Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion EXPLORE discrepancy and math enrichment advice

We received DS10's scores (4th grade) on EXPLORE and they are a bit all over the place (22 in English, 14 in Math). The math curriculum at their school is not very rigorous and he is the type of kid that gets concepts easily but may make computational errors.

We haven't done much enrichment outside of school. Any recommendations for an online program that he can work on over the summer so that he can go a little deeper and develop his math skills? He is asking to learn algebra.

Thanks!

Have you looked into AoPS? They have regular and a "stretch" Algebra class that is at a different pace.

Ditto.

My DD did the old Algebra I class with them and is just starting the counting and probability class after a year's hiatus to allow her to pursue other interests like drama (not that our OE prone DD lacks it - LOL) and make the transition to middle school along with its attendant cattiness and wanton spite.

Her return to the 'saddle' vindicated our decision. It was a bit of a shock to her system to find Maths challenging again and it has taken about 4 weeks for her to readjust her mental gait and find her stride again. She is enjoying the challenge once more after a bit of a struggle to engage her mind after a full day of B&M school. We are glad to see her growing and learning again.

Thanks everyone! Curious to know if others have seen a discrepancy like this?

Yes. DD had a similar discrepancy when tested on the EXPLORE as a 3rd grader.

Personally, I chalked it up to never being accelerated, but reading extensively from an early age (I believe her reading habits may have built her language skills). Also, when later tested on the WISC, she had an extremely high VCI (which may correlate with her extreme performance on the English subsection).

I have to admit that we never really considered the fact that DD, up until that time, hadn't spent the same amount of time on math skills as she naturally did on reading skills (because she LOVED to read). Since that time, we have been careful to offer her equal opportunity to develop both skills and we've seen her math skills develop in giant leaps.

I'm wondering if the test covered more difficult material this year or had harder questions... totally a guess as we try to figure out why our kid who is really talented at math (and accelerated two years) didn't score all that well in it vs. his other scores. Wondering if he hasn't been exposed to some of the content as the school has been changing curriculum materials over the last few years.

Loy58, my son read at an early age also and continues to be a voracious reader of anything he can find. I'm glad to hear your DD has taken off in math! It sounds like there is hope of the gap narrowing? He has this perception that he is "not good" in math mostly for the same reasons you describe, sometimes to the point of avoidance, yet my husband and I are both professionals in math/science related fields.

ConnectingDots, I agree that there may have been a lack of exposure to some concepts. My DS's score in math was still lower than english on the SCAT (which was also high) but his math score wasn't as low. It will be interesting to see the percentiles 4th grade in math next month.

I looked at the prealgebra pretest on AoPS and I think it would be good for him to do a little brushing up prior to taking that course. Has anyone used the 5th grade texts?

AoPS has challenged DD and I believe, kept her interest in math alive (she was quickly losing interest in math at school). She finally realized that she is ALSO good at math. In fact, since that time, her math scores have been extremely high and have sometimes surpassed her other scores (not on EXPLORE, which she has not retaken, but on other testing)!

You can have him try out Alcumus for free. Alcumus is assigned as part of the homework when you sign up for an AoPS course. Also, perhaps purchase the AoPS Pre-algebra book and work through some problems with him to see whether he likes it?

Sorry, had a knee jerk reaction to Portia's post.

Our DD crashed and burned on her first go at the Explore test - she also did not do very well (relatively speaking) on the reading. One year later (this was her first 'serious' exam.

One year later with the AoPS Pre-Algebra class under her belt and a better idea of time management under times conditions aka exam technique she took it again. She basically maxed out on Science and Maths, her Grammar maxed out but her Reading score was still surprisingly low.

The Science section is also a reading comprehension test so was still a little puzzled until I realized that some of the readings are probably about things that were age/maturity/life experience related and were probably not fully understood - like a fish would have no idea of what snow is.

DD is now doing the Davidson Comp class to ensure that her 'close reading' is also being scrutinized and stretched.

Hope the above is useful to you, OP.

Madeinuk, thank you for sharing your experience. It is very helpful. He doesn't have a lot of experience in standardized testing (progressive school that recommended him on performance) and his composite was 17. We were hoping for higher to qualify for DYS since we could use some advice but maybe next time since several scores were close.

I've looked into imacs a little in the meantime. They have an online Elements of Mathematics Foundation course that looks creative and DS likes the concept.

Interestingly, he looked at the pretest for the prealgebra course and said he thought it was too hard. His twin sister just took the pretest and aced it though, so we may do both over the summer.