Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Reading section on Explore test questions

I am curious about the extreme disparity between my DD's Verbal score on the SCAT and the English section of the Explore test versus the Explore test Reading section score.

A was 97th verbal on the SCAT but sub average on the Explore reading section.

Also, how it is that she bombed on reading (15) but was DYS Level (22) on the English levelsections of the Explore test. Does the Reading section present known challenges for over thinkers? Is this indicative of a larger issue that is manifesting itself now?

Looking for facts/opinions not reassurances :-)

The reading part of Explore is reading comprehension and the English section is about grammar, usage, etc...

I would think that the reading comprehension is easier to get the high score (at early age) for our kids because they read so much. On the contrary, my DD11 score 22 in Eng during both 4th and 6th grades but she improved from 17 to 25 in reading.

If your DD was speeding through the story, she may have missed the point. And SCAT is 2 grades above level and Explore (8th grade level) is ?>3 grades above level for your DD.

FWIW, my DD has never taken the SCAT. When DD took the EXPLORE in 3rd, however, her Reading was __, but her English was __.*

I originally wondered if it was because the English section came first and she simply ran out of patience (she was 8, at the time, after all)...but then DD appeared to also rally on the Science section, so that did not explain it.

I actually asked her WISC tester about the EXPLORE scores (DD's VCI was extremely high), and the tester said I should not worry at all about the disparity. DD scores extremely high in Reading on other standardized tests and does not seem to suffer from problems with comprehension, so I have not been concerned about it since then.

*Edited for privacy.

I have no idea if this was the case this year, but a few years ago, our administration sent out a long note to outraged 8th grade parents, who take the EXPLORE as part of high school placement. Parents were upset because students missing only two questions scored below the required grade (19? 20?) to qualify for honors English in high school. Apparently, the reading section often has a pretty significant drop for missing even a few questions. I know when my son first took it, I was surprised that this was his lowest, but then I realized he had indeed missed only two questions. On the science that year, he missed significantly more, but scored much higher (in terms of % correct and corresponding percentile). Just a thought....