I have no idea which SBV it was. I found the tester on the recommended list on the Hoagies site and I told her the purpose was to test for giftedness, so hopefully she used the best test for that. Maybe it was a copy paste error or something? I did hear a lot of the test (I might have decided that the waiting room was less comfy than the floor right outside the door... what can I say, I'm a curious person!) and what I heard seemed really easy and I feel like he could have gone well past the level of the test stuff that I heard. It's hard to believe he got any of it wrong, but I'm not sure how much he really applied himself overall.
He actually told me the word he didn't know in the vocab section and one that he wasn't sure of and I'm not sure if his definition would have passed or not, but regardless of his less than stellar score in the area, I know that his vocab is amazing. The word he missed was due to the fact that we just plain don't use it. OTOH, he tosses out words like theoretically, randomized, bilateral, subjective, etc. that are well above anything tested and I consider vocab to be a huge strength for him. Knowledge overall is an area he excels in, just apparently not the knowledge they tested him on! Ask him about DNA/genetics, which is his current interest, and you will hear plenty of knowledge!
Certain parts of the report made little sense to me, like if his non verbal fluid reasoning is so much higher than his verbal fluid reasoning, how is it that the quantitative section mentions that he uses his superior verbal skill to reason through math rather than solve math with his weaker non-verbal skills (whatever that means)?
When it comes to the area of the test he did poorly on, if it really is like those pictures in the back of Highlights and such, I'm not surprised he didn't do well. He's the sort of kid who completely fails to see what he should see in a picture like that. If I ask him to find 5 things wrong with a picture he will likely say: The windshield wipers are not symmetrical, the sky is a different shade of blue on one side vs the other, the grass needs mowed, the cat is a shade of solid brown that cats don't normally come in, and the airplane is flying too close to the power lines. While completely ignoring the square wheels on the car, the rooster playing football, the talking carrot, etc. Trouble with focusing on the right areas, complete lack of understanding of the concept, or an amazing ability to find something wrong with pretty much anything? Maybe some of all three :P
At least for now we have a real, official report that a psych stands behind to use for whatever purposes we need it for. He still did not score as highly as I expected based on his real life performance. I don't think he is likely to be at the highest end of gifted or anything, but I think he is generally reasoning at a higher level than the test shows based on comparing him with other kids (yes, I know I should not compare him to other kids, it's sometimes hard not to). Like the time that he played Quirkle with a local 2nd grader during a gifted family board game night last year. I figured a gifted 2nd grader would be well above any gifted pre-k child. Not only was DS a much better player (he plays defensively, blocking quirkles and hoarding pieces to build up quirkles more safely, which no one ever taught him to do, he's by far the most competitive person in the family), but he got frustrated by the other kid's less than perfect gameplay and kept going around the table to give him advice! I found myself hoping the district was using less strict criteria for the gifted program because I did not want to consider the fact that DS might be more advanced than a gifted kid a few years older than him, even if only at Quirkle.
OTOH both tests came to similar conclusions about his cognitive ability... so maybe he is more just average gifted, but with a few areas of excellence? Some day it might be worth knowing more, but for now I am happy with what we have, good proof that he needs to be accommodated in public school. The gifted school is a long shot with his score and I'm not certain he's going to be where he needs to be behaviorally come September anyway. We are definitely hard at work on that.
