Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Numats Award Criteria

My kids generally did similarly on the ACT and Explore, in terms of percentiles. For your dd, I don't think it makes sense to have her take the EXPLORE next year again. Her scores indicate only a couple wrong and I wouldn't be surprised if she got the exact same, lower or higher next year. For math, it's likely she'd do better, and that's always the easiest to improve, in my opinion, but for the others, it's very easy to miss one or two simply because the questions aren't well worded, she reads one quickly, etc... She may have gotten a few wrong, but she's pretty much topped out on the EXPLORE.
Personally, the awards ceremony didn't provide ANY incentive to my kids to study, and we don't study for these types of tests anyway(exception being in HS when it really counts, or I suppose if they wanted to apply to a HS or a scholarship or something where their score mattered). This year neither of my younger kids wanted to take an out-of-level test and that was fine with me. If you really want to track your dd's progress, I'd definitely have her take the ACT/SAT in 6th grade and just see where she is at. My ds took the SAT in 6th and didn't find it frustrating or particularly difficult and he didn't study at all in advance (this is NOT to say he knew eveything, because he didn't, but he found it interesting and didn't mind that he just randomly guessed on some!)

ok thanks for the tips. Any recommendations on how to improve maths scores please i.e. materials etc.? She didn't study for this year either..just a couple practice tests to be familiar with the pattern. Also, we are in Michigan. Any idea if there is a state award criteria?

Could someone let me know what the advantages and any disadvantages of participating in this kind of testing are? My child is 10.

I don't really have any great ideas on improving math scores. When my older ds took the SAT in 6th, he scored high enough for the awards ceremony in reading, but not in math. Although his math score was very good, there were too many unfamiliar concepts for someone who did no preparation. There are many SAT/ACT prep books out there, though, and I'm sure any of them would provide the framework for what you need. My older son really likes his AoPS class (he is taking his first now and I highly recommend them) and we've done SAT website's "question of the day" for summer practice, which are also nice for reviewing concepts and just making sure everything is right there at their fingertips. I'm sure if your dd takes a few practice tests, you'll be able to see any areas where she needs help (relatively speaking, of course!). If you stick with the EXPLORE another year, she probably has all the math she needs to get everything right - just a matter of being careful.
I don't know about the Michigan program, but there is a contact number you can call through MSU:
http://gifted.msu.edu/programs/hats
It looks like it might be older kids, similiar to IL's state ceremony.

Honestly, I don't see any disadvantages. Three of my four kids have done it and enjoyed it (the fourth never wanted to, even though she's now extremely successful in college and did very well on standardized testing in HS - but we always left it up to them). We didn't prepare in any way, but they never felt they were in way over their heads, and were okay with not knowing everything.
For us, it was most beneficial when it came to OTHER people - teachers, administrators, even family (explaining why a child who loved math and was very far ahead might want to learn something besides what was taught at school, or justifying why it was a good idea to send a child to the middle school for math). It's a great, objective way "explain" your child to other people.

Hey, just bumping an old thread to ask: Has anyone seen the 2015-2016 NUMATS awards ceremony criteria? Or gotten an invite to the awards ceremony? My rising 6th-grade son's scores (he got 93 on Explore) would have made the 2014 and 2015 criteria fairly comfortably, but I haven't heard anything from NUMATS one month out from the ceremony.

Thanks!

We got the invitation to the Grand Ceremony (at Northwestern) last week but it's for the SAT so it may be different for the Explore. However, I don't see a link to the 2016 criteria; I think it's because they still don't have the stats compiled for the new SAT that was given in March, May and June.

Just on a whim, based on Quantum2003 receiving one, I decided to check my Gmail spam folder, even though nothing important is ever filed in there. Boom.

So, any one else in my position in waiting for NUMATS, especially if you have Gmail -- check your spam folder.

NUMATS says the link for the criteria will be updated next week. Our sixth grade DS (entering 7th) received an invite last week, we are confident he qualified in math, and may or may not qualify for composite...he is right on the cusp. One thing that gets a little confusing...NUMATS says the top 2-3% of the students who test get invited. I think where some people get confused is if their child's score is in the 98th percentile they are think their child is in the top 2%....you have to add the total number of students who got the same score as your child to the number of students who scored better, and then determine what percentage of students got your child's score or better. As an example...an ACT reading score of 31 for a sixth grade student places them in the 97.1 percentile. That does not mean they are in the top 2.9%. They are actually in the top 4.3%. The NUMATS Stastical summary makes it very easy to do the math.

NUMATS 2015/2016 award criteria is now posted