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I may have made things confusing by starting to talk about percentiles. DS's scores in science went down by 4 points from last year. All his other scores stayed pretty consistent. When I saw others saying science went down, I just wondered if it was harder this year, perhaps...who knows? :-)

NUMATS sent us an email about their online toolbox yesterday. It had the course recommendations I was hoping for. Somewhere on the site was the 2011 statistical summary. I can�t remember where I found it though. The statistical summary link on the academic plan page was for the 2010 summary, and the 2011 one was in a different spot. It either only included 2009-2010 information or was missing some data though. My DD (4th grade) took the test this January and scored 22 in reading, but the summary showed no fourth graders with that score. At any rate, her percentiles were higher using the 2011 summary than the 2010 summary.

Great forum!

Just got DD�s (3rd grade) scores yesterday. She tested via C-mites. Her English and Science scores are quite high, but Math is somewhat low. The scores do qualify her for DYS though.
The test result got me thinking about DYS, but I am just not sure if we want to go ahead and try applying. I have a couple of questions and I appreciate any advice from you here on this matter.

1. DD took WISC IV almost two years ago by a school psychologist for gifted program at school. Her GAI was 143. If I remember correctly, she hit the ceiling on one of the subtests. But regardless of the score, will Davidson consider a school issued test report eligible?

2. Since DD�s IQ score does not meet the requirement, we may have to get a private test anyway. Does anybody have any recommendations on test providers around Philadelphia area? We are open to travel if the tester is really really good. Also, what�s a reasonable cost for a WISC IV test?

3. Lastly, for parents of current young scholars, what do you think of the program? Do you benefit a lot from it?

Thank you in advance!

Would it be possible for you to get the raw scores for her test? If she hit the ceiling, and the testing psychologist did not use the extended norms, re-scoring with the extended norms may put her GAI over the threshold.

DYS should accept the school-issued scores, in any event.

This is a question for the more experienced score interpretation people (Dottie?) -- I had this random recall the the extended norms only applied if the child had multiple (i.e. -- more than one) scores in the 18-19 range. My dd12, for instance, when tested at 7, had one 19 and a number of other varied scores but the next highest ones were at the 17 point. If I recall correctly, when I looked @ the extended norms chart, her 19 would become a 23 which would, of course, raise her GAI, but I didn't think that one would use the extended norms in a case like hers where she only had one 19.

oops, well in that case it doesn't help much does it.

I would think being sick would be a huge factor. No one can perform their best under those circumstances.

Cat

Thanks for the heads up. I found the 2011 statistical summary at the very bottom of the Resources tab.

http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/docs/ctd/StatSum2011.pdf


My dc's percentiles weren't included in table on the home page of her online report (only her raw scores). Did anyone else have this problem? I know they mention that there would be no percentiles if no grade level had been given, but this isn't our situation. Her grade level is stated clearly on our report.

Regarding the earned score in reading that isn't on the table-- I've copied this from the report:

Over 25,000 students in grades 3 through 9 participated in the 2011 NUMATS program. This statistical summary is based on scores from an even larger sample of NUMATS test-takers, including all 2009 and 2010 NUMATS test-takers (over 50,000 students). Using such large numbers is a significantly reliable method of establishing percentiles for this year�s NUMATS test-takers.

So I guess this means that the 2011 scores aren't included in the statistical analysis; the percentages are based off of the scores from 2009 and 2010 only.

I'm reading that as the summary including scores from '09-11, but maybe I'm reading it wrong. Either way, thanks for the link! I'm adding it to my page with links on interpretting achievement test scores.

Dd12 came quite close to the 90th percentile on the reading and english parts of the ACT for 8th graders on that list, but I know from years past that she's been at that spot or higher as compared to kids in other regional talent searches and not made the top 25% for ours, so we'll see how that goes this year.

Thanks! I couldn�t remember where I had seen the 2011 summary.

My DD�s percentiles weren�t listed either, even though her grade level was listed on her score report. I wonder if NUMATS somehow �lost� her grade level, which is why her reading score didn�t exist on the statistical summary. I sent them an email to ask.

Does anyone know what the cutoff for the Wisconsin award ceremony is? DD�s scores place her in the top 4%, so she won�t qualify for the NUMATS ceremony. We have an opportunity to go out of town the weekend of the state ceremony. If she makes the cutoff, I�d like her to go to the state ceremony, but if she doesn�t, then I�d like to make plans for the weekend.

The NUMATS summary is counting only the two previous years scores (i.e. for 2011, they are counting only 2009 and 2010). They could have been more clear in phrasing it.

MidwestMom: I think last years WCATY was at top 5%, (DD qualified with a 77 in 4th), so unless things change, your DD probably qualifies