I hope I'm not being dense but I can't find where the Explore test is done in our area. I checked the ACT site and googled locally but I'm still coming up empty. Thanks!

It might not be in your area. We had to drive 1.5hrs to take the Explore test. There are 4-5 different talent searches around the country. ONe is out of PA which is C-Mites. Then there is one in the Northwest, NUMATS. I believe Dottie had a nice PDF of all the talent searches. There is also DUKE Tip talent search. perhaps others can chime in on the rest. You can start there by googling those names and see if they service your area.

I'll take a stab, but please (anybody or everybody) correct me if I'm wrong.

As Dazey said, there are several talent searches in the US that are divided up (approximately) regionally. The Northeast has Johns Hopkins/CTY, and C-MITES (in Pennsylvania), the Southeast has DukeTIP, the midwest has Northwestern's program NUMATS, etc. You're in Washington, right? From what I can tell, your talent search may be Johns Hopkins - that's where I may be wrong. I used to have access to a map that showed the areas, but I can't find it right at the moment.

Your talent search may administer Explore, but some talent searches don't offer it. I believe JHU/CTY does not, but NUMATS and DukeTIP do. So, I guess the question is, if you really wanted to, could you register with NUMATS and have your child take Explore even if you lived in Washington? I guess you could ask NUMATS or the Rocky Mountain area talent search - I think its called Center for Bright Kids/WATS. I don't think DukeTip allows anyone outside the 16-state region to register for talent search tests, but maybe other talent searches do.

Anybody else want to bail me out?

We live in CA, and did EXPLORE with WATS this year. People at WATS didn't mind at all that we are outside their territory. The closest test center to us is in RENO which usually is 3.5 - 4 hour drive. However, it turned out to be a 10-hour drive in Jan due to a storm. DS had 4 hours of sleep before the test, but he did okay.

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10260.aspx

Here's the link to Talent searches for EXPLORE. Hope you find something near by to go to.

If you don't find a place to test, contact NUMATs thru Northwestern Univ. Someone here told me they became a test center with a few students in their area. I don't think it was a simple process.

Yikes! We can do SCAT locally for JHU/CTY but it looks like we would REALLY have to travel to do the EXPLORE. I don't get the impression the SCAT gives as much information as the EXPLORE. Correct?

I am in the same boat as you are.. I was disappointed when I discovered we won't have access to Explore. Oh, well. It was still a couple of years off for us...

We're located in Northern CA and after contacting EVERY talent search listed at Davidson, we found our solution through the Belin-Blank Center's talent search:
http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/TalentSearch/Default.aspx

They will allow you to do the test at your school, provided you can get a teacher, principal, etc., to serve as proctor. This way you avoid the long travel & related costs.

Our son will be doing it next month in a familiar environment, with his principal graciously agreeing to give the test during the school day. Total cost is $75 or so.

Win-win-win.

So get in touch with them -- I'm sure they can help you as well.

Ta-da!