Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Who's doing talent search testing this yr?

LOL! Good rant for today!

Last year I gave DS7 the other common test besides the CAT: the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) for his grade level. With my college education, I'm allowed to give it to him myself. But really, it was so easy for him that it almost hurt. I kept rolling my eyes as I administered it...But homeschool organizations generally frown upon our submitting above-level tests to the schools. I think they like the high test scores making our group look good. As I am more interested in what's good for my particular child, that's not really my concern.

But I DO want him to pass! The notion of an HG+ child needing remediation because he didn't score high enough on a test 4 grades above level seems insane to me, but I'm sure the school would insist upon it! No thanks!

Thanks for the tip about Prometric. I'll check on it now!

There's a Prometric test site in our town that can administer CTY's SCAT! Thanks again, Cym!

Just to confirm, the SCAT's only a couple of hours long, right? If so, maybe I should have him do both the SCAT 6th grade test--for me--and the ITBS--for the schools. I was avoiding that because I didn't want him to take two of the week-long pain-in-the-rear brand of achievement tests, which is what the ITBS is. (Ugh!) But if the SCAT is short, then we could do both pretty painlessly.

Hmmm...

Hi Dottie!

Now I'm really confused. Are you saying that I should sign DS, who is in 4th grade, up for the 4th/5th grade test so that he is in their system as a 4th grader? But somehow this test is for middle school students? So are they assuming that kids that are taking this test are working 2-3 grades above age level?
I knew that I should have had that extra pot of coffee this morning!

Okay.... Now I just read your second post, Dottie, and it makes a little bit more sense. But what would you recommend for a kid that is towards the end of the elementary spread? We also have a Prometric test center near us (Thanks a bunch Cym!!), which is currently more convenient than driving some ways for the Explore test. It seems like we would need to either do the 2nd/3rd grade SCAT, which would be too easy, or the 4th/5th grade SCAT which would be a serious challenge, or the 8th grade Explore. Any recommendations Dottie? Or maybe we should just wait a year, until we are a better fit?

Ah! I thought the grade level was the grade of the *test*, not the grade of the GT child. Thanks for the assist there, Dottie! (Darned testing newbies! )

As for the risk, since we're not in CTY's region, that's not a real risk for us, is it? We're in NUMATS (the midwestern Talent Search out of Northwestern, which doesn't offer SCAT).

Does CTY share kid info with NUMATS? If not, then there's no risk for us, not even for later testing.

I hear you. I did look at the sample tests, and I don't think the 2/3rd is a good fit. I may try the sample test with him, but I don't think it's challenging enough. I thought the 6th grade test would be hard, and he sure wouldn't get them all right! But he would just as surely get some right. So maybe the 4/5th is the best fit.

I fear I oversold the speed aspect with DS7. Now I fear you all think he's got some LD that makes him incapable of taking a test. Not so!

He's deliberate, not incapable of functioning. Think Spock, not incapacitation.

He did fine on the WISC, even the timed tests. There's a big difference between a timed test of nothing but math facts and a test that happens to be timed that asks challenging questions. Besides, this is for no purpose but my own information. We're not competing for anything. I just would like to know where he is operating right now. If he got zeros on the test, we'd be out nothing but money...unless NUMATS and CTY share info about the kids. Then it's a bigger issue!

P.S. DS7 is on a math bender lately, which is also a factor for me that I didn't mention. He's leaping ahead faster than I can believe, so while he's probably not doing middle school work in its entirety today, I'm trying to forecast what he'll be doing by test-time.

No, I think not high school. Not yet! *I'm* not ready for that!

What is SET? I think Pud (7) is doing the SCAT as a 3rd grader but I haven't registered yet.

The prep for SCAT and EXPLORE is pretty concrete--do a few sample exercises and viola! done. Are those who are doing ACT/SAT with younger kids (dottie?) prepping?

DS10 will work through some problems once in a while, but DS12 will Not touch anything (but he wants to test--it's not at all forced). Should I let him be, or really push? He can still qualify for Summer Institute next summer based on last yr's results, but after that, he'd have to requalify. He's in such a "coast" mode these days I don't know whether to intervene or let him coast. Guess that question is really for the "parenting" topic.

The main issue with these tests is stamina. They are really long and intense. Some kids thrive on that and others are overwhelmed.

DS took the ACT at 12. He had not taken any talent search tests before. I did buy The Real ACT and had DS take a practice test before we decided to even sign him up. He did OK on the practice test, well enough for us to decide it would be worth the trouble to sign up.

The practice test was helpful for us because DS needed test taking strategies. He needed practice with time management and filling in the bubbles. His state tests are on the computer so he didn't have any practice with the bubbles. We didn't actually have him work on content. He took another practice to test his new test-taking strategies a couple months before the ACT. That was about it. His scores were very good, not the highest around, by above DYS level.

He took the SAT about 4 months later without any practice except making sure he knew the test format since some of the question types are different. He did not score nearly as well on that, but still at DYS levels in reading.

For both tests, I really wanted to know what DS could do without formal test prep, what content he had absorbed by osmosis, so I really didn't want to teach him new information specifically for the test. But for the test to give me a sense of what he knew, I did have to make sure he understood strategy.

Sorry this got rambly. I hope is helps someone!

Is there any way to get a first grader to do the SCAT?

(not sure that we would, just curious)