Ditto Deacongirl's reply.
If it weren't for the Explore test we also would have continued underestimating ds11's abilities and his perfectionism and underachievement may have worsened.
I brought the results to our school and on the recommendation of gifted ed teacher, ds was given the WISC IV. Results from that validated what we saw on the Explore which led us to consider subject-advancement. The Iowa Assessment Scale was done and we decided based on that to do a whole grade skip from 5th to 7th.
The thing is, if your dc is scoring near the ceiling of a grade-level test (and our wasn't scoring in the 99th percentile, ironically,) it's difficult to know where their ceiling really is. It's one of the most cost-effective tests offered and I've read that it can surpass IQ tests in accuracy when testing older kids.
You can PM me if you have any questions.
