If any of you have had your kids take the Explore and the ACT in close proximity, how did the scores compare?

Ask me again in July....

A reasonable comparison for my son is the Explore taken in Jan 08 to the ACT taken in Oct 08. He gained one composite point but ran out of time for each section. (He had taken it for the first time a month or so after the Explore, but due to testing conditions such as a proctor reading and watching his selections over his shoulder and an overtly unfriendly group of high school students, so I disregard those lower scores.)

He scored better yet on the SAT (this year), especially math, but again, he didn�t finish any of the sections.

aahh, that's closer to what I was asking, but thanks to all! I'm still trying to get a feel for what GS9's Explore scores mean in real life. A niece, a junior in HS, said she took the ACT in the 9th grade. She's a good student, mostly "A's", involved in a lot of extracurricular activities, looking at colleges now; I consider her a bright kid. Her 9th grade ACT scores were 1-2 points over GS9's Explore scores. That gives me a better idea of what GS9 might do with opportunity and dedication.

You should sign up for June with me so we'll have two data points and I have company for the wait. (although it's much shorter than the Explore wait, and online instead of jogging to the mailbox... I suppose I'll survive on my own! LOL)

Not this year for GS9, but maybe next year it will be the Explore in Jan & the ACT, but not sure on the timing for the ACT.

eta - After the Explore, GS9 said he wasn't going to do that again. We just talked about his thoughts about the test, and I let it go. I have not told him his scores, other than to say he did very well. Yesterday, I told him I found a college in state that will give a scholarship for the tuition based on good grades and good ACT scores, and that his Explore scores were on track for him to achieve those ACT scores for the scholarship. Now he's all fired up to take the test again.

I think it's a bit like comparing apples and oranges. The scaled scores are from 1-25 on EXPLORE, and from 1-36 on ACT, with increasing difficulty of material from one to the other.

http://actstudent.org/explore/tests/epas.html

There is an expected increase in scores, but from Dottie's link, it doesn't look linear to me. I guess I'll just have to hush up and let DC take the test...

Based on Davidsons qualifying scores for the Explore & ACT, I estimated that a 17 on the Explore was equal to a 17 on the ACT. And with the ACT having a higher ceiling it would naturally have a higher range of scores.

I don't know what I was thinking when I said GS might take the ACT next school year. He has plenty of room to improve on the Explore, he's not bumping any ceilings at this point. My whole point in having him take the Explore next Jan is to check on his progress and advocate for subject acceleration in 6th grade. I think the only reason I'd really have him take the ACT next year is if the school officials seem unfamiliar with the Explore. He doesn't have the stamina for a longer test at this time and I don't think he'll have it by Dec.

DS 10 took EXPLORE in January 08 and ACT in Dec 08. Explore math 24, ACT 26. I would say pretty similar, especially since no new material introduced (isn't that terrible?). EXPLORE composite 20 vs. ACT composite 25. Big difference was English for Explore at 18 vs. 28 for ACT. Pretty dramatic.

cym, did you use either the Explore or ACT scores to try to get accelerated work for your son at school? Were any school officials impressed by the scores?

Thanks for starting this thread! We got Explore test results for DD age 11 last month and were wondering how they compared with ACT especially because of the ceiling. We took Explore through Duke Tip in January. Her scores were surprising, even to me.
Comp. 25
Math 25
English 25
Reading 23
Science 25
She has never had any individual testing but she hits the ceiling on standardized testing through school so we joined Tip and took the Explore to figure out about what level she is performing at.
I took this to the school principal as he was a former middle school principal, looking for some guidance for planning for middle school. He was unimpressed, I don't think he understood why I was so concerned. People around here don't seem to be familiar with the test.
Thanks for letting me share!
Wendy

Yes, I agree with Dottie, those are great scores. With hitting ceilings across the board I'd expect her ACT scores would be much higher than these numbers.

I'm real disappointed the former middle school principal didn't know anything about this test.

Would you mind sharing what you've done academically with your daughter up to this point? Is she home/public/private schooled? If not homeschooled, is she in a gifted program of any kind?

I was disappointed as well
DD goes to a small public school where the AIG program starts in 4th grade. They have reading and math with the AIG teacher daily instead of with the regular classroom teacher. She has had hit or miss acceleration depending on the teacher and the mood of administration that year.

Kindergarten she was in a K/1 split and did centers and the fun stuff with K and the reading, math, and writing with 1st.
1st she went to 2nd for reading, no math.
2nd she did 2nd grade reading, again, with supposed math acceleration in her "free time" (fought with admin to no avail)
3rd (Yay 3rd!) the second week of school the teacher called and said that she and the AIG teacher would like to accelerate her in reading (apparently behind the admin's back). 5th grade AIG reading in 3rd and she did quite well.
4th new AIG teacher so 4th grade AIG reading and math
5th (New admin. Yay! The reign of terror is over!) AIG reading, again and math.
So now she has done 2nd grade reading and 5th grade AIG reading twice.

We thought about skipping 1st but she was very immature socially. She has come a long way but she is still behind socially. I think the principal was afraid I was looking for her to skip 6th, he kept saying how the real challenge for her would be the transition to middle school.

W.

Those are amazing scores Wendy! Your daughter needs advanced work (she's in the top % of 8th graders already entering 6th, right?).

OMA - I used EXPLORE math score to place out of middle school connected math sequence (which I don't like anyway). He took Stats this yr along with an online Fractals course. Next yr community college intermed alg probably. All his other classes are enriched and he has great teachers (wish they went up through high school) so I haven't needed to negotiate anything further at this point.

I'm thinking that maybe the principal and the school district want to keep a high scoring kid to puff up their standardized averages?

I would love to move DD a little faster in our middle school math. There is apparently no AIG, just the AIG kids grouped with the bright regular kids. 6th is regular math, 7th is Pre-algebra, and 8th Algebra on that track.
Did you rely on Explore scores or were there other data requirements?

We did Algebra through AoPS (Art of Problem Solving) online. There's no grade, but wonderful grasp of material. All we did was say he had taken it online and scored very high on EXPLORE. In other words, pretty much mastered 8th/9th grade math.

I have a question regarding the Explore test. Is it a test of what you know or is it a reasoning test?

It's an achievement test, but the science section is much more reasoning than anything else.... Math and grammar are pretty much straight what-do-you-know types of questions, Reading is comprehension (nothing fancy, but you know... stuff you can theoretically figure out from the text without having any background in it) and science is graph/chart/data interpretation.

It qualifies as an acheivement test for our homeschool testing purposes, when the SAT does not....

Does that help?

well you two have really cleared that up for me

Thanks, it does make sense though!

I'm thinking of DS taking it next year as a 4th grader. Is there more than 1 place to register for this test or is it only DUKE Tip http://www.tip.duke.edu/ ?

Dazey

TIP will let you register as a fourth grader, but not test until fifth... So we went through CTD/Northwestern ("NUMATS"), where they weren't so picky and started at 3rd grade anyway.

So it's either Duke TIP or Northwestern?

Ok, forgive me for being sloooowwwwww.....based on what I"m seeing here http://www.tip.duke.edu/talent_searches/grades_4-5/calendar_and_test_dates.html

My current 3rd grader, would be enrolled in the Talent search Jan-March 2010 in his 4th grade year, register for Explore testing in Oct 2010, and tested in Jan or Feb of 2011?

I know 4th graders who have taken though I thought. Do they go through NUMATS? Is there any advantage in signing up through DUKE vs Northwestern?

OK I found this one. http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/talent-search/

HHmm ok so the testing centers are not posted yet. Are these centers in most places are only selected states?

I think Rocky Mountain Talent Search is the other, but I'm pretty sure they're location-specific too... Belin Blank looks like they aren't concerned about location but I've never used them myself. We did CTD even though we're within 50 miles of Duke here... If we'd done TIP we'd have had to wait until this year or next to test (and we're actually switching to the ACT now! so that would have been rather too little too late!!)

here's a map of the US w/ test centers. Centers in the US

It says CTY for where I live but I thought CTY only did SCAT?

Yes Rocky Mountain Academic Talent Search (RMATS) also does EXPLORE for grades 3-6. RMATS, Duke TIP, and Northwestern (along with JHU & ? Maybe C-mites?)are all part of the national talent search and you may sign up with any one of them and pay their fee. We live in RMATS "region" and have previously participated in the Duke TIP and JHU CTY. You do NOT need to sign up for more than one in the same year (unless you're going for the awards in your home region). I like getting mailings from all of them but no longer sign up for more than one per kid.

Cym - I do not understand. You sign up for RMTS (by the way, they will be changing the name, location, etc)and then participate in , for example Duke?