I'm not Dottie or Trinity, but I can answer a couple of these...
I know our local school district owns the IAS, and as I had it explained to me by the local school's gifted coordinator at a meeting about acceleration just today...the IAS is pretty much the accepted form to use to decide about acceleration. (Which is nice because it's actually a good manual!) I'd bet that if your school system is a decent size, it probably has it. If not, it would be worth asking for.
Group tests are pretty much never as good as individual tests, for all the obvious reasons. They're certainly better than nothing, and if that's what the school uses--as ours does--then that's what you get. But if you have any say in the matter or if you're paying for it, you'd certainly prefer an individual test. But it really depends upon why you're getting the test. Is it just to be ID'd for the school's gifted programs? Then their standard test--group test or otherwise--is probably fine. But if there's a specific question you want to answer about your son, then that changes things. You may need a different test. It's all about your purpose. Testing just for the sake of testing isn't generally very useful, imho.
And by the way, your son is reading--what?--7 years above grade level?! Are you sure he's not a level 4 or 5? That's really a lot to be "just" a 3, I think. (And yes, I realize how ludicrous that sentence is!)
You might want to take another look at Ruf's levels with your son's baby book in hand. I figured my son was a 3...until I actually had the baby book with me when I looked at the timeline. Nuh-uh. He's certainly a 4, moving into 5 territory in the subjects that most interest him.
It doesn't make a huge difference at that level, but it might affect your educational placement somewhat. Of course, I may be wrong--you're the mom! But I'd urge you to look again, just to be sure.
All the best to you on this fascinating, frustrating journey we're all taking together!
