xpost: I'm going to pull my hair out piece by piece...

[AimeeM]

She wants to go back to school so I order a CAT test. Just for practice. I also wanted an idea of just how much we would have to do get her up to level.

She should be in the fifth grade this year. Middle of her fifth grade year to be exact.

However, we were told by her school last year, that she did so horribly in fourth grade (indeed, her grades were awful) and that she only *just* *barely* passed the end of year standardized test. It was made to look like a favor the school didn't fail her. We decided to hold her back in fourth grade this year (at home). With few exceptions, she has had no instruction on a fifth grade level (barring science, which she is very advanced in). Everything is fourth grade or lower (writing and spelling much lower).

 

So, back to the CAT. I ordered the fifth grade CAT. I wanted to show her how much work it would be to push her up to an acceptable level that the Catholic school would accept her. Frankly, I wanted her to see that she needed another year at home; that catching up that quickly wasn't feasible unless she worked diligently through the summer.

 

It didn't work that way. I'm going to send it off to be officially graded, but I looked over every answer myself and, well, she only got a handful (if that) wrong. I counted about 4 in all the sections. All of those had to do with reading inferences (she is incredibly literal), and a couple of sloppy math computation mistakes.

 

How did she DO THAT? She hasn't had fifth grade instruction. How did she basically fly through a test generally given at the end of fifth grade when she barely passed the standardized fourth grade test last year and we've been remediating fourth at home????

 

I asked her why she felt she did better. Her answer? "It was quieter. My Vyvannse works better than the Adderall used to."

*insert indifferent 10 year old shrug here*

 

I almost feel upset.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Good for her for figuring out that she needs a quiet environment and a different ADHD drug. And good for you for giving it to her. I think you should have a celebratory hot chocolate.:001_smile:

[AimeeM]

I have spent, on materials to remediate fourth grade, as much as we spent on private school tuition.

:glare:

If I weren't pregnant, my hot cocoa would be laced with Baileys.

Good for her for figuring out that she needs a quiet environment and a different ADHD drug. And good for you for giving it to her. I think you should have a celebratory hot chocolate.:001_smile:

[Jean in Newcastle]

:grouphug: BTW - My dd10 is doing her second 4th grade year this year. I think it is a developmental thing for some kids - that jump from the more concrete lower elementary thinking to the more abstract thinking of 5th grade can be a hard one for some kids.

[Lolly]

How? There really isn't a lot of difference in the materials learned in 4th and 5th grades. Most of it is rinse and repeat. Your remediation most likely has helped more than you realize.

 

I do have one question, was it the full CAT or the abbreviated one that homeschoolers sometimes use? The survey might give unreliable results because there are very few questions on it.

 

It might be time to discuss how homeschooling can be such an advantage when learning.

[NotSoObvious]

It's probably because she got one-on-one instruction this year. You taught directly to her and her work was checked. She wasn't one of a huge group, where mistakes unnoticed and the teacher does the death march through the curriculum whether the child is ready to move on or not. You filled in her gaps, taught her to work hard, and didn't spend weeks making her do pages of practice problems, only preparing her to fly through and guess at half of the questions on the real test.

Kudos to you guys and kudos to homeschooling. It just makes a difference!

[AimeeM]

I'm not sure. I know that it's accepted by all the local Catholic schools here. It is the test Seton provides and scores.

How? There really isn't a lot of difference in the materials learned in 4th and 5th grades. Most of it is rinse and repeat. Your remediation most likely has helped more than you realize.

 

I do have one question, was it the full CAT or the abbreviated one that homeschoolers sometimes use? The survey might give unreliable results because there are very few questions on it.

 

It might be time to discuss how homeschooling can be such an advantage when learning.

[Lolly]

I'm not sure. I know that it's accepted by all the local Catholic schools here. It is the test Seton provides and scores.

 

If it was the Survey test, it is not extremely reliable. The Complete Battery is much more, well, complete. The Survey test only takes a couple of hours. Complete takes about 5 hours. There just aren't many questions on the Survey test.

[AimeeM]

That's fine. I will say that I consider it "reliable enough" as our competitive Catholic schools accept them for entrance.

If it was the Survey test, it is not extremely reliable. The Complete Battery is much more, well, complete. The Survey test only takes a couple of hours. Complete takes about 5 hours. There just aren't many questions on the Survey test.