warriormom Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 My son will be entering 1st grade next year. I would really like for him to be apart of Target (the gifted program) at our local public school. His kindergarten teacher ( at his classical Christian school) said she would suggest that he be part of any advanced programs in 1 st grade. He is smart but I really do not think he would be considered gifted. I am considering getting the Cogat bundle from Critical Thinking Co. to prepare him for the test in September. Here are the contents with space if anyone wants to add less expensive options (prufrock etc): The critical thinking co. = Less expensive alternative -Mind Benders® Book 2.... -Can You Find Me? K-1...... -Building Thinking Skills® Primary".......... -Mathematical Reasoning™ Level B".......... -Math Analogies Beginning.................. -Thinking Skills for Tests Workbook..... -Thinking Skills for Tests Guide............ Any experience with these books? Are they worth the time? Would the Developing the Early Learner books be beneficial? I figure it is worth a try. If he does not get accepted to Target, he will at least get some good practice with critical thinking. I know that moms have strong feeling about prep for tests like this....please don't throw any rocks. :leaving: Any equivalent books that can be recommended with prufrock? Would the Developing the Early Learner books work for any of this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I have some homemade pages on my blog that you could use for free to help practice for the Cogat. Then you could make some own, and just buy one or two of the Critical Thinking books. I think the whole pack is probably overkill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 IMHO, the books can help kids get familiar with the types of questions asked and the expected responses, a good thing, but kids who fit the mold of PS gifted programs (i.e. sequential thinkers who synthesize info. and find valid relationships among seemingly unrelated things, highly verbal with strong vocab, solid understanding of spacial relationships) really don't need to be coached much. I don't think they really hurt anything but their use to prep for testing is, as you know, controversial. Maybe just get one or two and make up your own questions?? The questions all start to look alike after a while, especially in kindy. They want kids to identify differences and similarities (grouping, sorting, discriminating), recognize patterns (order, rotation in space) and label things in their environment (vocabulary words: community helpers, places, seasons, etc.). Note too that most schools do group testing which isn't as reliable as indiv. testing. If your child is easily distracted by a crying child or frustrated child or test administrator who talks too softly, no amount of prep can make up for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warriormom Posted June 8, 2012 Author Share Posted June 8, 2012 The school my son will attends told me that very few pass the Cogat ( even if they are gifted) because most kids do not test well at that age. Most pass the test around 3rd grade because they are better test takers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shann Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 IMHO, the books can help kids get familiar with the types of questions asked and the expected responses, a good thing, but kids who fit the mold of PS gifted programs (i.e. sequential thinkers who synthesize info. and find valid relationships among seemingly unrelated things, highly verbal with strong vocab, solid understanding of spacial relationships) really don't need to be coached much. I don't think they really hurt anything but their use to prep for testing is, as you know, controversial. Maybe just get one or two and make up your own questions?? The questions all start to look alike after a while, especially in kindy. They want kids to identify differences and similarities (grouping, sorting, discriminating), recognize patterns (order, rotation in space) and label things in their environment (vocabulary words: community helpers, places, seasons, etc.). Note too that most schools do group testing which isn't as reliable as indiv. testing. If your child is easily distracted by a crying child or frustrated child or test administrator who talks too softly, no amount of prep can make up for that. :iagree: My dd took the cogat about a month ago. I do think it is a good idea to familiarize a child with what an analogy is and possibly explain sequencing to them, besides that you can't really do much test prep. I think the hardest part about the test is the group setting and the fact that the kids have to sit there for so long and stay focused. Many highly intelligent kids will not make it pass the test simply because they are not good test takers. It's really an unusual situation for such young children. Anyway, of those books I think building thinking skill is the best for getting use the answering multiple choice logic type of questions but don't expect the test to be anything like it. I wouldn't bother with the other books, unless you just want to buy them for fun. I bought my dd several books for this summer just because she is a workbooky kid and needs to have things at hand to occupy her. For that, I think the books are worth it. Last fyi, when they tested my dd they gave her an out of level test, since it was for the gifted program. She is in 2nd grade and they gave the 3rd grade level test. So you may want to look at a book one level up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my_three_sons Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Here's a link to some COGAT practice tests that our school district recommends. I am interested in practice book ideas as well. http://normafitzpatrick.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/TD+Testing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my_three_sons Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Here's another dite I found- you can get 200 free prep questions- after that there is a paid option- testingmom.com Also there is an iphone/ ipod app called qwizful that looks good. There is a free trial and then you pay for more questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Critical Thinking is excellent. Do you have any bookstores that might be carrying the spines to review around? From experiences I've had, the testing formats & names are important. Any chance you can find out what ones they are using? Finding the style, voice and layout of the testing seems to come before actual ability (I know that sounds silly on the surface) but it is the language and instructions that are in the forefront. I think story problems are a really valuable skill at that age, as well as understanding how your child approaches a problem and untangling it. Mind Benders in the Critical Thinking series are really neat. It takes an abstraction of figures and creates a math problem from that. I'd think that it's really worth sitting down and working out math problems with the "showing your work" methods. The tests I've seen want the work shown by drawing, charts, linear math expressions and rearranging the problems in different ways, and expression in words/paragraphs/questions. I'm a big fan of the Spectrum workbooks here also, they align very closely with school testing methods as well. Critical Thinking is a bit more expensive per page than Spectrum, but the quality is much higher in design flow. Just a few thoughts, good luck with it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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