This is what I miss when I disappear for two days! LOL
DS took the Explore for the first time at 7y4m, and was not overwhelmed, although he was SLOW.... That brought his scores way down. On the other hand, he sped up quite a bit in the following year, and had some ridiculous gains between 7 and 8! He'll be nine in time for next year's test and I ~think~ we'll do it again, although there's a chance I'll sign him up for an ACT instead... We'll do a trial run through the ACT practice test first and see where he falls. He still has speed issues, so a much longer test might not be the best thing... but on the other hand he doesn't really have any stamina issues and his ~content~ knowledge is rather higher than the ceiling of the Explore, and it would be nice to let him have the chance to extend himself that way... And the ACT can send you the question-by-question breakdowns, so I could get more specific information than the Explore gives... Although the practice tests are just old tests themselves, so I could truly get all I really needed out of that, AND see where things were time issues vs. content issues.... but the ACT is cheaper... but the Explore has award possibilities... but the ACT results come faster... but he's only going to be nine and he's TINY... but... but... but...... :D)
ANYWAY! Short answer is if your kid can sit that long (about 2 1/2 hours with the paperwork stuff, and I think there's a bathroom break between sections) and won't be crushed by not getting everything right, and knows how to fill in all those little bubbles (I did go over that with DS... LOL), I'd go ahead and do it.
