I'm very grateful for the rough estimate you offered Cricket2. His CAT percentile compared to other 8th graders is 89% so this gives me hope that eventhough Explore is likely to be a lot tougher than the CAT, he may still have a chance to do well in it if we use it to submit a DYS application next year.
He does sound like he'll certainly have the achievement piece. Good luck!
Just for more info, I am basing my rough estimate off of the few EXPLORE scores I've seen through talent search (mostly my own dds' who've only taken it once each and a few friends of theirs whose parents have shared scores). A 15 on math probably isn't the exact same percentile as a 15 on English, but the few scores that I've seen of 15 (math and reading, I believe) seemed to fall around the 53th percentile depending on which subtest it was.
I know that a 17 on one of the subtests was at the 74th percentile having seen that one once with one kid. I've never seen any 14s or 16s, but I am estimating that, if 15s fall in the 50s (percentile wise) and 17s fall in the 70s (percentile wise), and they are looking for scores around 15 in 3rd grade, a kid who is in the 50s or 60s in terms of percentile should be around their qualifications.
It sounds like your son should easily be there unless there's some significant difference btwn the CAT and the EXPLORE.
