Has anyone had their child take the regular ACT vs. EXPLORE in 6th grade, and if so, how did your child feel about the experience?

We are looking at options for a new education path for our DD11 and thought this might help us figure a few things out....like if we homeschool where we should begin! As well as perhaps opening some doors for other opportunities. DD is a DYS, so I think she has the brain power to do OK on the full ACT, but I don't know if she will tolerate sitting still for FOUR hours of testing! Any tips on how to help prepare her for such a task?

How did she do sitting still for the Explore? A much shorter test, I know, but it ought to give you a sense...

Our ds13 took it last year when he was in 7th (but he'd just been grade skipped so he would have been in 6th) and he was fine with the length. It looks like your dd might be grade-skipped as well. Does she want to? I think as long as she wants to, she'll have the stamina.

Make sure she takes the ACT without writing. Writing just makes it longer (for a 6th grader, HS kids should take with writing for college applications).

DS did take the ACT in 6th grade, had not taken the Explore. I think if you take it through a talent search, the writing portion is not included anyway. To prepare, well, does she do testing in school already? That's a good start. Also, get the booklet from ACT or a prep book from your public library. Take the sample tests (we set up at the dining room table a couple of Saturday mornings and did one portion of the test each Saturday, with a timer.) Then grade the test and for any incorrects, figure out if it's an error in knowledge, a Mis-mark, a timing issue, or (as DS figured out) an error in the book.

Then, if you want to, go through the prep sections. But it's interesting to take the practice tests first. We found that the score on the practice test was predictive of the actual one. That was true of my HS junior, too.

Thanks for the replies. She has not taken the Explore, and it has been a few years since she has done any formal testing (with the exception of IQ testing). She has not been grade skipped, just very young for her grade. She is "up" for the testing, mostly because I told her it would help me prepare if we decided to homeschool next year, which she wants to do. We did sign up through NUMATS. My plan is to do basically what NotherBen did, so I am glad to hear it worked for your son.

We did it (without writing) in 6th. It was long, but DS mostly enjoyed it. (NB he likes tests.) He had done the Explore previously and was familiar with the format and rules.

The data was enough to convince the school about further accelerations that were urgently needed. One had the feeling that the EXPLORE meant nothing to them, but the ACT gave data on a scale they were familiar with.

If your DD has any task or activity she can focus upon intensely for an extended period of time, she will be fine on the ACT.

It's not the ACT, but DS took the SAT in 5th grade to qualify for SET. When he came out he said the experience was "very relaxing", which I thought was very funny at the time. DS is a competitive chess player which sometimes requires intense thinking for 8-10 hours a day, and compared to that, he didn't find the 3+ hour SAT test as being demanding.

My DD took both the ACT and EXPLORE as a 10yo 6th grader. She was fine with it.

My 4th grader will complete algebra 1 before he advances to 5th this Fall. I expect him to complete geometry over the 5th grade. Is this enough math do well on the ACT. How much formal math education did your 5th/6th grader complete before examination? He wants to be ready for isee, talent searches, and a couple of early college admission test (sat/act) at the end of his sixth grade. He will also need to re-up at CTY. thx.

When my 6th grader took the ACT, he was in the first half of Algebra and had not really had geometry. He did very well. Your son will have had what many high school juniors have had or are finishing up when they take the ACT.

So tomorrow is the day for DD to take the ACT test. We did a little prep(taking the sample test, but not it one sitting), so I think she knows what to expect. It will be interesting to see if she makes it through. She did fine with the English and Reading portions right off the bat, freaked out over the Science portion until I pointed out that it was really a reading test and you just needed to know how to infer the data, so I think that will be OK, but the Math will be her biggest hurdle. She has had no exposure to much of the material, so my best advise was to target the ones she knew how to do, make an educated guess at the ones she had a some knowledge of, and make a pretty design with the ovals of the rest :-) As long as her perfectionism doesn't take over and eat up her time she should make it through without any scars! Hoping for a good day and attitude in the morning!

Good luck to her!

Well, we both survived :-) She said it was harder than the practice tests, but was overall confident about everything, with the exception of the math....but she said she did make a nice spiral pattern with the remaining ovals! She met other NUMATS test takers there and that really helped. Something to be said about safety in numbers and not be the only "little" kid there. At least she knows she can rise to the challenge of taking the test, and putting herself out there. This is a big win for her regardless of the scores.

Good for her! It is nice to see other kids your age taking it, isn't it? My son was most nervous about being the youngest (he was familiar with the test-taking site, and he took it the same day as his HS Jr brother), but walking in he saw a couple kids he knew from class and a couple from activities in surrounding towns.

Funny about making a pattern...our HS counselors tell us that on one test that "doesn't count", some students will make not-so-nice designs with the ovals. Sigh. Teens.

Our middle school does an end-of-year awards event, and among the awards is a certificate if you took the ACT or SAT through NUMATS. They don't care about the score, the award is for the reaching.

Congrats on your daughter stepping up with a happy attitude! I hope you went for a fun lunch after

Mine was definitely the only talent search kid at that particular site. It was a little strange, but he was OK.


What an excellent idea! This also makes it seem more "normal" that kids would do out of grade testing. In our district, this gesture would make a big difference in encouraging parents to support early testing.

DeeDee

That is a great idea! And, yes, we did whatever she wanted after the test, which was lunch and shopping!

So, we received her scores already and she did pretty well I think. Her Composite was a 22, individual tests were English 23, Reading 24, Math 17, Science 22. They were all about what she did on the practice tests except the reading, which she scored a 30 on the practice test. Not a lot of info out there for 6th grade scores.

Not really sure what I will be doing with the information. I think they will qualify her for several of the talent search programs, and they may (or may not) be useful if we pursue a grade skip. We have had just horrible school experiences the last two years, so I will be homeschooling her next year, and we may consider grade skipping her into high school the following year.

Now I just need to figure out what her curriculum will look like next year with this new bit of information! She informed me she will NOT be taking it again until she has to in high school :-)

You said earlier you signed up through NUMATS, so they will provide you with all kinds of information comparing scores by grade level and even gender. We received a full paper report back in the dark ages (5'years ago) but there is also the NUMATS Toolbox they should give you access to, to check the scores.

Congratulations DS took it again in 9th grade! then 8 months late the school offered it as a "practice" without the writing.

Those are excellent scores - she scored higher than the average high school senior! Compared to last year's 2015 statistical summary from NUMATS, she's at the 83%ile overall with a composite of 22, English(23) at the 84%ile, Reading(24) at the 85%ile, Math(17) at the 59%ile, and Science(22) at the 82%ile when compared to other 6th graders who took the test. I think that's especially good when you consider that there are two subsets at work - first, the kids who qualify for the talent search, and second, those who choose to take the ACT instead of the EXPLORE in 6th grade. I'm guessing that those are the kids who have already scored very highly on the EXPLORE or feel very proficient/prepped. I also think it's great that her lowest (albeit still very good) score is in math, because that's just a matter of exposure. Right now, she is securely over the college readiness benchmarks in English and Reading, one point away in science, and just needs a little work in math. Pretty impressive for a 6th grader.

Thanks. I did see some of the stats through NUMATS but wasn't sure if that was the complete picture or just a NUMATS stat. Not that it truly matters, but we are fairly new to the whole "gifted" thing and every time she takes some kind of assessment I always wonder if she will still be considered "gifted" or if the other results were anomalies....silly, I know. She is not a high achiever at all and could care less at this point about grades or school, so I am always somewhat bewildered by her results.

Actually, this is common. You may wish to look up imposter syndrome.

[/quote] Actually, this is common. You may wish to look up imposter syndrome. [/quote]

Oh dear indigo...what does this say about the mom who thinks that?? I've got oodles of personal self confidence because I worked really hard to attain my own "success", but my dd hasn't ever really had to work hard...so I think she's an imposter...yikes....that could be one for Freud!