Comments on: Gifted Test – Why yes, I do have something to complain about….

By: McDade Mom

McDade Mom — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:24:54 +0000

My daughter is in the 1st grade at McDade Classical. We love McDade but we’re now concerned with the school only going to the 6th grade. We submitted the application for both the classical and gifted tests and only chose Skinner and Keller for the schools.

She took the classical test on 2/12 and she said it was very easy. She scored a 130 on the classical portion when she was 4, so we’ll see what happens with her scoring this year. She was able to tell me almost everything that was on the test. It was math and reading only. They provided scratch paper to do the math problems. She said she used mental math for most of the problems…OH LAWD!! SOMETIMES SHE MAKES CARELESS MISTAKES!! The math consisted of bar graphs, one clock question, simple addition and subtraction and a few word problems. The reading was read a paragraph, answer the questions.

We decided not to take the gifted test which was scheduled for the next day. She only scored 112 previously so I was already contemplating not going the gifted route. She woke up with a nasty cold Saturday morning and that was my sign from above.

My questions are, does anyone have any insight on how many spaces will be open for 2nd grade at Skinner West? I saw an earlier post for open spots for 1st grade. And my take is, we won’t know if she gets in until later in the year as opposed to one week after the scores come out, right? I say this because the schools won’t know approximately how many spots are open until later. Any insight would be helpful. Thanks!

By: interesting

interesting — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:01:08 +0000

Heard different story about skipping pages. Sounds like they did couple pages then went to page 32. Not necessarily skipping around. Maybe the first pages were practice problems so kids knew how to bubble in answers. So possibly those were easy, more how to do the test.

Did anyone get feedback from their kid on tests classical/gifted being easier or more difficult than the other?

Our son said 1st one was easier (classical) than the second one (gifted). Funny because last year his gifted score was high enough to gain placement and classical ok but not high enough for acceptance.

By: KateH

KateH — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:30:16 +0000

We tested at ITT. The ladies room consisted of a single handicapped stall w/a waiting room — it took 10 little girls forever to finish! You should have heard the giggling, storytelling (w/a moderator in charge) …. very entertaining.

By: CPSnewbie

CPSnewbie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:50:52 +0000

My son said they skipped over pages as well and that the questions got harder once they skipped to the new section.

By: parent

parent — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:42:41 +0000

Our son tested yesterday too and they were in about an hour and 15 minutes. Heard about going ahead in the booklet on both classical and gifted, maybe they contain more than one test?? He told us another kid didn’t answer all the questions. We wondered how he would know and yikes what happens then?! According to him the child answered some questions then was thinking about something else so forgot to answer. They read the questions again. Always wondered if kids can ask for questions to be repeated.

By: cpsobsessed

cpsobsessed — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:21:52 +0000

Stephanie – OMG, that is nuts! I would call someone somewhere (I think you can contact IIT) to inquire about it. Between my son’s long experience and your child’s short one, I would say it’s clear that they’re not enforcing consistency (although yes, I would rather have the long time than find out they’d skipped some pages!)
Honestly, as a research person I find this horrifying.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:38:52 +0000

Hi: My son took the “gifted” test for 1st grade today. He was in the first group which was the “red” group. We were informed before his group was taken out that the test would be an hour and a half, possibly longer if the bathroom break was long. My son came back after an hour and fifteen minuted, including a bathroom break. He told me they skipped over some pages. I asked him if it was just him and he told me no, they all skipped over the pages. Does this make any sense to anyone? How are they getting an accurate score if questions are skipped?

By: no prep/ no admission

no prep/ no admission — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:10:13 +0000

OK, I’ll bite. My kid didn’t prep and tested when she was 4. This was back in the day when they did stanines and her scores were abysmal at best. My husband and I joked that maybe we needed to look into special needs programs for her based on the results. Flash forward to 1st grade and her scores were merely horrible for the gifted tests but surprisingly high for classical (though not high enough to get it). Second grade- we didn’t even go to the test as she said she would purposely answer every question wrong.

Here we are in 5th grade and we have a relatively happy girl in a good magnet with good grades and still (for the most part) underachieving test scores. Of course her scores are high enough for the school (it really doesn’t take a lot to meet/achieve state standards) but still have a lot of room for improvement.

Kid 2 comes along 4 years later. No prep (but she was beginning to read) and she did well enough to get into a RGC and classical school.

And for the record we didn’t have a good neighborhood school, decent private option as a back up. We were persistent and eventually got into the magnet. With the freeze on magnets this year we would have been out of luck.

I’m so glad we are done with this phase of our lives . . . on to high school – - -

By: two cents

two cents — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:11:53 +0000

I was one of the parents who didn’t prep (unless bedtime stories count). My elder child did not come close to getting in on the gifted (123) and scored 95% on classical. We enrolled her in parochial school for 1st grade then public (magnet) for 2nd due to finances. We tested child #2 just to see what he would score. We were not sure if he was difficult or gifted…lol. Fortunately, he had a good enough test day and got the ‘gifted’ label. Believe me, it felt like winning the lotto! However, he now thinks that he is the dumbest kid in the class, even though he is very bright. My friend’s daughter went to Decatur…she went through school feeling stupid because most of the other kids were so darn smart. Her self esteem still suffers in young adulthood.

By: cpsobsessed

cpsobsessed — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:52:06 +0000

Well, I think about 95% of the city doesn’t prep and doesn’t get in. They just don’t have much to say about it since its the standard outcome.

Hey, I’m all for prep… I just wouldn’t have the nerve to do it right up to the last minute as though you can cram in some memorization in those final 5 minutes. Then again, if it works… maybe its worth a shot. Those spaces are few.

But yeah, pretty much everyone I know has a highly intelligent child who isn’t being challenged enough at school.