Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Explore Tests

I am sure this has been discussed before, but I can't find it and need your help.

I am thinking of signing my dd up for the EXPLORE test. I would appreciate your wisdom. How young is too young? Any preparation needed?

thanks

How do you sign up for EXPLORE? I can't find a test center around here.

I am thinking of having DD8 take it also. I think I have to through Center for Talent Development at Northwestern around here. If there is any other way I would love to know about it.
I wasn't going to attempt any preparation. I was thinking it would be a good data point for finding out what they do already know, although I think I have a pretty good idea. I was just going to have her take it because: A. she loves taking these kind of tests(so far at least!) B. she was so close to meeting DYS standards in her WIAT but just missed. She met IQ score and they seemed to like her portfolio so I though I might give it another shot if her explore scores are there. Again, taking into consideration that she actually likes to take these kinds of tests.

Thanks, I will. Stamina, definately, you have to know your kid. DD8 did the 2 hour test thing with the WIAT and she LOVED it. The first thing she said when she was done was "When can I take another test like that?" Although, the explore would be somewhat different.
I sent you her WISC scores, what do you think Dottie? Should I wait until 4th grade instead of having her do it this year?

Yeah, it looks like MATS is it for Illinois.

Yeah, she's nine in Jan. That might be a good time because I know they take the CogAt in the fall and some other math tests to identify for honors math. She might be tested out. Plus, it seems like the pattern for her at school is complete boredom by Jan/Feb, so it might give her something to do. Now only one of the tests have to be under two years for DYS right? I think she took WISC April of last year, so if it takes too long to get Explore results, the WISC will be past two years old.
She is used to excelling but I think it was a good move for her and sister to do Score this summer. They got to work at their "real" learning level for one hour twice a week, which means she was getting scores between 75-95%. I really loved that for a variety of reasons. One being I got to spend time talking to them about not having to always have perfect scores. It was great to watch them work up without turning into peanut butter the second they weren't "perfect"!
Hey, once in a while I get something right, and I think this was one of those things.

Thanks for the advice. It might be tough for her to be looking at a paper and pencil test and actually "know" that she can't do half to three quarters of it.
That's a little different than working on the computer that has a self-leveling algorithim built in.
We'll have to think about it.
Thanks for the congrats. It's always good when something works, especially when it seems so hard to figure it out sometimes!!!!!

Thank you for all the information Dottie.

Okay, I just looked and I see the test is for 8th and 9th graders for making high school choices.
I think I will wait until Feb! Good call.
According to the learning center, she is currently working around 6th for LA. For math, she tested in 5th grade for her assessment, but I asked them to back it up to 4.7 when she started in April because I wasn't confident that 5.2 was a good starting place for her. She went from 4.7 to 5.5 in two months doing math 15-20 minutes 2x per week. If she continues to progress at a good rate, perhaps she won't exit the test in tears if she takes it later rather than this fall.

Oh, hi Bianca.
Sorry for hi-jacking your thread.