Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Explore/perfectionism/sample tests

Hi all,
So my dd10 is signed up for the Explore for January. I thought I had done a good job of explaining that there was no pressure, that it was just to find out what she knows so we can find the appropriate challenge for her, not too easy and not too hard, etc. That it was for 8th graders so there would be info. she wouldn't have been exposed to yet, that it was OK if she didn't know the answers. So the sample test comes with the test info. and we have tears and drama. She said if she didn't do well on it people would think she was stupid. (Which prompts me to think I should actually get out her Terra Nova results from last year and show her in writing why we want to do the Explore). So she finally settled down and worked on the sample test and I am sure she will do just fine on the Explore, but in the meantime she really wants me to track down more sample tests for her to practice. I really didn't want this to be a "big deal" but now it seems it is. And she is already reminding me that we CAN'T be late on the day of the test. Ugh! Any words of wisdom?

We had a similar experience with DD10 last year when she took the Explore. I'm not aware of any Explore specific practice tests, but any big bookstore will have grade specific standardized test prep booklets. If what you want is to give practice at tests where she might not know everything, you could just use one of those from the 7th or 8th grade levels.

We used one last year: in part because this was her first formal test of any kind (we HS), but also in part because she can panic when things don't come easily. We mostly focused on repeating (perhaps comically often) that she was doing it for the experience, that there was absolutely nothing riding on it, and that we had no expectations beyond her giving it a try. In the end she did well and didn't panic so those two things together seem to have helped for her.

I may be in the minority, but I wouldn't do any further prep beyond what came from ACT for two reasons:
1) you may want to get an idea of what she can do without prep to get the best idea of what placement she needs right now;
2) I wouldn't want to play into her worries about it being a big deal.

Dd12 also stressed on the day of the test when she took it at age 9. She came out crying & didn't do nearly as well as she could have on reading in particular b/c she was worried that she didn't know everything and kept leaving the test to go to the bathroom during reading b/c she was crying... She didn't come close to finishing from what she said.

I'm not necessarily advocating that kind of stress for your kid but, in our instance, it is part of who she is. She wasn't at all used to anything being a challenge at that point. It scared her, but it was really good for her to learn how to deal with anxiety and things that were hard b/c she didn't have a lot of experience doing so at that point. It also helped that her scores weren't nearly as bad as she feared. Both science and english met the DYS criterion, actually. It helped her see that her overblown fears were exactly that.

After a few years of taking tests like this (she's done the SAT and ACT since then), her response is seriously better. She goes in much calmer and comes out feeling okay about not having finished or having to cobble together a conclusion for an essay in a few minutes, etc. That's what we wanted: a child who could work through her fears of inadequacy, learn to cope with challenge, and keep functioning.

I don't think that prepping her so that it wasn't scary would have helped for my dd. It was facing the fear and working through it that helped her.

Cricket2's post has me wanting to clarify a bit. While I don't regret using the extra practice test to get some basic "taking a test" experience, I would be very careful to avoid teaching the test material itself, especially if you're then going to use it to help make judgments about placement. It would be very easy to fall into the trap of just trying to maximize her score, but that is almost certainly not what you really want out of taking the test.

I should also clarify that I don't think that any of you are hothousing your kids to get the highest scores possible. I just realize, as a parent, that it is easy to fall into trying to help a child who is stressed and who is used to high achievement prep a bunch to reduce anxiety and to get a better score and feel better.

I mentioned what I did b/c, in hindsight, it was better for dd to go in without any prep and learn to work through the stress.

Wow, thank you all so much for your responses. I guess it just makes it clear how hard it is to find the line between easing a child's anxiety so they are comfortable enough to show what they know and doing test prep that will then artificially raise the scores. I think we will have to just repeat A LOT that it is ok if she doesn't know the answers. She is a rule follower though and read something somewhere in the info. they sent about getting extra sample tests from a guidance counselor and now thinks she "must" do that. I appreciate your feedback. Very curious to see how it all works out!