Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Explore Testing - Good for a Young 3rd Grader?

Our DS is a good test taker, I think, but will not be up to level on the English/Reading portions. I think we'd just tell him he really needs to show his stuff in Math, but for English/Reading just say relax/have fun/do your best/it doesn't really matter anyway.

I found testing dates that NUMATS uses.
http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/numats/program/dates/
(I'm not sure if other organizations have different dates.)

My DD took the Explore as an 8yo 4th grader, having skipped 2nd. She took it mostly because I wanted her to, and was resistant to any suggestions of technique (including, but not limited to, "don't leave any questions unanswered"). She did not particularly enjoy the test experience.

She declined to test as a 5th grader.

In 6th grade, she heard the intercom announcement that the 8th graders were all taking the Explore. "Hey, that's the test I took in 4th, right? Can I take that again?" I explained that based on her 4th grade scores, I thought she'd get meaningful results on two sections, but that if she wanted meaningful results on the other two, she might try the ACT. She choose to take both.

ACT was yesterday. She spent maybe an hour the night before on test-taking strategy, went in feeling comfortable, and came out relatively happy.

Unless your daughter is really burned out with testing, then I think the Explore could be a good tool to see where she is at on an above level test. It is relatively inexpensive and can give you some valuable information.

DD9 took the Explore as a 7 year old 3rd grader. It was her first time taking any type of timed test and we think she did pretty well. She excels in reading, so we anticipated she would do well in that part of the test. Reading ended up being her lowest score. She later told us the passages were boring so she just zipped through it. There was another thread about the Explore a while back and someone there mentioned it might be possible if a child reads at a higher level for enjoyment, then reading dull passages and answering comprehension questions may not be their thing. I can see this being true for DD9. If I recall, Reading was the 3rd test they gave so she was probably reaching her attention limit by then anyway.

We tried to show her how to use a calculator for the math section since she hadn't used one previously - then she told us she didn't even use it.

The best part of having her take the Explore was the recommendations NUMATS made based on her results. We took the printout of their educational recommendations to DD's school to use as further leverage for acceleration. NUMATS spells it out very clearly and gives the school a step by step path to take. This is now part of DD's GIEP.

We've recently received communications from NUMATS regarding scheduling DD9 for the Explore again to see where she is at with a year's growth. DD9 has no desire to take the test again at this point, so we will wait at least a year and see how she feels in 5th grade. Taking it again in 5th grade may be a better option anyway since our 6th grade is middle school and we may need more leverage going into middle school than we do right now.

If your DD does end up taking the Explore - good luck!!

DS11 took his first EXPLORE test as 3rd grader. He didn't know how to use a calculator at that time, but the proctor insisted to give him one at the door. So he figured out how to use it during the test and checked all the answers but didn't have time to finish all the math questions. Overall, it was a great experience for DS.