At what age/grade does this school usually require the full IQ test? Which test? Will your son be 6 so he can take the WISC, or will he have to take the WPPSI? (which a bright 6 year old can bump the ceiling on) Will the school accept a WPPSI now for acceptance into the grade school?
Does your school program require a 130 cut off or a 145 cut off? If the cut off is 130, it seems likely that your younger would make it, but perhaps unlikely that it would be enough. If it's 145 then you'll need a real IQ test. Does the school accept something like a GAI? or do they need a Full Scale over 130 or 145? What about a kid with a spiky profile, such as 145 in Verbal and 115 in processing speed or working memory?
Next Subject -
How acurate are the screening? Well, If there were as accurate as IQ tests, then no one would charge or pay 16 times as much for a IQ test given by an experienced tester, right? OTOH, as for a quick and dirty ballpark, then thinks like Ruf's TalentIgnighter and screener work somewhat well. High Vocabulary is subtest that has the highest correlation to the overall test score. I wouldn't expect that to be true for a bilingual kid or a kid who isn't a native speaker, but that doesn't seem to be your situation.
Also - if your older is a female and your younger is a male, things can look very different. (Highly distractible in particular is a popular way for boys to be different.) It's also quite possible that it's hard to remember fully what your current teenage was like at 3, and also, you've changed as well. You've probably met more PG kids and the Wow factor might be different. I know that I have much more contact with PG and HG families now that my PGlet is 15 than I did when he was 7.
Also, there is some thought that the more gifted a child is, the more different he or she is from other gifted children, I guess compared to kids who score in the meaty middle of the IQ chart. This seems like a mean thing to say or even think, but my guess it that there is some way in which this it true without interfering with my idealistic believes in the individuality and dignity of each individual human. For the purposes of teaching children in classrooms, for example, I do believe that 'common knowledge' is a pretty good estimate of what kids in the middle of the curve need to grow. Sure I'd love to see the art of teaching improving over time, and I believe that there is plenty of room to grow, but overall, it seems to me that schools work fairly well for lots and lots of kids without a lot of parental involvement. I think that the normal amounts of thoughtfulness and expertise that most hard working teachers have is plenty enough for most kids in the middle.
Which is a long and off track(srry) way of saying that it's logical that your little one seems very very different from your older one. PG kids vary tremendously in their particular needs for educational modification, their personality, and how easy it is to 'tell by looking' that they are PG.
((shrugs))
Grinity
