Hello everyone,
I'm a very grateful lurker of this list and am hoping someone may be able to answer my question.

My DS8 will be taking the EXPLORE in a few months. I'm wondering if I should do anything in the way of preparing him. We haven't done much preparing for other tests as we didn't feel the need to. But I'm a little worried that he might feel bad if he doesn't do as well as he thinks he can on this one. Although this isn't his first above-grade-level test, it will be the most challenging that we've signed him up for so far.

If you did prepare your child for the EXPLORE, what did you use? Did you use materials to prepare all subtests or only specific ones?

Would appreciate your thoughts. Thank you very much for reading this!

We didn't prep beyond just reviewing the small packet the test company sent a few weeks before the test. I wanted dds to be familiar with the general directions and how to fill in bubbles on a scantron form (especially dd10 b/c she had never taken a test of that sort).

My dd10 didn't even want to do that much, so prep for her was really, really limited. Dd12, when she took it in 4th grade, felt that the prep materials they sent were not reflective of the actual difficulty of the test. i.e. -- she felt that it was harder than the prep booklet that came from the publisher.

We're going to focus on form and test-taking skills. Our DS7.5 needs to be able to better manage his time so we'll probably give him a little bit of guidance and maybe take a sample section or something. But we are also scheduled for the Jan test. (I think it's Jan.)

If anyone has good links to sample sections, we'd definitely appreciate it.

JB

My twins took the EXPLORE last year at 10 yo through NUMATS, and we did practice as they had not done scantron tests before. We were impatient waiting for the sample tests from NUMATS and tracked them down on the ACT website. I created a mock scantron form on the computer and printed off copies for their answers. We did our practice on a quiet, relaxed morning at home during winter break. We timed the tests - a fraction of the actual test time, in proportion to the number of questions on the practice test relative to the actual test. Our ds is very, umm, *reluctant*, shall we say, to stop an activity if he feels *he* is not ready to stop, so we felt this aspect of a timed test was important to practice. Also, we bribed them - a few minutes of extra computer time for giving it their all on the practice. I think it was worth doing the practice. They were both at ease going into the actual test, and both scored very well.

This is the only link I've found so far:
http://www.actstudent.org/explore/tests/index.html

My DS has completed all the samples but I seriously don't think they are reflective of the actual test or I'm certain they would have been more difficult than they were for him.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for your reply Cricket2 and amylou. Yes, I'm also concerned about that, Cricket2. That the packet will not reflect the actual difficulty. The ones we printed off the website were very easy for him. My DS actually enjoys workbooks and filling in bubbles (go figure!). He will do anything happily as long as it is on his own terms and he wants to try a test prep workbook. I'm considering getting one of those for 8th graders. Does anyone have suggestions? Amazon shows a few types...by Barrons, Spectrum etc.

Thanks again.

The actual test may be harder than the practice test, but our interest in the practice was to get used to the *format* of the exam. As for the content, we expected the actual test to challenge them, and told them to expect that. It was designed for 8th graders after all, and they were only 4th graders at the time.

As it turned out, dd found both the practice and actual test to be easy, and had time to spare for every section, both in the practice and actual exam.

Ds is our more erratic test taker - he had one subtest score on the EXPLORE that was not as high as the others and said he ran out of time on that section. A similar thing happened with his state testing, but it was a different subject area that came out lower on that one.

Thanks Amylou! It's good to hear about your children's experiences. Would love to hear from anyone else who's had their 3rd/4th grader take the EXPLORE.

My son took Explore in 3rd grade. We did no prep other than the practice questions. I warned him that it might be hard and was designed for older kids. He thought it was fun but tiring.

I think it's worth discussing time management as some younger kids have a hard time finishing.

Thank you kaibab and thanks again to all who answered my questions!