Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment My DDs EXPLORE test results

DD9 took the test back in January as a 4th grader (she is skipped one year) and she did quite well for a 3rd grader but not really DYS level when measured against the 4th grade yardstick. We had her sit for the test to expose her to this kind of testing and here are the results:-

English: 17
Usage/mechanics(1-12): 9
Rhetorical skills (1-12): 10
Mathematics: 14
Reading: 15
Science: 17

Composite: 16

Our main finding was that she needs to learn 'exam technique' as she did not answer all of the questions - not even putting in a place holding guess to be looked at later. Also, (this still burns me up a bit) the proctor insisted that DD use a calculator which she didn't need and she isn't used to one.

When she had a problem involving negative numbers she wasted a lot of time trying to work out how to get negative numbers into her new toy (had never used or seen a +/- key) when she could have effortlessly performed the calculation mentally. Maths is one of my DD's strong suits and had it not been for this I believe that her score would have been higher.

We need to brush up on her exam technique but I am quite pleased for my DD because it shows that she is capable of holding her own even as a 4th grader. Had she known not to leave blanks perhaps her score would have been a little higher.

I am deeply disappointed that this test has been discontinued as it would have been an excellent measure of progress/ or lack of it going forwards.

I can not imagine why they would insist she use a calculator ! How terrible. Well done DD. Her reading comprehension scores are really good ( in Eng and Science ).

I believe the next test is going to ASPIRE ...or r they discontinuing ACT and SAT too ??

That doesn't sound right. The calculator is for their convenience; it is NOT required. It sounds like you had improper interference from the proctor and I would say something.

ASPIRE is not going to be an out of level test from what I have seen of it so far (precious little).

Don''t forget that the advocates of the Common Core have dictated that acceleration is not needed so obviously any test the shows this premise to be false must be rooted out and eliminated.

Your daughter should be very proud - nice, strong scores!!!

If it makes you feel any better, DD8 (3rd grade) took it in Feb. and I told her to "take a guess" on all items if she was running out of time - and she just didn't. So she told me she left 7 math questions and a science question BLANK, even though she had been advised to at least guess (sigh). My DD tends to do her own thing, but ugh!

Truthfully, though - I was proud of DD for taking it. After the test, as I watched her emerge from the sea of "bigger bodies" (she was on her tiptoes trying to find me), cool as a cucumber, I was VERY PROUD of her. I think it takes courage for the younger test takers to stay poised and do their best.

Ditto for mine too LOL

I always say that she has my DW's stubbornness with mine as the exponent!

WHAT !!!!

Congrats to your DD, madeinuk!

We did the same thing with our oldest DD last year as an 8 year old 3rd grader. We scheduled her for the EXPLORE just to give her that experience and to give us some idea of where she was at on an above-level test. We were secretly hoping maybe she would give us some ammo for a DYS application too.

We had concerns she wouldn't be able to focus or take the test seriously and we probably did have some of that going on. We too told her to make sure she answered all the questions and she said she did. She was the only 3rd grader testing, obviously the smallest kid in the room, and there were some pretty rambunctious older boys also taking the test - one boy was asked to leave during one section since he had finished early and was disturbing the others. DD told us she didn't use the calculator at all on any of the math and the stories in the reading section were boring (she admitted later that she zipped through that part). This explained to us why her reading score was low when we anticipated it to be her highest score. (She later took our state assessment test and scored "exemplary" in reading, so I know her reading score on the EXPLORE does not exemplify her best work)

We thought about having her take it again this year to see if she made any progress and especially after hearing it wouldn't be offered again after this year, but we didn't. I haven't looked into the replacement test at all, so we will wait and see how things go before signing her up for any other testing.

The best thing we got out of the EXPLORE was the write up NUMATS sent us. It lined out the next several years for DD and what she should be doing academically. We presented this at her end of the year GIEP meeting and hope they will take some of the suggestions into consideration.

My son did the same thing at that age! I wasn't able to convince him to guess, even when I showed him the explanation in the handout that was sent to us. When I asked him about it later, he looked at it as a moral issue-- he wanted to be right on his own merits. LOL.

Love it.