Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion EXPLORE/Duke Tip...should we bother?

madeinuk--"Mental-ability tests must be no more than two years old." WISC GAI qualifying is 125. Registration opens 10/1 for 4th graders.

Rosetta Stone might be fun for her little brother, who is more in need of enrichment and afterschooling than she is. I forgot to think about him.

DD10 (grade 6) took EXPLORE last year as a fifth grader through NUMATS. I wanted her tested because Ohio Achievement Assessments are useless, and tracking in math starts in 6th grade in our district. I wanted her properly placed in math, and I didn't think the school would have recognized her ability without the EXPLORE scores. Because of her scores, she was identified as gifted in math, science, reading, and superior cognitive (Ohio has cutoff scores for gifted identification based on EXPLORE, SAT, or ACT scores). This year DD's in 7th grade advanced math and the 6th grade gifted cluster in language arts. This wouldn't have happened if I didn't have those scores to advocate for her.

You may want to consider having your DD take EXPLORE since her IQ results were "a bit mussy," but since you don't feel the need to advocate now, you can wait a year or two to have her participate just to see if you want to make any adjustments to her roadmap.

Or DD may benefit from taking the EXPLORE now while everything is going well. Taking the test once an educational opportunity (or need to advocate) arises, may add pressure.

If I understand correctly taking the EXPLORE through an academic talent search makes the scores available to both the family and the school. Has your school and/or district well-informed you of its future uses of the EXPLORE scores? This could be key to your DD's decision to take the EXPLORE. For example, in some districts the scores may be used to include your family in announcements about opportunities for which DD qualifies. Conversely, not taking the test may prevent your family from being notified or invited to join a possible future educational opportunity for which a qualifying score may be required. It is sad to learn of opportunities once they are in your rear view mirror.

No, so I suppose that's an interesting question.

DD is on track to attend (public) middle and high schools with competitive entry requirements. At this point, I see no reason why she would not be admitted other than a slight paucity of extracurriculars, but I guess the scores wouldn't hurt to have in our back pocket. However, I can't imagine 4th grade scores will matter to anyone for high school and she would have to really crash and burn next year to flub admission to middle school (she has never received any grade other than an A in any subject).

It's quite possible DD will not do all that well on the Explore. She did ceiling that qualifying test (it would in fact appear that she did not miss a single question) but it is an easy test.

we are having a similar debate about whether to have DS do the CTY test so he can do the programs - we did a sample science one and he said he learned a lot but he doesn't really like learning without a person - even considers the static nature of videos better because its a human being talking. But I think we still will have him take the test, but since he isn't super interested, we aren't really rushing.

DeHe

I'm going to the meeting tonight about our WATS -- Western Academic Talent Search, which is what we have here. I'm not sure it would really be useful for us, unless they have some good programs. They tout it for the SAT/ACT testing, but from what I've seen on those sites we don't need to be signed up with them anyway -- you can sign up to take the SAT/ACT at a young age and it doesn't go to schools in the future anyway, unless you want it to. At least, that's how I understand it. I'm hoping there are some good programs with WATS.

is there a way to estimate a score from giving her the sample questions?

On the other hand, in some schools/districts this would be a huge flashing light signaling a problem. If limited by finances or logistics such as severe illness of an immediate family member, there is a smaller but still meaningful number of extracurriculars in which a child might engage. Lacking that, there may be a presumption (right or wrong) that the child cannot handle extracurriculars while keeping up with her studies... which would be a huge problem if it is occurring in 4th grade.

EXPLORE is an 8th/9th grade test, so in some schools/districts it may receive more than a passing glance for entrance to high school... even if retaken during the intervening years. As others have said, it is a great experience for a child to take an out-of-level test on which they are not expected to know all the answers. EXPLORE may be a more difficult test to "game" as you say, therefore some may see it as highly credible.

Sounds like performance anxiety of the parental kind. Meanwhile many gifted kids approach these tests with their intrinsic curiosity egging them on, like an itch that simply MUST be scratched: they want to learn what kids in the 8th/9th grade are asked about knowing!

I've seen the middle school application--there is one line for extracurriculars. She will only be entering 6th grade! Lordy. I'm not too concerned. She is in a few clubs at school, etc.

I guess my point about her not doing too well was that I didn't want her to take it and feel discouraged or alienated.