Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment EXPLORE question

I didn�t mean to be critical of NUMATS entrance criteria, just matter of fact. Their cut points for awards at all grades are much higher than Belin-Blank. For example, I think 7th graders have to have 700 or higher for either verbal or math to qualify. Although ds12 broke 600 in math this year, which impressed us, he�s not even close to their awards level.

I absolutely agree NUMATS isn�t full of slackers.

This has been very enlightening. It's too bad that the talent searches don't pool their data so that parents could get more reliable percentiles.

My understanding is that you also receive data comparing your child to 8th graders who take the EXPLORE. If so, then are they comparing your child to the NATIONAL statistics for 8th graders taking the test, or only to 8th graders in your region? If it's the former, then at least those numbers would be consistent from one talent search to another.

I'm just trying to get a handle on how to get some sort of meaningful information out of the test (other than looking at year-to-year improvement).

No problem delbows Once the question was raised I had to know for myself, but I wasn't actually offended or anything! I'm just distracted by shiny things, and norming data is as shiny as it comes... How long have you guys alternated BESTS and NUMATS? I'm curious to know whether you've noticed any systematic differences in their scoring. (And really, I was the one that started the NUMATS criticism... it really is kind of silly that they're so free with their registration, even though I've been happy to take advantage!)

And NJMom - I think that the whole ACT testing "thing" -- Explore, Plus and ACT -- is done nationally. And about the pooling... while it's kind of tricky to get details about the Explore level TS's, much of the SAT/ACT stuff is online and easily accessible. That's one of the reasons we're not bothering to go through a TS for the ACT - because I can get all kinds of comparison data for free on my own!

We have done three years of above level testing with ds, two years with dd.

Honestly, I�m not that into the talent search statistics. We have really just focused on comparison to the older test pool, following the suggestions in �Developing Math Talent� and using the info for school advocacy as required.

We didn�t even briefly consider traveling to another state to attend a mass recognition ceremony for results from a 2-3 hour test, but think the certificate they sent was nice. The school ceremony where ds was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society was a much bigger deal to us, even though it is less exclusive, because it reflected his efforts, achievements and demonstrated character over an entire semester.

Well you know I'm a geek for statistics of all kinds -- I can't say we really use them for anything (since we homeschool - no advocacy and I don't really need a test to tell me what he can do!), but I love the numbers anyway.

As far as traveling to ceremonies... well... it doesn't take much to convince me to spend a weekend in Chicago, ceremony or not! LOL!! I think we've missed that boat though - we're switching to the ACT and doing it independently, and if we were to go with a TS again it would probably be TIP, just because it would only be for whatever local resource that would open up for us, and being out of region would kind of be pointless then.

Yeah, I know that dd's scores were higher within the national pool than within the seven state region that makes up RMATS last year. I don't know about this year. The # of kids taking tests through the other talent searches sounds much larger, too. In 6th grade, there were fewer than 80 kids who took the SAT through RMATS according to the into they sent us. That made for fewer than 20 kids who made the awards cut-off for RMATS in 6th grade through the SAT. Since this was the first year following a grade skip for dd, we weren't too surprised that she didn't make it this year.

We took the NUMATS this year. They compare you first to the national 8th graders and then you get a sheet showing how you did regionally compared to all the other kids below 8th grade who took the Explore, PLAN, SAT and regular ACT by grade level (3,4,5,6).

There were only a handful of kids to qualify for the IL awards.

Sum of Scores Needed to Qualify/No. of Students Who Qualify.
4th Graders 81/38
5th Graders 89/53
6th Graders 93/41