For those parents who don't need to test early, but who have a hunch that their children are a little "extra", I can now say from personal experience to trust your instincts (and, if you can, save the money on unnecessary testing fees).
DS7's school performs achievement testing as a benchmark of student performance to validate internal standards at the end of 3-year cycles. I had never had reason to test DS before, so this was our first exposure to any formal assessment.
It turns out DS hit a ceiling on all the verbal tests and is performing a bit over 4 years ahead of age (+3 on grade) based on the questionable "grade equivalent" standard. DS' teacher's comment, "Which surprised no one." LOL.
Math is about a year ahead of age (2 adjusting for the fact that he took an end-of-year test in October). Because he lacks automaticity in math facts, this came out as a relative weakness, since he was unable to complete the full math sections. Will be interested to see how that math score balances in a few years. Given that he just telescoped 2 grades, I feel this is a conservative placement.
In regards to test prep, I recommend what we did - absolutely nothing. DS had a good sleep the night before, and I told him he was going to get to play some fun puzzles. He thought it was a hoot.
