Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Slacker Mom but maybe that's ok?

Yeah, but the problem with hyper-prepping is that you miss out on the real talent. This problem starts to show up when the prepped ones enter their chosen fields and don't produce the results their CVs implied. High scores on standardized tests do not equal talent. They equal high scores on standardized tests.

Meanwhile, the ones with real talent who missed a few questions end up having a harder time being recognized and may suffer from lack of talent development.

Oh, hang on. Isn't that a problem we all complain about here?

Strongly agree with that approach and reasoning.


Actually, EXPLORE really does act like an achievement test, not an ability test.

We didn't prep DS-- I couldn't stomach it at that point-- we did show him the sample tests for exposure to the format.

The science one would be sort of hard to prep-- that one really is about analyzing data logically, and I don't know how I'd even have begun teaching that skill, but DS had that intuitively. The English test relied a lot on whether a person has good knowledge of punctuation rules and the like; there again we relied purely on DS's instincts for that sort of thing. Reading comprehension is what it is, too; it tests how good a reader (and answerer of questions) the child is overall.

The math test, a person could certainly not do without having had some exposure to out-of-level material. This is probably where it is most strongly like an achievement test. We still didn't prep, but one could.

I don't think prepping for this sort of thing is cheating or in any way inappropriate. Prepping in that case would be... teaching the material. Which is always kosher by me, if it's not based on illicit acquisition of testing material and so forth.

We didn't prep because we didn't want to, but were just curious about what DS could do. But I don't think prep would invalidate the test.

DeeDee

Thanks everyone. I don't use this website a ton, but when I do ask questions I get lots of great information. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to answer me. I've got her signed up for the January test and even if my grand scheme was to prep her, lets face it, we'll just goof around during the holidays and procrastinate and play video games and surf the net and forget to do much of anything at all. Yep that's how we roll around here...it's a miracle we get homework done.

In all seriousness, thanks for explaining the actual function of an above level test to me. I didn't really get it at first, but now I do. She is signed up thru Northwestern's CTD so we have the talent search piece covered.

Now can anyone explain NWEA tests to me.

Glexchick, I should have added that I agree that it's a very good idea to be sure that your child is familiar with the format of the test before she takes it.

As an example, these questions are samples for JHU's SCAT test. You have to take it to enroll in their programs. My son went through these questions to prepare for the test. He definitely did NOT want to have to figure out the format of the questions while he was taking the test.

As for NWEA...urg. Your guess is as good as mine!

NWEA is Northwest Evaluation Association. They are the developers of the MAP tests: widely used adaptive assessments that are mentioned numerous times on this site.

I am not too worried about this. Maybe Tiger parenting can raise my eldest son's chance of getting into Harvard from 5% to 10%. But if he does get in, he will have to handle difficult courses like Math 55 on his own, and he should be able to assess his own ability relative to that of his classmates.

Are the MAP tests the ones they take on the computer? Where if they answer things correctly, the questions get harder? I am very suspicious of those kinds of tests with gifted kids. Won't take 'em long to figure out if they answer 8 in a row wrong the test is over and they get to go back to reading Harry Potter or whatever.

This is so foreign to me. I am older to have such young kids so I took a test in 3rd grade that got me into the gifted program, then took the PSAT (to practice for the SAT) and the SAT to get into college. No annual testing, no steady stream of evaluations. Things are out of control! Nobody prepped me (unless you consider being a latchkey kid watching Popeye cartoons and listening to the Beatles Greatest hits "prepping").

But, is there really evidence that prepping kids is truly causing disorder? Are there vast numbers of prepped kids in programs that are too difficult for them because they kind of "cheated" the system to get in. Does this really happen?

Race to Nowhere. Yes, it's a thing.

Mostly the "thing" that it turns out to be is that the programs that are stuffed with special prepped snowflakes and TigerCubs wind up also needing "help" or needing for the expectations of the program to be "more realistic."

(You can see where this is going, right?)

Which is how we get to a place where "honors" high school graduates and valedictorians wind up needing remedial college coursework, and how HG+ children get to sit in classrooms twiddling their thumbs and being told that it IS the "gifted" class...

it was Laverne and Shirley reruns, making Kraft Mac-n-cheese without burning my BFF's house down, and The Clash for me personally. I took the same trajectory.


A fair number of us here have really been blindsided by how crazy-train this whole thing has gotten. As my DD14 tells me, now....
"Coooooooooooo- Ckooooooo!! Everybody climb aboard!! The crazy train is leavin' the station!"

(Yes, she picked up that sarcastic streak from I don't know where. She SNEERS quite openly at superscoring. Has refused to take any exams more than once-- on principle. That's m'girl.)

That sounds like a sugar-coated breakfast cereal to me, literally and figuratively.