Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Explore test coming up?

P.S. Dazed & Confused,

We didn't have an EXPLORE testing center near us for my first 3 kids & decided to drive 3 hrs, stay overnight, etc...I don't recommend it. BUT then I found a willing gifted teacher who said she would proctor the exam. ACT pays her, so we didn't have to come up with that. Now we have our own test site!

cym - was that easy to do. just curious.

I'm a little intimidated to send my son into a big room with lots of bigger kids in a school he does not know to take the Explore. I hope he will see some other kids his age there. He can be a bit shy sometimes. He's not one to have test anxiety so that helps me feel better. How nice it would be to go to a small room with just a teacher or a few kids. I'm imagining 50 kids in a room for the test. I think I will try and find out how many kids will be there before we go.

There were probably 100 kids at the test center where GS10 went in Feb. They seperated them by grade and sent them to different classrooms. So, GS10, then 9, was only with other 4th graders. There were only about 15 kids in his group, some grades had multiple groups so no group had more than 15-20 in the classrooms where they tested.

Thanks so much. This is sounding better and better.

I'm anxoius to give him the practice questions. I'm going to try and wait for just the right moment. I was thinking I might take the test myself infront of him and just see if he joins in. He has a way of doing this.(this kid is teaching me patience)

I was trying to figure out a new mind ware book. I kept reading it over and over. Finally, after hearing me he just grabbed the book and said he can do it. He does make me feel a bit dumb in a way, but then I do feel so proud of him that I feel better.

Onthegomom,

Our regional talent search helped facilitate getting us as a test center (which made it very easy), but even if they don't, calling ACT and asking for the packet of info to become a test center is pretty simple too. It's probably too late for this year (maybe not for the Feb test date).

Our turn out was tiny (maybe 4-5 kids) the first year. I'm convinced that this yr it'll be bigger (hopefully a dozen).

cym- I think that's great you did this.

As others have said, what you do depends in part what you want from the test. When we did it last year it was partly curiosity about how she would do, but it was mostly because she was taking the state tests without ever having to exercise any test taking skills (never had to skip a problem, manage time, etc.). The "prep" I would recommend is not to study any content (especially if you want baseline data to track growth in coming years), but instead to prepare for what above level will feel like. What we did was to print out an 8th grade state test (type in state test, released items) and you'll find plenty. Then I handed her the math section, talked about the strategy of evaluating problems for difficulty and then quickly solving or moving on during the "first pass". I set the timer for 30 minutes and left her be. She got to problem 3 or 4 and stayed with it--trying to figure it out--for at least 15 minutes. Needless to say, she was surprised when the timer went off. I didn't help her with the problems she didn't know, instead I showed her all the problems later in the test that she could have answered correctly if she'd skipped over the one she didn't know. It helped her see the value in that test taking skill and prepared her for the idea that she could and should expect problems that she couldn't work out on the real test.

thank you. I would of never thought of that.