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

DS wants to do both the SCAT and Explore this year. He thrives on taking these tests I'll be waiting with you Kari200

I believe that MrWiggly will give the EXPLORE a try this year. I'm hoping it will help us with planning for school next year. And CTD at Northwestern seems to offer lots of benefits when you do the NUMATS. He'll be a young 3rd grader, but nothing to lose.

Ok, I just registered DD9 for Explore for the 2nd time through NUMATS. I will also look into the SCAT and see if we will do that also.

Jen

We'll definitely be doing the practice test one section at a time -- I just want to know his "best case scenario" and let him deal with stamina just the once! But if he crashes and burns altogether on the practice I won't bother paying for the real thing!

how do you find out about the Explore test? We live in Washington state.

Thanks!

Barbara, depending on your child's age, and what sort of talent search opportunities you're after, your child may not have to take any additional tests. See: http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/programs/wsys/requirements/


And in other news....got DD's ACT scores back this morning (online).
She improved her Math score by 3 points, but Reading went down by 3...go figure! Her composite went up by 1, though, so she is happy and that's more than enough to apply for Early Entrance. (She guessed well on Science, too!

Thks for your reply Dottie. I'll wait for a few week b4 approaching the school again (maybe 2-3 weeks?) in case I am seen to be too pushy. If the school is not prepared to do this and the distance course, I may just go ahead and to do it myself. Kinda of disappointed at the moment because things are not going how they should be. DS is currently doing a free online Math during lesson time for only for 10-15min, 1-2 days a week. He is still required to sit in during and do HW for current class.

For those who sign up for more than one testings (eg. SCAT, EXPLORE etc), may I know what are the benefits? One reason I found out here is to determine the LOG. What are the rest?

One last question, would the WISC-IV score change significantly if the child is to take it again 2-3 yrs later? Dottie, can I engage your expertise in having a look at DS's score? To date, I have only looked at the FSIQ. I don't even know the relevance of the other score esp. for the 10 subtests. I will either pm u the score or list them here if u are ok. Thks!

Oh yes, I forgot abt summer camps... which are not available here

I will pm you. This is going to be my first pm!

As for WISC change, this was being shared by a HSing mom who happens to be trained in education.

"What most people don't understand is that IQ isn't fixed. IQ is a statistical comparison of a person to his/her age-peers. Therefore, if a 28-month-old has an IQ of 185, it means that she's very cognitively advanced in her age group. However, any early childhood practitioner would tell you that kids that age are always influx - growth spurts in cognition are just as normal as growth spurts in their physical growth. Therefore, her tested IQ might very well be 150 the next month, or 130 the month after, while a child tested as 120 (within 'normal' range) might experience a growth spurt to put her at 180.

Later, though past middle childhood, our IQs tend to settle within a statistical range. This is why IQ testing of young children are usually not encouraged, or why these results aren't taken very seriously by practitioners. These kids still have a lot of growing up to do. "

I find it hard to believe that a 120 can be put into a 180! (sorry this has gone off-topic )

I think we are still on for the talent search this year.
Looks like the only person burned out by all of this is yours truly !

thanks, Dottie!

I had found that link earlier, but all of this is new material for me, and I figured there must be more info!!

It's all good, though - DS8 will be doing the CTY thing and we'll see where that goes.