I was referencing the "awards criteria", not the scores needed to participate. I realize that this is a completely different thing, but honestly, I still can't get over how high they are - it does seem like you'd need a lot of prep to qualify for an award.
Two years ago in 4th grade (perhaps the bar is lower for 4th compared to the 6th grade criteria you reference?), my then just turned 10yo dd took the Explore cold. She was in a regular public school with a policy of in-class differentiation (vs. grade skip), i.e., she had no special academic training or test prep.
Our only prep was to give her the example test questions in the registration packet with a home made bubble sheet a few days in advance, to make sure she understood how to do a bubble test. I forget the composite score, but it earned her a bronze medal from NUMATS (tied for 3rd place for her grade level), and was at the 99th %ile based on the 8th grade norms.
