Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment SB 5 / WISC 4 Just curious

I have read quite a few times that the SB 5 favors those that are more math oriented where as the WISC IV favors those that are more verbal. Why is this?

I am just curious my child did the SB 5 and scored higher on the Verbal Sections and I wouldnt describe my child as mathsy, though my child is multiple year grade skipped in math.

So I am wondering, if I had my child tested on WISC, could I probably expect to see my dc do better? As my dc is more verbal or should it stay the same or maybe decrease?

Just curious.

My very verbal, very chatty also extremely mathematical kid took both and scored nearly the same, though his WISC FSIQ was higher slightly. GAI was about 10 pts higher on WISC but there's really no good equivalent on SB-5.

Although he is very mathematical, he is far more logical than spatial so I think that is why the scores came out pretty close to each other. It also made us pretty convinced they're accurate!

Here's a post with several links to articles that discuss the differences between the two tests:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....62/Re_any_fans_of_the_SB5.html#Post60162

There's a good discussion that follows.

Dandy

Hi Cakebread -- I don't know if you're going to get much more info from testing, no matter what test you use! The truth is that your dc is simply beyond the scope of the tests to measure, and the tests really do fall apart at the tails.

Your dc might do better on a WISC... But there's not a lot of room for improvement on those scores! There is the extended norming, which would produce a higher score, I suppose ... But I don't know that those would really give you a ton more info. Your dc's achievement speaks for itself!

I'd like to add this question since it is fairly related- What if a kid is good at algebra type math and is incredible at doing calculations and stuff in their head, but aren't very good at spatial-math things, like geometry?
Numbers>Verbal>Spatial