Watching my daughter take the CAT...

[blondeviolin]

I had Abby take the CAT available through CLP online. Her scores were mostly 8th stanine with a couple 9s and one 7. And yet, I KNOW she could have done better. I KNOW she missed some because she was busy staring off or assuming she was correct. Others she missed because I dropped the ball. (Whoops! I guess we should study alphabetizing!) Her scores were far from bad, yet I find myself disappointed for what I know she missed. Is that ridiculous or what?!

[MinivanMom]

Test-taking is a learned skill. Was this her first experience taking a standardized test?

[73349]

I'm giving DS the Iowa test this week. He did rather badly on the first two sections because he was unhappy about having to do it and not being able to discuss the questions with me. He mostly got over it, but I know he'll be aggravated again tomorrow when he sees the last (mercifully short) section.

 

At least your DDs final scores were good (even if not very good *for her* overall).

 

I'm so glad this is only once a year.

[blondeviolin]

Test-taking is a learned skill. Was this her first experience taking a standardized test?

Sort of. I had her do the DOMA/DORA last year. This was a lot more involved and school-ish. Next year it is very likely she will be required to test for the state as we're moving. I guess maybe I should look into a test-taking skills/strategies book?

[MinivanMom]

I think it helps to set expectations beforehand (no talking, no repeating oral questions, time-limits), but just having a chance to do a practice test (or a practice section) can also help a lot. Sometimes the issues can be unique to a specific test, so general test-taking prep books won't necessarily prepare you as well as simply going over the types of questions you will encounter on that specific test. Even when you prep them well, young children can just be inconsistent in their ability to focus. It takes time and practice.

 

We are required to test annually, and when my oldest took her first Iowa, she did poorly on the math section. On the Iowa levels below 3rd grade, almost the entire test is read aloud to the student (except the reading sections). This really threw dd on the math section where addition problems were read as, "What is 3 add 4? 3 plus 4 equals what?" Dd was so baffled by the wording that she got almost every problem in that section wrong, poor girl. It killed her scores, which were not an accurate representation of her abilities. Now I prep my little ones for the wording ahead of time.

[wapiti]

FWIW my dd13's standardized test results from elementary school varied quite a bit. Last year in 6th, she did better in language than in math, by a lot (go figure).

She has matured a lot in the past year and everything is beginning to come together. She recently took a high school admissions test (as practice, so it doesnt actually go in her admissions file but there is an official score report from the testing company with detailed score breakdown). I am happy to say that it captured her strengths and weaknesses amazingly well. The weak areas that need work were entirely predictable and the strengths showed (eek, the cognitive ability section for quantitative was a perfect score). Earlier testing didn't matter a bit, though from this point forward I have sat prep lurking in the back of my mind.  She now has a better understanding of where she needs to put some effort for the real one.

[EndOfOrdinary]

My Parent-of-the-Millenium award was lost due to a similar situation. I had a complete stress meltdown at my kindergartener (yep, he was that little) when he completely lost all focus or care during the thirty minute testing chunk he had to do. He had to do thirty minutes over three consecutive days, and by day three he was just done. It was epic. By the end we were both crying. Yeah, real shining parent moment. He did totally fine on the test. Really well, no issues at all even though I was a wreck about it. Now he does not even remember my total flip out.

 

It gets better the more tests they take. For both him and myself!

[blondeviolin]

My Parent-of-the-Millenium award was lost due to a similar situation. I had a complete stress meltdown at my kindergartener (yep, he was that little) when he completely lost all focus or care during the thirty minute testing chunk he had to do. He had to do thirty minutes over three consecutive days, and by day three he was just done. It was epic. By the end we were both crying. Yeah, real shining parent moment. He did totally fine on the test. Really well, no issues at all even though I was a wreck about it. Now he does not even remember my total flip out.

 

It gets better the more tests they take. For both him and myself!

Thanks for sharing this! I feel much better. I'm happy I didn't even say anything.

[Nart]

Out of curiosity I looked to see what edition of the CAT they use because the current edition is called the CAT6/Terra Nova. They use the original edition from 1970! The online edition is just reformatted from the 1970 edition onto the computer. Additionally, CLP says to use the following year grade level when ordering in the spring so the students who were originally tested might have has more schooling because it was a test given only at the beginning of the school year.

I really wouldn't lose sleep over a 44 year old test. I would look up the testing requirements of your new state to see if it is a common core state and if your child will have take a common core edition of a standardized test, which will look different than the CAT from 1970.