Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment I.Q. and grade levels ahead-strong correlation?

Question: *could* it be designed to work for the upper end as well. In theory, if someone took an interest in actually designing an instrument to determine appropriate educational fit? Could an exceptionally competent school psychologist do it as a research project on the side or would it need a full research unit at a university? Just wondering...

Do we need new instruments?

We already have the SAT and the ACT, and I think young students who score like college-ready high school students are ready for the same college-level classes if they have the same background in the subject. So my prediction is that conditional on the SAT M+V score and the score on the relevant SAT subject test, performance in AP class and exam has little dependence on age. So a 10yo with a 700 SAT verbal score and a 600 score on the SAT U.S. History subject test will do as well on the AP U.S. History exam after taking a course as a 16yo with the same scores will. I'd like to see a test of this theory. When I read Julian Stanley's accounts of fast-paced science and calculus courses, taken by young students screened by SAT scores, it appeared that younger students often did the best.

If a 10yo can do academically what a 16yo can do, I'd argue that makes the 10yo "as smart as" the 16yo.

While the 10 year old may be as smart as the 16 year old, AP tests require writing essays, while SAT CR and SAT II US History do not. The 10 year old might struggle with the writing component of an AP class. Even my middle kid, who was an excellent writer at 10, would not have been able to produce essays worthy of a 5 on an AP exam at age 10.

I think you're probably right when it comes to the 2e aspect, and I think that's what has influenced my opinion. I'm HG (153) w/o a diagnosed LD but could be ADHD like my son, and I feel like the time of my testing (via the SB, at 27 yrs) was the best in terms of stability (I think I would have tested more like my son as a kid - although my high scores would have been higher than his but I would have had behaviour related variability). As an adult, however, I'd kind of settled into my levels and was definitely more stable.

I don't know... there are pros and cons to each testing tool, like you say. Not only am I not sure that the WISC was right for my son, I also wonder about the suitability of the psychologist - she was very, very competent and experienced, but much too gentle. She was more suited to the anxiety-ridden kids as opposed to my hurricane kid... lol

A new article on that topic:

Inside a Chinese Test-Prep Factory
By BROOK LARMER
New York Times
December 31, 2014

I just read that article, and it was almost scary. Heartbreaking, actually, to see how far the students and parents went for the students' futures. I've heard about that test, but that was still surprising. Also-
Sound eerily familiar?
However, this reminds me of an article I read that said many Chinese and Asian immigrant parents hothouse their children at higher rates than others because they don't fully realize their kids can have a good life without an Ivy League college - no one told them how the system works, or else the mentality, understandably, is still there. Obviously not the only reason, but a compelling one.

Having worked with Asian-educated peers in entry-level IT, I can confirm that "can't think for themselves" is a literal truth, not hyperbole. People who had been doing my job for decades couldn't think of the obvious first steps to take when a fault occurred, nor could they understand why a much younger, American-educated individual like myself couldn't recite the Gettysburg Address from memory. This was MY history, after all, not theirs. What had I done all those years in school, then?

Meanwhile, the gaokao brain-eating virus is spreading to Harvard and Yale, from which we inexplicably continue to draw our national leaders in the political and corporate spheres.

WINNING!

According to this commonly referenced chart from Hoagies Gifted Education Page, a score of 138 on the WISC-IV is on the cusp or cutoff between moderately gifted and highly gifted. With your daughter's young age, it is quite possible that future IQ tests may yield a higher score.

The GAI may also be a helpful measure here? (especially if the processing speed/performance scores were the lower than the others indices?).