Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Pros and cons for 3rd grader NUMATS

We are considering having ds8 (3rd grade) participate in NUMATS to take the explore. Can anyone give us insights? Also is there any prep that we should do with him other then prepping for a bubble test.

Thanks

It will likely be a good experience for him.

You could have him practice using a calculator since you are allowed to use one on the test. There are some practice questions you can google to give him an idea of the format. Our experience was that those were a tad easier than the actual test, but you don't have to tell him that.

We tried to keep it as low pressure as possible, and DC did have a lot of fun taking it. The results were very helpful to us, and for the school.

If he's pretty comfortable with standardized tests (he's taken MAP before, right?), he'll probably have a good experience.

https://www.nwea.org/content/uploads/2014/07/ACT_LinkingStudy_1-17-2012.pdf

DD's MAP test scores were actually part of what encouraged me to have DD (then a youngish 3rd-grader) take the EXPLORE test (other than that, it was the wonderful folks here!). As you probably know, the key difference is that EXPLORE is tightly timed (as opposed to MAP). She didn't finish all of the sections (and chose not to guess, despite being told beforehand that she should - ), but scored well enough for the achievement portion of DYS.

DD didn't prep outside of the one sample test the Talent Search sends.

It was a great experience for us. If DD feels like doing it again this year, she might take it again. Please feel free to ask us any questions if we can be of any help.