Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Can anyone help eval these wacky ITBS scores?

Okay I'm sure most of us think our kids don't listen...I have proof. He scored 99% overall in math, and in language the subtest scores are: word analysis 99%, spelling 97% and listening 50%. I'm just struggling to make heads or tails of that score. He attends a gifted school and I will be conferencing with the teacher anyway in a few days but just wanted to feel prepared. Any thoughts?

What grade level test was this?

I have given both the 1st and 2nd grade ITBS, both of which have a listening subtest. This means that I am the one reading the questions aloud that my son is supposed to be listening to. My son did pretty well on the 1st grade ITBS listening portion (>90th percentile), but on the 2nd grade one, he did what your son did--Very high 90s everywhere except for listening and I am not at all stressed by it because here is an example (made up) of a listening question:

Mary lived at the top of the hill, Julie lived on the side of the hill, and Sarah lived at the bottom. Then all the families did a strange thing. Julie's family moved up, Mary's family moved to Sarah's house and Sarah's family moved up too. If Ben rode his bike to the top of the hill before, whose house did he stop in front of?

That isn't the best example, but the point is that what the questions do (especially on the 2nd grade test), is that they give some seemingly random information somewhere near the beginning of the question, then they go on and on for a while frequently manipulating the information a few times (so in the case of my terrible example, maybe the girls could have moved a few more times, some could have moved away and new people moved in, and then the question could have something to do with the second or third iteration of the thing), and then they ask a question about that seemingly random information.

My oldest took the ITBS in 3rd grade with 99th percentile scores on the reading, language, core, science, sources of info, & social studies totals as well as the composite. The math total was at the 92nd and I don't recall all of the subtest scores w/in those sections, but I do remember that her listening was one of her lower skills as well -- somewhere around the 70th-75th percentile.

I do believe, like the pp said, that it has something to do with attention to minutiae. It could indicate a child who isn't that detail oriented or has some degree of attention difficulties. However, I can say with certainty that my dd is very detail oriented and the furthest thing from ADD that you can imagine. I wouldn't worry that much about it. It is one data point and it may not have been his best showing. He might get a totally different score if tested again.