Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Nervous

I've always been the one telling people to chill out over assessments - they are what they are. But we've always gone private... now I have an early entrance kindergartener testing at school. The IQ part doesn't worry me. She could drop a deviation and still qualify. But she is squirlly. And if the mood strikes - I'm not sure if she'll give the achievement testing her best effort. Heck, I don't know what 95th percentile looks like. Do you? Her sister's WJs were all 99.9 at that age but it was compared to her age not grade. This child is above her in math and slightly below her in reading but will be compared to her grade not age (she started K at 4.5).

I think I'm just doing two things. One some one play me and say - don't sweat it - it is what it will be. And two, if you could describe 95th percentile in reading or math at this point in the year for K kids - what does that even look like. It doesn't help that her old sister is so far off the grid that everyone in this house looks just above average.

And I should apologize for every time I've said - don't sweat it. We've alway know before asking for services. Going this way is a new experience - and I love my privacy.

Good luck kickball!

Nah, don't apologize. "Don't sweat it" is good advice. It doesn't mean they won't sweat it, of course, but it is good to be reminded that there's really not a whole lot you can do about testing when you're not taking the test yourself. I think it's the lack of control and the tremendous effect on the lives of your whole family that make testing like that so nerve-wracking.

So, kickball, don't sweat it! Prep her as well as you can for what testing is like, give her a good breakfast, give her a pep talk about doing her best, etc. Then try to relax.

That's really all you can do!

Hey kickball,
My son had to take no less than FOUR tests the year before he entered kindergarten (considered normal here in NYC) and he scored pretty consistently on all of them, though he is squirrelly in the extreme and the context for some of the tests was far from ideal. If you've seen 99s in the past you can be pretty comfortable about the 95s.

So give her some eggs and... yeah, don't sweat it.