Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Achievement testing in a pre-K child

My son (just turned 5) is having his Woodcock Johnson III achievement testing done in two weeks. He tested well on the SB-5 and I would like to start the application process to the DYS program. I have read in a few places that achievement testing can be harder for children who have not had formal schooling (although he currently attends a Montessori program). Is there truth to this for those of you who's children took this test (or a similar test)?

My son has a gift for math and I have shown him all the proper ways that math problems are written. Is there any thing else that I should know?

My son was tested at 5 years 3 months (WJ-III). He is in K in Montessori but it's his first year there. I think there wouldn't be too much difference between him and my son. I must add though that my son was exposed to regular workbooks at home, not that he would have got too close to them though

I don't think you need to do anything special. One note though. The psychologist didn't give him one of the writing subtests (he took 2 out of 3) so he doesn't have writing cluster score nor does he have the total achievement score. His broad math score is very high and we hope he will get accepted to DYS based on this score. His Academic skills score and Brief Achievement are really high, I just wish we had the whole picture so to speak.

We asked her about it later on and were told that she gave him all the tests typically given to a 5 year old. You may want to talk to the psychologist ahead of the time and request all the scores. Good luck with the test.

BTW Do you intend to keep him in Montessori for Kindergarten?

I agree it's probably easier to get higher scores early on but I think you get pretty good idea where your child is by looking at the grade level equivalents. I wish we could get the test done every year just to know where it is. That said if my son's grade equivalent for math is 3.8 it doesn't mean that there are no gaps. The test can test only so much without being way too long.

At 5 you need to know much more than basic reading to get 200. I must admit though that our son did worse on the reading test than we expected (around 3rd grade scores). It makes me wonder what he did on the comprehension part.

Let me write down a few scores and grade equivalents to give you a better idea.

Broad Math 3.8 160
Calculation 3.8 143
Math Fluency 2.9 137
Applied Problems 4.1 169

My son's fluency levels were usually lower than the rest of his scores. The scores are timed and I think that's where going to school helps. You can be a great speller but if you write slowly you won't fit too many sentences in a given time frame.

Spelling 4.0 162
Writing Fluency 1.9 124

I don't know if you want to talk to your son about it or if the time pressure would just make him more nervous. In math you can ask for another problem if the given one is too hard.

Broad Reading 2.9 132
Letter-Word Identification 3.2 142
Reading Fluency 3.3 145
Passage Comprehension 2.1 131

He has been reading chapter books since the age of 3 so we expected his reading scores higher overall. The passage comprehension took us by surprise but then so did his Applied Problems in math I would love to know how he did on the comprehension. You know if he didn't do too well because he couldn't or because he was too tired or didn't pay attention or ...


Encore starts at 2nd grade, right? Is there something else?

Thanks for the scores and explanations. It really helps.

I don't expect many high reading, spelling or fluency scores as my son has only been reading for about 9 months and is currently comfortable at a late first grade, early second grade leveled book on a good day.

I am still think he is way above grade level in math though as he can easily multiply and divide in his head and he recently taught himself negative numbers and operations with them. We've also looked a lot at fractions, percents and decimals in the past month at his request. He also can count money and tell time to the minute. Math problems are like my son's candy---he can't get enough.

I meant Explore. I shouldn't be posting and preparing New Year party at the same time. Obviously I am not the one who could be accepted to DYS unless absentmindedness counts


My thoughts exactly. We even sent an e-mail to the psychologist asking about the composite score since like you said it seemed too low but she said it was correct. Perhaps the comprehension score weights heavily in and the others are not as important.


With this knowledge he should do great. Let us know how it goes. My guess would be that your son is very likely to get a score over 145. I wish all of us lived close to each other. I bet our sons would have lots of to talk about.

Happy New Year to everybody.

We are back from the testing and my tester feels that my son's scores were too high. She did the norms based on age (5 years 1 month) rather than grade since the computer scoring program wouldn't let her put in a grade of Pre-K. She gave him all the subtests but we only got Broad Math and Broad Written Language scores. For some reason it didn't show a broad reading or total achievement score--she thinks one of the subtests isn't normed to his age. She is going to review everything with another tester before she declares the numbers final. At this point I do think we have enough to submit to DYS.

We also learned that even though our son did well score-wise on the written sections he was extremely frustrated, almost to tears at one point. He just doesn't like writing at all. We really haven't asked him to write much so this was a little surprising. It was helpful to know because if we do pursue a skip to grade 1 we might need to take the next 6 months and work on his writing skills.

That sounds really promising. Did she give you any ideas what the numbers are or not yet?

Interesting that you got score for Broad Written Language but not the Broad Reading, my son had it the other way around. He wasn't given one of the written language subtests.

Time to start working on the DYS application

The reading fluency is the one that is preventing a full score.

His Broad Math was 182 (>99.9%) and his Broad Written Language was 150 (>99.9%).

The tester just felt these score were too high to really mean anything. She hasn't tested many kids on this test that are less than 6 years old.

Those are great numbers! I thought my son did really well with his 160 What GE did he get? I would suggest that not only you grade skip him to 1st but that you skip him in math even higher. I saw what they teach in math in the 1st grade and it's so easy.

My son would be bored even with the 2nd grade math and his score was lower (Broad Math GE 3.8) than your son's score. I think by September I will feel about the 3rd grade the same way.