Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Question about SCAT....

Hi everyone - I had posted in the past about the SCAT test and now have another quick question - though, a little history first...

My son took the SCAT in November 2010, when he was 10 and in the 5th grade. He is very bright, but anxious, and the testing situation threw him a little and he didn't finish - I believe he got a 459 Verbal and 438 Math. He wanted to take a computer class through CTY but he just missed the math cut off. So, he asked to take the test again in Aprril 2011, when he was 11, and did great - 460 Verbal, 482 Math. In the end though, since my husband was out of work at that time, he never took the class.

He qualified for the state awards in both and we did go to the ceremony. There were quite a few kids from his school at the ceremony and afterwards, my husband contacted our Superintendent of Schools, whom he is friendly with, and told him about it. All of a sudden, the district is pushing the CTY program and offering to pay for the registration and testing for kids that want to take the tests (SCAT or SAT). So, Conor was invited to take the test again, and while we haven't decided yet, we are considering it as he could take a course this year if he wanted.

But, I was curious about a few things - first, does he need to take it again to participate? I'm assuming his 2011 scores would not count for him to register in 2012? But, being he took the test twice in 5th grade, and is now in 6th, would he be taking the same test again (he did take 2 different tests, but they were both 8th grade spring level). I'm not at all sure how that works - I just know that the test are 2 to 3 years above grade level...so, being he's in 6th, I realized he could still get an 8th grade test. (or I could be wrong....I was just curious about this).

We've also finally decided to go ahead and do the IQ testing for him (he had taken the test of cognitive skills in 3rd grade, TCS/2, and received the highest score possible, but we had been on the fence about the full IQ testing) so I don't want to over test him either.

Thanks for any information - it is always appreciated!

Jen

I think that once you qualify with SCAT, you are qualified until 7th grade. In 7th grade, you must requalify by taking the SAT. So there is no reason for him to take the SCAT again unless he really likes taking standardized tests!