Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Explore dates - Jan. vs. Feb.

I can't think of any reason to favor one date over the other, beyond what works for our family, but is there something I am not thinking about (does it take twice as long to get the Feb. results, will they let you reschedule to Feb. if there is a major weather event for Jan.?).

Thanks, Cat

Anecdotally, it actually seems like the January results are the ones that take longer to come back. You'll still get them before Feb (hopefully!) but it might be 7 weeks instead of 6, for instance.

Beyond that, I don't see any real advantage of one date over the other unless you think that your child will learn a bunch btwn Jan and Feb and be better prepared in Feb. Interestingly, the 8th grade cohort with whom they are being compared takes the test in the first week of October (at least in CO).

Thanks Cricket,

I doubt we will see any huge jumps in learning between Jan and Feb. but the Feb. date is easier for our family because of commitments in January. But I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something important (which I seem prone to do lately ).

Cat

My dd is taking grade level assessment tests at school the week before the Jan date. No big deal, but I think we will pick the Feb date so that the Explore can be a separate thing.

I think if you register online you don't have to decide until December.

The high school kids in our area all took the PSAT yesterday. So I started thinking about Explore again.

If you sign up for the Jan. Test and something happens like illness or snow/travel issues Feb. gives you a potential back up plan. IF you miss the test in Feb. you are probally out of luck.

Yeah, I'm thinking about that too. The baby is due in March, so I have thought about the Jan test, but then I think dd would have to be "sick" and miss the school ERB testing in Jan so as to not take tests for a whole week.

I have a stealth plan for DD to have more access to more MS classes next year, but she needs to take both tests and do "normal for her" on both of them to make the argument. At least, Explore is offer locally. Before, I thought we would have to travel out of state which made the whole idea too stressful.

For us, February is the only local date. January would require ~2 hours of travel each way.

I don't know if we'll do Explore, SCAT, or nothing. DD has been temperamental lately, and I haven't had an opportunity to present it to her.

I haven't brought up the idea of EXPLORE testing yet. I found out our school will be providing information on this. I'm curious if there will be much promoting or talk among the kids about this testing. I'm sure the parents will be talking.

I'm really not sure what I should do if DS10 doesn't want to go. It's a good experience but I'm not sure how important it is for him. I don't think DS will take online classes again in the summer. It would be interesting to see progress. Last year, he wasn't old enough for an award. It might be interesting to see how close he gets to that. I don't think it will impact his eduacational needs much.

Any advise? thoughts?

If you don't have a good reason to test, I would leave it up to your child OTGM.

Cat