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.
What do you think accounted for such a high score, especially in math? Was the math she did at school and home truly at a 4th grade level and was she able to make that jump even though she had never seen some of the math before? Was she reading at a much higher level at school and home? Were you surprised that she scored so highly?
I do find the ACT/SAT scores more surprising than the EXPLORE scores, especially the math. I find it hard to believe that a child who wasn't already grade/subject or otherwise accelerated or enriched could possibly do all of the SAT/ACT math in 6th grade, just because it's not all intuitive - some stuff you need to learn, in the same way that you can be very gifted, but that doesn't mean if someone speaks Chinese you'll understand it.
