Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy We're officially applying to DYS! Now...

Dottie and Jen,
Check your mail! We just got our Explore results today-exactly six weeks after the test.

DS11 did well. His composite went up over-all, but his English did go down. It may have been one of the two subtests which he didn�t finish- or not. We are going to have to work on time for the ACT in April, but I won�t hold my breath on his finishing all of it.

delbows,
I don't think that finishing every section of the ACT is a reasonable goal for most talent search kids. DS finished English and Reading, but not Math or Science. When he got the five minute warning he did fill in the rest of the bubbles, though, and then used the rest of the time to do a couple more problems.

WOO-HOO! Let those results come rolling in!

Dottie,
We used Belin-Blank for the talent search. Your comment puts it in perspective about the English score-he did do very well in it last year, so it is not unlikely that it could go down.
He missed the perfect score in math, however, it was his highest at 24. It is also the only subject were he receives acceleration at school.

Acs,
Thanks for the heads up about the ACT and talent search participants. I�ll be sure to pass on the information so my perfectionist daughter doesn�t get upset during the test.

Just to give you a sense of how many you can miss and still get a good score, I just checked my ACT book.

To get 25's you would need to get the following number right:
English 55 out of 75
Math 40 out of 60
Reading 25 out of 40
Science 29 out of 40

These vary a bit from test to test, but you can see that you really don't have to get them all finished to do well as long as you do well on the ones you answer. But there is no penalty for guessing so it it worth it to fill in on the bubbles even if you don't finish. That what's so great about these tests for most of our kids, finally lots ceiling.

To get scores in the 30's you'd have to finish and I know there are kids who do finish. But there is no shame in not finishing.

This is really useful information for our family!

Thanks.

Thanks for the info. Our mailman comes in the afternoon (SOON!!) so I will make the trip through several feet of snow in hopes to get the results.I am glad your DS did well and it's nice to have a comparison from last year. This is DD9's first time taking it and I am once again in deep GT denial.

How are the results presented? I remember seeing a website where you can punch in the scores to give a better illustration of the results and comparison with other GT kids taking the test. I hope the results that come in are easy enough to read and understand.

Jen

The info from Belin-Blank lists the average TALENT SEARCH PARTICIPANT scores by grade:

Grade 4: English 13.5 Math 12.9 Reading 13.2 Science 15.6 and Composite 13.9

Grade 5: English 15.4 Math 15.1 Reading 14.9 Science 17.0 and Composite 15.7

Grade 6: English 17.4 Math 17.1 Reading 16.7 Science 18.5 and Composite 17.5


THE 8TH GRADE GENERAL POPULATION averages are:

English 13.9 Math 14.4 Reading 13.9 Science 15.9 and Composite 14.7

Dottie, are you in PA?

It will be while before I get my DSs results but thanks for posting this Dottie and delbows. I'll have to look it all up again when they finally come (he did the February test date).

Dottie - didn't you always say PA was very GT friendly??? It appears they are definitely doing something right!!!

Hope your scores come Monday and I am sure they will be fabulous!