Hi! I am contemplating EXPLORE for DD8, to see where she is at and to figure out whether she is in need of more challenge. Honestly, the only reason that I am on the fence about her taking it is maternal guilt, because she has just been through a battery of tests at school for their G&T. So many tests! Is the EXPLORE a good test for a 3rd grader or should I wait a year or two(especially one who is young for the grade/summer b-day)? Please share your experiences. TIA!

I have the same question for DS7 (grade 2) for when he is in grade 3, (and some more questions).

It's generally for 8th graders, right?

Does it make sense to take it for a (grade 3) kid who is at grade 8 level in one subject (maths), but much lower (say, grade 4 level) in the other subjects?

If your school gives the EXPLORE to its 8th graders, and allows younger students to take it, does it make more sense to take it at the school, or is it better to take it through a "Talent Search"? (Would scores from one be more "useful" than from the other?)

Which "Talent Searches" offer it to 3rd graders?

When is it held (once a year or more often)?

We'd have to take it through a Talent Search - DD's school has its own testing. Unfortunately, most of it is not "out of level," although they do MAP tests. For MAP, although she is scored 99% nationally normed for reading and math, DD's reading scores are higher on MAP tests, than she is in math. Her most recent reading score would be a 98th% for 4th grade, 97th for 5th, 93rd% for 6th grade, and a 74th% for 11th grade. Her math scores, though, would only be a 95th% for 4th, and an 81st% for 5th, so she has a somewhat uneven set of skills. I am not sure, then, whether that makes her a great candidate for the EXPLORE test.

My DS took it as a very young 3rd grader, since he had skipped a grade. It was his first timed test, and his first hard test. He didn't finish any of the categories. But the information from the talent search was an eye-opener. If your child has never taken an above-level test, you really have very little idea how much they know. And the talent search info is great, because you get to see how your child does compared with 8th graders and also compared with other talent search kids in your child's grade. NUMATS provided info based on the results too, e.g., what sorts of classes your child will be ready for in the next few years. It is a relatively inexpensive way to get pretty good info on your kid.

It doesn't make any difference if your kiddo is stronger in one area or another if your goal is just gaining information. The other good thing about the talent search (as least NUMATS) is that if your child takes the test in subsequent years, you will be able to compare those results over time.

If your child has test anxiety, then I would think twice about this. But if she doesn't mind taking tests, I don't think it can hurt.

ETA -- if she is testing 99% for grade level in math and reading, I think she is exactly the type of student the EXPLORE has in mind.

Two of my three took the EXPLORE test in 3rd grade. Both have summer birthdays (one late July, the other late August). We never used it to consider if they needed more of a challenge - they were both in private school when they took it, so no gifted program (but there are quite a few kids in that school that are very bright/gifted).

It was interesting to see the results. None of mine are PG. My youngest has not been tested for "giftedness", but she scored a bit higher on EXPLORE than my eldest did (and she has been IDed). My youngest's scores would identify her as gifted in every subject area in Ohio (they accept EXPLORE testing for IDing gifted), and her math score was DYS level.

We haven't really done anything with the scores. Doesn't matter for eldest now as she is in college, but haven't mentioned it to DD9's teacher (DD9 now in public school). We had a conference with DD9's teacher and she recognizes that the kid is bright - but the school won't do anything with outside testing. That and there are truly a lot of bright kids in this district. Elementary school isn't a challenge for most kids, but the district does have some good options for kids when they get to HS.

I'm curious if there are any negative repercussions for taking the test too early. For example, does anyone have access to these scores other than the parents? Do lower scores get accessed down the road when it's time to apply for college? If not- I can't imagine that there's any reason not to have a child take it in 3rd grade. If it doesn't go well, couldn't the child take it again the next year?

Obviously, bombing the ACT or SAT has a negative impact on a student, since those scores are reported to schools. But does this hold true also for the Explore?

Excellent question. Who has access to the results? Does anyone know?

No one sees the scores. My eldest took the ACT eight years later and the EXPLORE scores didn't show up. SAT scores from prior to 9th grade are wiped off of your record in June or July (end of school year) unless you request to keep them. ACT scores still show up on your account but I don't think colleges want to see testing prior to 9th. I certainly don't think that anyone wants to see 3rd grade scores. Colleges typically don't want to see anything prior to HS - they don't want to know about DD16's Mathcounts trophy in 7th grade.

When you sign up for the test (at least with NUMATS), you can choose to list the school your child attends or not. If you list the school, the scores will be sent to whoever is the contact person with NUMATS. We wanted to share the info with our son's school, and so listed his school, but the results never made it to anyone at the school, at least they didn't make it to his teacher. (We shared the info later.) No one else sees the scores unless you share them.

FYI - Some middle schools around me use Explore scores for part of their admissions process, though I'm sure they are most interested in a kid's 5th grade scores.

What's wrong with a university seeing that your 3rd grader performed at, say, a 7th grade level? Surely they won't think they're still at that level by the time they're applying for college. I don't understand how it could possibly hurt.

22B, colleges very rarely consider anything that happens before high school. Maybe they might be interested if you won Mathcounts at the national level, or placed nationally in a major HS academic competition while you were still in middle school.

My eldest knows kids who scored 2100+ on the SAT in 7th grade, but they didn't report those scores to colleges. Above level tests are great to figure out more about your kid's potential and abilities, but they aren't something to submit to colleges. If your child scores well on above grade level tests in 3rd, they'll score well on standardized tests in HS.

Small hijack- does it matter what grade your DC is in? If your 8 year old is a fourth grader, does it matter, or is everything by DOB?

Thanks!

Explore is by grade

That makes sense. If someone displays potential in elementary school then colleges would like to see them show they reached that potential in high school.

But if someone get Math SAT 800 when 10 years old, then that's much more significant than Math SAT 800 when 17 years old. The age at which the ceiling is reached is the relevant data point. I suppose someone with the early score should show they reached that potential in some other way, e.g. competitions, but still, reaching a high score young seems to be the only way to get around the low ceilings on those particular tests. (I can see that colleges won't care about EXPLORE scores, though.)

DS11 took Explore in 4th (he was 9). We decided to do it because we wanted to get information about what he actually knew at that point, and he really enjoys standardized tests so there was no downside.

We didn't get levels; he maxed out the test. Had we done it a year earlier, perhaps it would have shown us more-- I don't know.

The scores were later a bit useful in negotiating a subject acceleration, and in convincing the school that DS really is extreme in his educational needs, but anyone who knows him already knew that. Mostly what we got out of it was "whoa" factor for ourselves.

DeeDee

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far.

DD doesn't suffer from too much test anxiety. She simply has needed to take quite a few tests recently.

To those who had a DC take Explore, did the Explore test give you a great deal of information that other testing (MAP, etc.) did not, or could not? How did the results of Explore testing compare with other tests your DC took? How did you use the results?

TIA!

Our district doesn't do MAP testing. For DS it was the first time he had been tested closer to his capacities, and he found it profoundly exciting.

Our school was not prepared to understand the results, so not much happened right away. We did use them later to argue (successfully) for a subject acceleration, but the district still insisted on doing their own testing, because they didn't have any context for what the EXPLORE result meant.

DeeDee

If your child is willing, I would recommend doing it at the younger age. I've only had one of my kids do the Explore. It was given through the school district but processed through our local talent search. It was in 6th grade and at that point it was not a very useful test. DD and several of her friends ceilinged parts of the test so there wasn't enough head room by 6th grade for the gt kids. DD got DYS level scores and had fun going to the awards ceremony but that was about it. At that point, DD was not interested in acceleration because she didn't want to leave her friends. If we had done the test earlier, she probably would have been more biddable. She has no desire to do any more talent search testing because it would require her to give up a day of her weekend.

None of my other kids have been willing to do talent search testing.

My ds took the EXPLORE in 3rd grade, 8 yrs old through NUMATS. He was always a good test taker so I wondered how the above level test would go. He did a wonderful job. We did the sample test so he would know what he was in for.

He always did well in math, but like another said I was really impressed with his scores in other subjects. He knew not to leave anything blank if it was possible.

It was great exposure to testing and time limits.

Thanks, everyone - you've brought up some issues I had not even considered.

DD just had to sit through Wechsler-variety testing on a weekend (OK, oddly, she said it was fun), so again with my guilt about more weekend testing . I think I could talk her into this, though, and I had not considered the possibility of being older and hitting the ceilings on this test.

If your child took MAP prior, is there a MAP/RIT score that is a good indicator of readiness for this test? I think she'll probably do great on any portion involving reading/comprehension, and probably science (she has been teaching herself various areas of science since she learned to read), but she has not had exposure to accelerated math - math at school has been differentiated for 3rd grade, but not accelerated (that isn't offered until 4th gr). She also doesn't love math (OK, she says she "hates" it right now), so there isn't much "afterschooling" going on in math (and I haven't pushed it because she loves so many other things). I hate to see her walk out of the test completely frustrated because of the math section. Still, I am so curious to see how she'd do on the rest...

Our DS is a good test taker, I think, but will not be up to level on the English/Reading portions. I think we'd just tell him he really needs to show his stuff in Math, but for English/Reading just say relax/have fun/do your best/it doesn't really matter anyway.

I found testing dates that NUMATS uses.
http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/numats/program/dates/
(I'm not sure if other organizations have different dates.)

My DD took the Explore as an 8yo 4th grader, having skipped 2nd. She took it mostly because I wanted her to, and was resistant to any suggestions of technique (including, but not limited to, "don't leave any questions unanswered"). She did not particularly enjoy the test experience.

She declined to test as a 5th grader.

In 6th grade, she heard the intercom announcement that the 8th graders were all taking the Explore. "Hey, that's the test I took in 4th, right? Can I take that again?" I explained that based on her 4th grade scores, I thought she'd get meaningful results on two sections, but that if she wanted meaningful results on the other two, she might try the ACT. She choose to take both.

ACT was yesterday. She spent maybe an hour the night before on test-taking strategy, went in feeling comfortable, and came out relatively happy.

Unless your daughter is really burned out with testing, then I think the Explore could be a good tool to see where she is at on an above level test. It is relatively inexpensive and can give you some valuable information.

DD9 took the Explore as a 7 year old 3rd grader. It was her first time taking any type of timed test and we think she did pretty well. She excels in reading, so we anticipated she would do well in that part of the test. Reading ended up being her lowest score. She later told us the passages were boring so she just zipped through it. There was another thread about the Explore a while back and someone there mentioned it might be possible if a child reads at a higher level for enjoyment, then reading dull passages and answering comprehension questions may not be their thing. I can see this being true for DD9. If I recall, Reading was the 3rd test they gave so she was probably reaching her attention limit by then anyway.

We tried to show her how to use a calculator for the math section since she hadn't used one previously - then she told us she didn't even use it.

The best part of having her take the Explore was the recommendations NUMATS made based on her results. We took the printout of their educational recommendations to DD's school to use as further leverage for acceleration. NUMATS spells it out very clearly and gives the school a step by step path to take. This is now part of DD's GIEP.

We've recently received communications from NUMATS regarding scheduling DD9 for the Explore again to see where she is at with a year's growth. DD9 has no desire to take the test again at this point, so we will wait at least a year and see how she feels in 5th grade. Taking it again in 5th grade may be a better option anyway since our 6th grade is middle school and we may need more leverage going into middle school than we do right now.

If your DD does end up taking the Explore - good luck!!

DS11 took his first EXPLORE test as 3rd grader. He didn't know how to use a calculator at that time, but the proctor insisted to give him one at the door. So he figured out how to use it during the test and checked all the answers but didn't have time to finish all the math questions. Overall, it was a great experience for DS.