Testing

Sheri asked where I got Gabriel tested. Well, that's a loaded question! I find it so very interesting that people brag about their kids all the time. They brag about their hockey game, their baseball game, their football game, their basketball game, their swimming, and their dancing. But, we're not allowed to brag about their brains. Today, I'm going to be doing a bit of bragging about Gabriel's brain. Well, really, I'm just going to be telling you the results of his testing. However, I know it might come across as bragging. I'm okay with that. Gabriel works hard and his brain is what he loves the most about himself. I love it, too. He's a quirky kid and that makes him fun to know. Listening to the way his mind works is so much fun. So, I should be just has happy with his academic achievements. You know what? I am. So, I'll talk about his testing.

When Gabriel was a baby, he was not surprising to us. After all, he was our first child and the fact that he started talking at 6 months was just that--a fact of life. It wasn't until we really started to get around other young children that we began to see that he was bright. He ABSOLUTELY refused to learn to read before he started Kindergarten. During Kindergarten, he went from not reading at all to reading on a 2nd grade reading level. By the time he was finished with 2nd grade, he was reading on an 8th grade reading level. Now, he is reading college level material. He is strong in every area except math. I know a lot of his strengths and weaknesses, but I needed help figuring out where and how much to accelerate him. Also, there are programs for gifted students that you can only get into if you take the tests.

Last spring, Gabriel did testing with his school. He scored in the 99% in everything except math. There was no surprise there. Because he maxed out the testing scores for his grade level, it was recommended that we do out of level testing to really see where he is at. We opted for the EXPLORE test. This is a test similar to the ACT that is made for 8th graders. We did the testing through the University of Iowa's Belin & Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development.

Once again, there were no huge surprises. It was nice to have the affirmation that I really do know my son's strengths and weaknesses.

The score range is 1-25.
His English score was 21. He scored as well as or better than 93% compared to 8th graders.
His Math score was 12. 23%
His Reading score was 18. 88%
His Science score was 20. 94%

I think the best thing about this experience is it helped me find the holes in his learning, figure out where to advance, and where I need to his specific problems. Plus, it helped his confidence.

Here is what I have developed as a game plan so far:

His English score is NO surprise at all. As I stated in my previous post, I'm advancing him to 8th grade grammar. Even then, I'm going to change the way we do it. Instead of just advancing through the book, we'll take the chapter test first. Then, we'll only study what he doesn't know, with review thrown in occasionally. He is extremely strong in grammar and I believe it is time for him to focus more on writing skills. So, when we don't have a lot of grammar work to do, we'll spend the time doing more writing.

His Math scores are also not a surprise. It tells me that he is doing exactly what he needs to be doing. The reason for his specific score is that he has not been exposed to all the things that 8th graders have. He is a solid 5th grade math student. I have no complaints with that and we will continue using Math-U-See as his primary math curriculum with Life of Fred thrown in for some variety.

His Reading scores are what matter the most to me. His main weakness in this area is in comparing writing styles. That is not a surprise since we haven't done any study in that area. His comprehension is fine. He has no problem with details, but has some problems with generalizations. These are things we can focus on easily. Getting him to ignore the details long enough to see the big picture? Priceless.

His Science scores were strong in everything that didn't require higher level math. So, I see no problem there. We'll continue with what he's doing now. I would like to add some experimenting to his science program, but that is something that can be easily remedied. It just needs to be done.

So, we've got some acceleration, some continuation, and some supplementing. The graphic below is a representation of recommendations based on scoring. If you click on it, it should take you to a full size picture. They recommend students at the 50% range do things at the lower end of the pyramid. Higher scoring at the top of the pyramid. Since Gabriel, like most gifted students are not universally gifted (IE on the same level across the board), it is really nice that I am going to be able to personalize his education so much. Now, I just have to take the time and devise a plan!

He has the option of retaking the test next year. However, since he was close to the top of his reading, science, and English tests this year, I think we may skip the testing next year. Or, we may just jump right to the ACT. We'll see how it goes. I know that he's going to have some early entry college classes. I just don't know at what age. So, we'll see what, if anything, we do next year. I can't wait for this coming year. It's going to be so much fun!