Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WIAT III - How long?

Just curious, in your experience, how long did the WIAT-III take? DS was taking the test early in the morning before school started. The teacher initially thought that it would take 2 * 45 min. Now, she thinks we need to bring him in 2 more time (2*45 min). She said the reason it took that long is because he's doing well and doing further in the test, and because he's taking his time to work through the problems that's he's unsure of. Do you think this also correlates with processing speed?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

I don't think it is a processing speed thing as much as a reflection of the nature of the test....it just isn't expected for small kids to be chugging all the way through in every subsection. All my sons testing always took much longer than the school folks expect. Of course in our school it is mostly kis who are in the below average tail who get the testing so that builds in the expectation.
Best Wishes
Grinity

As you can see from Grinity's response, YMMV. My kids are quite speedy and have done the WIAT-II and WJ in about an hour despite getting to the end of the test or at least ceiling on some sections. I think it will depend on both the tester and the kid.

Note also that the WIAT has many subtests, some of which may or may not have been given in these various administrations.

Also, the Wechsler tests are annoying in that the tester doesn't have a lot of leeway to choose an appropriate start point, which means that gifted kids often take much much longer than predicted.

And yes, some kids work more slowly and deliberately than others (It's the reason I don't charge for testing by the hour, because I don't want to have to rush a kid in order to respect the parent's budget.)

Typically, I estimate 2 hours to give a default battery of achievement tests (I usually use the WJ), with the understanding that it may last up to 3 hours.