Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Question for aeh

My DS had his reassessment yesterday and it was 3.5 hours... I assume they gave him the WISC V since it is a comprehensive test, but isn't that supposed to take less than the WISC IV? Maybe they also gave him an achievement test? Do they usually spend that long on IQ testing? I know she also pulled grades (he makes 3s and 4s) but has lots of notes about being inattentive and not tracking with others….any guesses as to what they might have done in there for all that time?

LAF, 3.5 hours is a pretty typical time for a comprehensive cognitive and achievement battery. In my typical eval, I take about 15-30 minutes on a preliminary interview of the student, and rapport building exercises, some of which double as social-emotional screeners. The core battery for the WISC-V takes about 45-60 minutes, but can easily take half an hour longer, depending on which ancillary/supplementary subtests are added, and can take even longer than that if I have an unusually slow-moving student (for whatever reason, including having an early start point, but late discontinuation, such as may happen with a young GT student). A comprehensive achievement like the WIAT-III or KTEA-3 takes about 1.5 hours to 2 hours to complete, again depending on added subtests and work pace. The WJ-IV can take even longer than that, if all additional subtests are administered, especially now that they've split the old cognitive and achievement batteries into cognitive, achievement, and oral language batteries.

You should have some idea of what they were doing, based on the consent to test that you signed prior to the assessment. Though some districts do send blanket consents. Did they list assessments or assessment instruments on your consent form?

Hi aeh - thank you for responding. I suspected they may have also given him an achievement test since she pulled grades. They do not tell the parents what tests will be administered because a couple of years ago the GATE office calculated that statistically there were too many kids being identified as gifted. They went back and retested a whole bunch of children and discovered that some parents were gaming the system. They used to give the Raven, but apparently the Raven is online so they discovered they had some kids who had been prepped by their parents even to the point of the kids memorizing the test the night before. So now whatever testing we get is closely guarded secret until after the fact, which makes very good sense to me.

However I assume they gave him the WISC V because they can't give him the WISC IV as it hasn't been two years plus it's too old now. I requested they give him a comprehensive test, so I think that pretty much leaves them with the V. I appreciate that the school assessor spent so much time with him, since he got a good nights rest and a good breakfast I am going to assume she got an accurate picture of what his abilities are. Now I just have to wait.