Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC and WJ "test"ing: what to ask/look for

Hello,
We are having DD tested in a few weeks by a psychologist in the area. Our objectives are to find out if she is gifted, what level , if she qualifies for the admission into our local gifted school, what are her strength and weakness areas to be able to help etc...for a start:-)
I would really appreciate any pointers on what we should be asking the psych- ask for sub-test scores? any other nuances to this? We want to be sure to not have missed anything(especially at 400 bucks for the testing:-) )Thanks for any perspectives.
Regards

I would definitely ask how breaks will be scheduled. Will the testing be done all in one day? My son was tired after the end of just the WISCIV w/ one extra test (arithmetic) and psych said no way would he do the WJIII in the same day. A friend of mine, her DD was tested all in one day and they even skipped her lunch!!!!

I would ask for scaled scores, percentiles, composites. Some here even ask for raw scores.

$400 is fairly cheap for testing. Not that it's easy to write out the check, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.

Make sure your child understands that some of the material may be hard, and that it's ok to say if she doesn't know. Make sure that she has a good night's sleep and a decent, protein-rich breakfast.

good luck to dd!

You might talk to her about expanding her answer when the tester asks something like "what else?". For example, when mine was asked why we turn out the lights he said "to save the earth". She asked him why and what else and was wanting him to give more depth, like "it saves electricity and saving electricity cuts down on air pollution which helps keep the planet healthy". I am not saying you will have this question, just using it as an example. Mine would give his first answer and then say "I don't know" instead of either explaining his answer or giving a second answer.