My DS 12 recorded a 272 math this fall. While he very much enjoyed the fact that the test moved with him and has resulted in some very positive and much needed subject acceleration for him, he was able to reason answers that he yet needs to cover in depth in cirriculum. An example is that he reasoned through some trig questions by process of elimination and has not yet studied trig. Sure beats making a silly arithmetic mistake on a set 40 question test and being assessed that way.
I've found in life you rarely get multiple choice answers. When you need to figure out how much change to give someone when they hand you a bill, it doesn't help much to reason the answer. Reasoning is a great skill, but in math, I don't find it helps solve when accuracy is need.
Case in point, my DD10 was given the honors math screening test for middle school. She bombed it. Completely failed. Why? Because she actually had to know HOW to solve problems, carry down a zero when multiplying two digits, and where to put numbers when dividing. Great she scores in 11th grade on the MAP test, but it did not reflect on her ability to solve problems. Theoretical mathmetics, sounds lovely. But I want her to be able to balance her checkbook.
