Oh, and yes, I pulled out the paperwork and apparently it is the WISC-IV. So what is the obsession with age 8 if it really makes no difference? And can I trust the school psychologist to be a strong and reliable tester??
The obsession with age 8 is that IQ scores are more stable after that age, as older children are more likely to be capable of taking instructions from parents and testers to do their best seriously after that age, and are less likely to have as great a negative impact from an "off" day. Testing after age 8, when children have been in school for a few years, also wipes out some of the impact of differences in early reading and math exposure at very young ages, so it gives gifted children from deprived backgrounds who have not had early in-home experiences with these areas time to acquire more crystallized knowledge, whereas they might not test as high if they were tested as they first entered school.
Unfortunately, you can't rely on the school psychologist to be a strong and reliable tester. You might get lucky, you might not.
