Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment GAI question

Hi,
I have a question for test gurus. I had my DS tested on the WISC IV last week and he scored 95% on verbal and 99% on non verbal. He was a lot lower on processing and memory (average), and the psychologist explained about GAI vs FSIQ. In total, the psychologist said his scores were 99% on the GAI. I am waiting for a written report, but I am confused about how the GAI could be 99% when verbal was 95%. Any explanation? I thought they were weight equally. The tested did say he was close to or maxed out one of my non verbal sections. She said one part of the verbal brought his scores down because he seemed afraid to answer if he was not 100% sure of the answer. So maybe she meant it would be 99% if he had answered those questions? I am confused and should probably wait for the report with the actual numbers, but that's what the internet is for?

Anyway, it helped validate that I am not crazy that my kid is learning nothing in school...which I knew anyway.
Thanks!

GAI and FISQ are based on how unusual the scores are. So, individually the score may be 95th percentile but its unusual to have both scores in the 95th percentile so that would raise the total percentage.

I hope I explained that in way its understandable. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will respond.

Just in case you havn't come across this report in your search. The WISC–IV Technical Report #4 has info about the GAI

"This report provides information about the derivation and
uses of the General Ability Index (GAI). The GAI is a composite
score that is based on 3 Verbal Comprehension and 3
Perceptual Reasoning subtests, and does not include the
Working Memory or Processing Speed subtests included in the
Full Scale IQ (FSIQ)."

http://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/Special%20Education%20Services/gifted/WISCIVTechReport4.pdf

Do you mind sharing why you had your son tested and how old he is? My 6 yo dd has similar percentiles for verbal (95%) and non-verbal(99%). She is in 1st grade and bored with the material but we can't get subject acceleration for math and reading.

Hi,
We got the scores back and indeed they averaged out to 99%. 133. Moderately gifted. We got him tested for a variety of reasons. I am not that happy with school, but not really because he is so accelerated. He is somewhat advanced, but there are a lot of smart kids in his school. I am more dissatisfied because all the material is so simplistic and out of context. I would like to see more of what I think of as "real" learning...history, science, geography, literature...the kind of material that interests and excites children. But it's public school. Bigger classes. State testing. It is what it is. Nice teachers and families, but they have a lot of constraints.

His school is not likely to put him in the gifted program. There is a lot of rigamarole and they only accept FSIQ and not GAI and only individual scores 96% and over. So he would only qualify for math and needs work samples and teacher recommendations, etc...for 30 minutes of enrichment a week. Not worth the stress and then finding out he didn't get in.

So...the testing was sort of to see where he was and figure out if I want to keep him in public, find a private school or homeschool, and if he was ahead "just" because of learning we do at home or because of aptitude as well...and pure curiosity. He is almost 7. Not very excited about school---says it's easy, boring, etc...But I really think that is more because of the lack of interesting content rather than skills.