It seems that the Explore test is being phased out. Is there a replacement for a child who's not yet in 7th grade and so can't take ACT or SAT?

An individually administered achievement test costs $6-700 here and with the cheap SAT I don't think a child years below 7th grade with no standardised test experience will qualify compared to DYS 7th graders. Is our only option to repeat IQ testing?

Someone recently posted that they are continuing the EXPLORE for one more year, so maybe that will be an option for you still?

Have you asked for achievement testing through your school?

Achievement testing such as WJ-III is normed by age/grade, so *I think* (and that's a big "I think" since I'm not a professional lol!) a 7 year old child who's in 2nd grade, for instance, isn't being compared to a 12 year old child in 7th grade when standard scores (or whichever score it is that Davidson looks at) are calculated. But I could be *really* wrong.... I just know that all three of my kids have been tested with the WJ-III and worrying about comparing with kids way ahead in age was never a concern when analyzing the results.


Does this mean your dc has already had IQ testing but the result wasn't high enough to qualify for DYS? If that's the case, and money is an issue for further testing - is it really important or critical at this point in time to apply? Is it possible that what you're looking for in DYS you might be able to find through another avenue?

polarbear

Whoops, that was really unclear! Sorry, I'll edit to clarify. They'd qualify with the individually administered expensive test, but with the cheap SAT the lowest level for which Davidson has comparison is 7th grade. We can't get achievement testing through the school.

Polarbear, Davidson wants one of the tests to have been in the last two years, so we can either

repeat IQ test and do portfolio or

achivement test and old IQ test.

The EXPLORE will be available for GT talent searches for another year. I'm curious, too, what else will be available in the future for the younger folks, in two years, as an affordable qualifying achievement test.

Thanks for the explanation!

Do you have any options for low cost IQ testing through a local university? One place we were able to get lower (not inexpensive, however) testing was through a connection made through our local homeschool community. If you can still get the Explore, that's what I'd go for however!

polarbear

Yes, talent searches (such as Duke TIP) are still advertising that they offer the EXPLORE.