ourjourneys Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Can some of you share your experiences with me. My daughter is at the end of 4B now and our goal is to get through 5B by July next year. Meanwhile she will be taking the 5th grade standardized test this year. I am wondering if I need to supplement any other math with Singapore in order to ensure her doing well on the standardized test. It is my understanding that Singapore is above grade level, but I wonder if it teaches all of the math standards that the states have adopted. I appreciate any advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionfamily1999 Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 We're a year behind. For second grade we did traditional math (based on the SOLs listed on our state's web site). Ds did well (95th percentile). Last year we did 3a in Singapore (never had a chance to do 3b, we started mid-year) and ds did better (98th) on his test. Now, I don't know if ds is just good like that or if it was Singapore that put him over the top, but I do know that he's tutoring his friend in math (using what he's learned from Singapore) and is ahead of all except for a friend of his that attends a private school. All that to say, I think she'll do very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ourjourneys Posted November 3, 2010 Author Share Posted November 3, 2010 Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionfamily1999 Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Sure thing! I'm surprised no one else has an answer :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhudson Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Mine have all done really well on Standardized Tests, they only thing I have added is drill on the basics. *When I say "really well" I am purposefully ignoring the time when my dd just filled in the dots in a pretty design instead of actually doing the test because she was bored of testing. She was only 7 at the time though. Other than that, my kids have scored really well.:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gratia271 Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Can some of you share your experiences with me. My daughter is at the end of 4B now and our goal is to get through 5B by July next year. Meanwhile she will be taking the 5th grade standardized test this year. I am wondering if I need to supplement any other math with Singapore in order to ensure her doing well on the standardized test. It is my understanding that Singapore is above grade level, but I wonder if it teaches all of the math standards that the states have adopted. I appreciate any advice! She will be fine! All three of my children used Singapore math at that level and did quite well on out-of-level standardized testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 I would supplement with some additional drill and prepare her for the format (bubble sheets, etc) on standardized tests. It's helpful for kids to go into tests knowing what to expect -- you don't want to test them on their ability to figure out how tests work. You might do that by using a test prep book (B&N and other bookstores generally carry several by grade level), and it will also help you see if there's something you want to cover quickly (for instance, negative numbers on a timeline). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spock Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Except for last year, when my daughter decided to skip any questions that she didn't know the answer to by just looking (without any figuring involved), my 3 that use Singapore have always tested well on standardized tests. There are often a few questions on things they haven't learned yet. However: 1. There aren't enough of these to make much difference to their scores and 2. They can often use what they have learned to figure out how to solve these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Testimony Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Can some of you share your experiences with me. My daughter is at the end of 4B now and our goal is to get through 5B by July next year. Meanwhile she will be taking the 5th grade standardized test this year. I am wondering if I need to supplement any other math with Singapore in order to ensure her doing well on the standardized test. It is my understanding that Singapore is above grade level, but I wonder if it teaches all of the math standards that the states have adopted. I appreciate any advice! I have done IOWA standardized tests for my sons. They have done well, but the Singapore math's curriculum does lack a few things. In the 4th grade test, my son had to do graphs. The fractions section is not as thorough as I would like. I am supplementing with Life of Fred fractions. I know in 5th grade the fractions were the issue. So, more practice of graphs and fractions! My older son scores high. My younger son scores average. He struggles with math, but he scores decently. I had to go on a website to teach him graphs. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 The other question is whether you are using standards or US edition? We use standards now and some of the more challenging problems ds is being tested on in 4A don't show up in our ps's textbook until the end of 5th grade. I find the topics run similar...Singapore is maybe a few months ahead...but are taught in greater depth with Singapore. Our ps uses Harcourt which is supposed to be very challenging and elicits complaints as a result since they switched to it. DS got a perfect score on the 3rd grade math CAT while finishing up 3B. But then again he's always scored well so I don't know what that really means for Singapore. The CAT is one of the more basic tests. Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ourjourneys Posted November 3, 2010 Author Share Posted November 3, 2010 Thank you Karen and all... This is what I was wondering about. I have heard some discussion of supplementing Singapore for different reasons. I do have some test prep books and one thing that caught my eye was a square root problem which we have not seen in her math yet. I think it will be covered in 5. I suppose the next best thing is to get a sample test and go through it for anything we may not have covered. Thanks again! I have done IOWA standardized tests for my sons. They have done well, but the Singapore math's curriculum does lack a few things. In the 4th grade test, my son had to do graphs. The fractions section is not as thorough as I would like. I am supplementing with Life of Fred fractions. I know in 5th grade the fractions were the issue. So, more practice of graphs and fractions! My older son scores high. My younger son scores average. He struggles with math, but he scores decently. I had to go on a website to teach him graphs. Blessings, Karen www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Can some of you share your experiences with me. My daughter is at the end of 4B now and our goal is to get through 5B by July next year. Meanwhile she will be taking the 5th grade standardized test this year. I am wondering if I need to supplement any other math with Singapore in order to ensure her doing well on the standardized test. It is my understanding that Singapore is above grade level, but I wonder if it teaches all of the math standards that the states have adopted. I appreciate any advice! My kids have always been behind grade level and have always tested well, as in a NP score of 75% or better, so 25% of kids did better and 74% did worse. I can go in and look at what they missed, and most of the time it is topics we haven't covered. That is frustrating becuase they would get even better scores if they were at grade level, but my kids really need the extra time to absorb topics. In fact I had spend up my oldest for about 3 months to doing 5 pages a day, and all the topics we covered during that time she struggles with. Not only did I back down to 4 pages a day, but I realized I still wasn't getting her best effort, so I backed down to 3 pages a day. Now she is really focusing and doing a good job and retaining the material. BTW my 7th grader is starting IP5B today, my 5th grader is doing Primary 3B text, my 4th grader is doing the Primary 2A text and my 2nd grader just started 1A at the beginning of the year. I start Singapore a year late because my oldest two had problems when they took away the picture manipulatives. I had to do other stuff for a while then come back, so I just find it easier to wait to start. But I am also doing Right Start math. It is based on the same base 10 philosophy but it uses more hands on work. Note: when I started Singapore they didn't have all the HIG's published, so you didn't have the hands on work. By the time they did have it I was used to Right Start. Heather p.s. I use the old US version not the Standards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Don't freak out about a handful of questions on topics that your child has not yet covered. At least on the Iowa, a student can miss a few questions per section and still score really well (>90%). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swainsonshawk Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 My kids have taken the WASL (Washington State) and they both passed. Not exceptionally well, but passed. They missed the problems about geometry, which Singapore doesn't cover at their ages. It didn't bother me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crafty Mathy Mom Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 My oldest dd has done well. We go through a test prep book each year to prepare for ITBS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imhim Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 What preparation test books do you use? I use Spectrum - has both LA and MAth, but mine is second grade, so we have not tested yet. We do Singapore, but also the Abeka worktext - which is easy for her grade level, because Singapore is more advanced, but has problems put a little differently, and topics missing in Singapore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danybug Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 My ds tested in the 99th percentile on the math portion of the Stanford test last year in 3rd grade. We had just completed 3B and we use the standards edition. We have also worked through the CWP. Our experience was that my ds was beyond the majority of the material. It was just a matter of him taking his time and not rushing through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 I recently asked a question about testing, so just wanted to let you know in case it helps (even though it doesn't address your exact question), that you can give her old tests that are available online from several states. Here are links to some. When you look, you'll see that they are really just about identical from state to state too: Texas TAKS tests are published free online TAKS TAKS–M grade 4 math http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/release/tests2009/taks_g04_math.pdf answer key http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/release/expect/2009/taks_key_g04_math.pdf FCAT released tests free online NC released tests http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/testing/eog/sampleitems/math Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 The one time my son finished a B level and did a standardized test for the grade level that the Singapore level correlated to (this sounds way more convoluted than it is... he finished 2B and took the 2nd grade ITBS), he scored at the 98th percentile for math. As far as I know, he didn't know any more than he had learned in Singapore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ourjourneys Posted November 6, 2010 Author Share Posted November 6, 2010 Thank you! I did not think about getting tests from around the country. :) Great idea - I will start another thread to see if anyone else has links to their tests. I recently asked a question about testing, so just wanted to let you know in case it helps (even though it doesn't address your exact question), that you can give her old tests that are available online from several states. Here are links to some. When you look, you'll see that they are really just about identical from state to state too: Texas TAKS tests are published free online TAKS TAKS–M grade 4 math http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/release/tests2009/taks_g04_math.pdf answer key http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/release/expect/2009/taks_key_g04_math.pdf FCAT released tests free online NC released tests http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/testing/eog/sampleitems/math Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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