Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Meaning of DYS

This is more just for curiosity's sake. I was checking out the DYS website and was surprised by the minimum ACT/SAT scores for acceptance. What does the minimum score mean (as in MG/HG/PG)? I know that DYS is supposed to be for the PG but what would the minimum ACT/SAT scores for a middle schooler mean? I know a lot more goes into intelligence than just a score but I was just wondering if there was a rough translation?

Hi newmom 21c,
I'm don't really get your question. I'm guessing that you are looking at scores of someone you know and asking if those scores are really that good. If the scores met DYS minimum cut offs, then yes, the scores are really unusual (at least in most neighborhoods) and very very good.

There are no standard definitions of:
Gifted
Highly Gifted
Profoundly Gifted

Smiles,
Grinity

Hi everyone, thanks for the answers!

Sorry, I should've explained what I meant by surprised.

Since I found this site it's been reminding me a lot of things in my own childhood. Anyways, I took the ACT in middle school through the Midwest talent search and got almost exactly the minimum scores listed to get into DYS. I was surprised because I've never thought of myself in the PG range and, hence, the question. I know I tested gifted in grade school but if anything I just assumed I was at the lower end of the spectrum and that I was a hard worker and, thus, was able to do the things I can do. I hope that helps to clarify. I didn't mean surprised in the sense that those scores are low, just that what I got would've been at the cutoff. Sorry for the confusion there!

That was another reason for my surprise that they were used as a cutoff for DYS at all. I never thought of them in the sense of an IQ test. I thought of them more as something you could study for and do better on. Granted, I haven't done a lot of research into IQ tests but I thought the idea behind them was that they measured potential. So it would be hard to study for them. I hope that makes sense what I'm trying to say here.

LOL NM21C,
It's hard to study for IQ test because the questions are supposed to remain a secret!
I agree that ACT/SAT given to high school juniors is an achievement, but if you give them to 7th graders 'who haven't prepped more than a hour or two to get used to the format' then I think it's a combination 'endurance' test and test of 'potential.'

Of course, if you child is homeschooled, a 7th grader doing all school work that is usual to a high school junior, I'm not sure what the qualifing score would mean. But if you are chronologically a 7th grader, and doing well in high school junior level work, I don't think there is a question that you are uncommonly gifted.

Some see gifted as talents, some see gifted as potential, so it pays to know who you are talking to! As parents, we want to be sure that some of that potential grows into talents, if only because we know how that potential can eat away at folks who don't find an avenue for it.

Good for you for getting a better mirror of yourself to look in! Parenting is full of those moments, isn't it?

Smiles,
Grinity

Without knowing much about DYS, my thinking is simply that it has standards for potential and standards for achievements. The IQ tests give a better indication of potential, and the SAT/ACT indicates whether a person is really trying to develop the potential. From what I heard, for many smart and hardworking kids, scoring high in SAT/ACT is not that difficult. So I think it's reasonable to ask that the gifted kids achieve at least the same. As long as this is only one of the many criteria for admission, I think it makes perfect sense...

I wonder what qualifies as prepping, and I wonder how much better one could realistically do. I am thinking of the LSAT here (which is essentially an IQ test). A friend of mine taught an LSAT prep course and after weeks of teaching he was happy if he could increase a student's score by 5 points. I'm sure that at least 3-4 of those points were from confidence and from familiarity with the test procedure. According to him, his students pretty much either got the techniques he taught them to use in figuring out the logic problems (in which case they'd probably have figured it out on their own), or they didn't and no amount of teaching really helped.