Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Explore waiting................

Cym - He's skipping to 4th next year and he'll only be six. Can you go by age instead of grade?

I called NUMATS when we registered the first time. They told me to go by actual grade level, so the data would be comparable to students exposed to the same grade level material. I thought since the test was for 8th grade material, that it wouldn't make a difference if I put down 3rd or 4th grade, but I did as they recommended.

The recommendation may be different from other Talent searches, so calling them might be the best thing.

Jen

Their norms are by grade, not age, so you have to pick one... but I don't think they actually check that you're doing it the way they'd like or anything... and since we're homeschooling there isn't anyone else for them to ask in our case!

I first signed DS up when he was 7 as a 3rd grader -- could be once- or twice-skipped depending on whose cutoffs you use (that is, our local PS would have admitted him as a 2nd grader that year, but the private schools would have wanted him in 1st). Nobody blinked except the other parents waiting in the school library where he took it. LOL We've increased his grade at the rate of one per year without regard to what work he's doing... which probably isn't strictly fair to the other kids, but then it's the same issue as Dottie's above -- there isn't a grade that I could choose without putting it in quotes for one reason or another!

I'm not going to worry about it, because this is our last year with them anyway and we'll be doing the ACT on our own without interfering with anyone else's system. I might have felt guilty if I waited until this year to sign him up as a 3rd grader -- he would have been both at the very upper end of the possible age range AND tutored way ahead of that level.

OK, I'm brand new to this, but hope someone can help me out. My 4th grade daughter took the NUMATS/Explore test in January and just got her results back. Her composite score was 17, which sounds pretty good, given it is above the average of what 8th graders scored on the test. Is there some way to find out how this compares to other 4th graders (I Googled it and didn't seem to come up with much)? Does anyone know if this is an average, good or great score for a 4th grader, from a GT standpoint? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

My dd took the Explore though NUMATS too. I think that we are supposed to get more info next month, something that will tell us how they did compared to other kids their age. Until then I have been using this site. http://bbc.honors.uiowa.edu/talentSearch2009/ It doesn't quite work for us as my dd is only 3rd grade, but it does give some info. I can tell you that my dd also got a composite of 17, and it says that it is the 93% for 4th graders taking the test. Sounds like both of our dd's did pretty well.

To be honest, it totally blew me away. No wonder I pull my hair out trying to find curriculum for her (we homeschool).

Ethan, here's one way of looking at it. Davidson lists the criterion for their Young Scholar program here. A composite of 17 on the Explore for a 4th grader meets the achievement testing part for the YS program. I'd say that is very good.

Dottie your scaring me here, LOL. This is the first testing she has done, and I was not expecting these results. She did well on regular standardized tests, but I am very surprised at these results. I guess I had a good case of GT denial going on.

(((shaking))) the denial dust off the House! LOL
Welcome aboard!

LOL Tracy - that's what these things are good for... they're excellent anti-denial tools! I can talk my way out of believing almost anything indicates GTness, unless it's accompanied by a ridiculous quantity of statistics. Congratulations to your DD!!

Sounds like this has been a good year for those taking the explore Congrats to all the young ones!