Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What test was this?--update

DS was recently tested by the district. We will not receive the results for about a month. I thought it would be the WISC, but sounds like not. He said it had these tests:

Analogies
Something like vocab (had to answer questions like "This is in the sky and it's hot and it shines...what is it?"--not a real question FYI)
A test where he had to look at pictures and say which picture was exactly like the other picture
What's missing from the picture

Is this the RIAS?

I think it is Word Reasoning.

But those are the only tests he did. The test only took about 45 min. Can it be the WISC if it was so short?

My DD took the RIAS and this sounds kind of like what I remember, except I don't recall that there was a "which pictures look exactly alike" part. That description has me worried, in fact. Sounds wrong.

No, he's never taken anything before aside from a short screener. It was my understanding that the district almost always used the WISC, which is why I was surprised when it didn't sound like it. (DD had a weird private tester due to being tested at a charter.)

Oh, looking at that, I guess it must be the RIAS. Darn! The write-up for DD was less than useful. I was looking forward to having something more in-depth this time around.

Yes, it sounds like the RIAS. Not one of my favorite instruments. It's not really which picture is alike, but which picture doesn't belong.

The WASI is the short version of the WISC, and has essentially the same tasks, but only four of them (Vocab, Sim, BD, Matrices).

Yeah, he said it was "Which picture matches?" That does not sound promising.

I am not sure this child was mature enough to sit for the test, actually, so I guess the flip side is that we could still test him privately with the WISC in a year if he bombed this, whch he might have. He said vocabulary was really easy and the rest were "medium."

Aeh, I'm curious to know what you don't like about the RIAS. My impression is that it just doesn't give much detail, but the overall scores for my kids were very consistent with the WISC (so it was useful in knowing more testing would be helpful).

My experience with it is that it often doesn't track well with comprehensive measures, with a marked regression to the mean effect. It's okay as a screener, but I don't like making high stakes decisions based on it. Among other screeners, if additional testing is on the horizon, I like the fact that you can combine the WASI subtests with the remainder of the WISC.

That makes sense. Thanks for the information!