How do I know my child is gifted? He's way ahead of his chronological age in intellectual, a bit behind on social, ahead in emotional. Those differences are what identifies him as gifted. All three of my children were late talkers, but all were instead moving ahead physically early. DD sat at 4 months, crawled at 6 months, walked at 10 months. DS1 was the serious child. He rarely smiled but instead observed the world. He walked at 11 months. DS2 was himself. He has always marched to the beat of a different drummer -- often not acknowledging the other drummer! DD is more of what I think of as a high achiever. Her intellectual, social, and emotional are all about equally developed ahead of her chronological age. DS1 has social issues still (at 11). DS2 I reserve judgement on. He has FINALLY decided to read Harry Potter (in 3rd grade) but has breezed through the first four books is less than a week and is on book 5 now. The others read Harry Potter in late 2nd grade but then had to wait for the other books to come out, unlike DS2 who can blow through all seven books in under 2 weeks!

I love the lines on page 2 of the Brochure under "Keeping Things in Perspective": However, 4th/5th Grade Talent Search students should not expect to score as high as eighth graders. Remember, the EXPLORE test was meant to be challenging to you. Considering he did as well as he did, I'd say that the ceiling may not have been high enough! I agree that the Math score is still pretty good -- even if it was his lowest score. I know that some things I need to work with him on include order of operations, calculator use skills, and scientific notation. Those are the eighth grade level skills (according to Texas) that he is having some problems with right now. I just wish he'd apply himself a bit more in classes, though I know exactly where he's coming from. As my Mom says, "He's your payback because he's exactly like you were and now you're experiencing what I did with you." If it doesn't interest me or I can't see an immediate application for it, I don't bother. Which meant that most of the time I was barely scraping by in History and English. I loved computer science, physics, chemistry, and math so I excelled in those classes.

What is interesting is until I got home and saw that he scored better than 64% of 8th grade students, I was feeling kind of bummed about his scores. Now I feel pretty darned good that as a 11 year old he scored so well. He turned 11 just days before the test on January 21st. This gives me some strong ammunition to use on the school district to advance him next year in most areas. Susan

We just received my son's scores today (8 weeks 2 days after taking the test). He too had a low score in Math (16) but did extremely well in all other areas. That is unusual considering he's easily handling 7th grade Math I'm throwing at him and moving through 8th grade Math now also. His composite was 94%, Math 64%, Science 99%, Reading 88%, English 96%, Usage 93%, and Rhetorical 100%. Now to go home and read over all the information -- this is what hubby reported via phone. I know that Ro had problems with the calculator. He's not allowed to use calculators at school so he was trying to use the calculator when he'd have been better off just using scratch paper and working the problems on paper as he is accustomed to. Susan

I just talked with them and the reports were mailed out, "Monday and Tuesday, March 17th and 18th." So we should see results soon. I'm hoping that my mailbox has results in it today when I get home from work. Then I can see if they'll be helpful in arguing my case that he needs to be in Algebra I next year in 6th grade. I don't homeschool simply because I'm the primary breadwinner and DH isn't one to put into action a learning plan with the kids. The boys are at Harmony Science Academy, but #1 son will not be returning next year. He's in 5th grade (11 years old) but is in 6th grade Math right now. He's making a 99 average without breaking a sweat. I'm hoping he'll be able to pass the Credit By Exam for the 7th grade Math and will do well on released TAKS versions of 7th & 8th grade Math so that they'll then assess him with the Algebra readiness test (whatever that is). I'll let you know when I get my results. Susan

What's interesting is that I've been told TWICE that the forms were mailed the week before...from two different locations. The first time I was told they were mailed in early March (March 3rd or 4th) from Iowa. The next time I was told they were mailed from Duke around March 10th or 11th. I still haven't received anything and my son took the test on January 26th also. I think I'll call them again today and see what's up.