Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC-IV scoring question

Hello! I'm newly registered on this forum (after lurking for months), and I'm hoping the resident scoring experts can help me out with a somewhat theoretical question:

If all four of a child's WISC-IV Broad Indices are at the 99'th percentile, what would be the minimum Full Scale IQ? Can this be determined? Would there be the minimum 160 points needed to clear the 145 (99.9%) hurdle?

I must confess this question is not just theoretical for us. A full year before my son tested above the magic 99.9 percentile on the WISC-IV, he participated in a study through which the WISC-IV was administered, but we had waived our rights to specific scores in order to participate and have disability assessments administered for free. We were given only the percentiles of the Broad Indices at that time.

I'm now wondering if it is possible my son cleared that hurdle a full year before we knew for sure he could. If so, submitting the study report (along with the other WISC-IV report) might make our DYS application stronger.

Thanks in advance for any scoring information you might have for me. I appreciate it!!!

Advocate

LOL!! Could you believe how they set up the sequel at the end of that movie! For shame!

I have a question...isn't there the possibility for addding extra points or something, in some circumstances, like evenly high scores in VCI and PRI?

I could have totally bad, info, though. I'd love to have it confirmed, one way or the other.

Wow, Dottie, thanks so much for your rapid scoring! You are amazing!

Hmmm ... I'm assuming those subtest points would accumulate for each index, scatter or no scatter (and with the disability factored in, I can absolutely promise you subtest scatter, despite the fact I wasn't given subtest scores).

I guess it appears my son did jump that hurdle a full year before we knew. Maybe we weren't supposed to know yet :-) Maybe we needed time to focus on disability remediation, and deal with the HG+ thing later. Perhaps I'd have been so dazed by the information I'd have walked in front of a bus or something! As it is, it has taken nearly a year for the whole magnitude of it to sink in. We've suspected this for years, but getting the actual data proof can be overwhelming. I guess I'm in the right place on this forum :-)

Again, my sincere thanks!

Advocate

Yes, this time around (a different examiner, different state even) we got the full report, all subtest scores given. GAI, and a second set of scores using the Extended Norms as well.

However, there were a couple subset substitutions this time (did I mention the disability :-) ), and I'm assuming that makes the application weaker. Submitting a full WISC-IV report with a couple subtest substitutions, that is.... I don't know the DYS position on subtest substitutions, or if there is one. I'm assuming they weigh everything on a case by case basis.

Which is why I was considering submitting the study report for corroborating data. During the study, no substitutions were made. Hopefully those familiar with WISC-IV scoring will realize my son may well have achieved the 99.9% at that time, without the substitutions.

Anyway, thanks again for your help, as well as the humor! I find the whole application process very stressful!

Advocate

Dottie, your analysis was so very clear, do you mind if I credit you (and this wonderful forum set-up the Davidson Institute has provided as a public service), and simply re-write your data into a chart? Then the review committee can check it out for themselves. Indeed, I certainly want to include a cover sheet on that study report to make sure they take note!!!

Yes, we have the WJ-III ACH scores, a whopper from several years ago when DS was turning 6 (the older, super high norms, with fall-off-your-chair scores), and then recent WJ-III ACH numbers much lower, but still over the benchmark in Total ACH and Broad Math. I realize that the new Compuscore 3.0, or whatever, yields much lower scores. Plus DS's ACH scores have dropped in the past years due to lack of accelerated work (no gifted program at all). I guess I'll have one of those applications that looks like a cry for help! A "Get us out of here before it gets worse!" kind of thing :-)

My biggest concern for the application is, and always has been, lingering residua of my son's disability, which sometimes shows itself in things like Comprehension subtests, which supposedly aren't possessed with the highest loadings of "g", but still get a healthy dose.

But sending an ASD kid into the WISC-IV Comprehension subtest, with all its emphasis on pragmatics and common sense knowledge, and, God forbid, social interpretation, is kinda like sending a lamb to the slaughter. You just know it won't turn out well, a priori. It isn't like it measures regular reading comprehension, which my son races through without a stumble. And Arithmetic subbed for Digit Span is common in the 2E community. BTW, doesn't Linda Krieger Silverman recommend the latter substitution for all gifted but the math-phobic? Thought I read that somewhere....

Just gotta send it all in, and hope for the best, I guess!

My genuine thanks, once again,

Advocate

It sounds like you have a good plan for your application, good luck!

Neato

I'm not an expert on this by any stretch, but my daughter had a substitution on her WISC-IV results (one subtest had been spoiled) and she got into Davidson's. They never even asked me about it, but then there was an explanation in the psychologist's report.

Thanks Neato and Ruby, and of course Dottie, for the encouraging words!

I hope to report back good news sometime later this spring / summer :-)

Advocate