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September 16th, 2011
It’s both easy and hard to generalize about these visits. Most schools have a similar format. They will gather the kids and parents in one place, then they invite the kids to line up and go with a teacher to visit a classroom. Or they might do a slight variation on this theme. You want […]
August 9th, 2011
For the Stanford-Binet®, younger children are compared to kids within a two-month range. So for a three to four-year-old it would be: 3 years 0 months through 3 years 1 month 3.2 – 3.3 3.4 – 3.5 3.6 – 3.7 3.8 – 3.9 3.10 – 3.11 4 years 0 months through 4 years 1 month […]
July 17th, 2011
I think it is great that you are teaching your children two languages as they are growing up. My question to you is, what are your plans for school? Will they be tested for private school or a gifted program? If so, it is possible that growing up speaking two languages will limit them in […]
November 25th, 2010
That is always a hard one! I would suggest that you go ahead and have your child tested for gifted program and see how he does. If he qualifies for a good one (or if you find a really good public general ed program), enroll him and if you are happy with the program, you […]
November 25th, 2010
When you apply, tell the private schools that he is currently in public school kindergarten. Let them know that you are applying him to their kindergarten program, given their birthday cut off, but that you are open to putting him in first grade if they think that is the best placement. Most likely, they would […]
November 25th, 2010
If your child is being assessed by a proctor for public school, she will be more limited in what she can do to warm your child up. There are more restrictions on public school evaluators in how they interact with kids. For example, they can’t always say, “Oh come on, give it your best guess,” […]
November 25th, 2010
If you are a member of TestingMom.com, you can go to the section on the site for the test your child is taking and go through 20 – 30 minutes of practice questions as long as your child is able to focus. The questions can be printed or you can use our interactive practice questions. […]
November 25th, 2010
No, most private middle schools open up at least one full classroom of spaces, sometimes more. They take many children who are leaving public school. Your child will have to test to get into the private school, so you may have to hire a tutor to prepare her, but you will have saved many years […]
November 25th, 2010
Private schools are looking for children who will do well in their program. For example, if it is a tougher, academically-oriented school, then higher scores on a test will be the first hurdle toward acceptance. Private schools are looking for classes that are balanced in terms of boys, girls, diversity and temperaments. So, if a […]
November 25th, 2010
They should, but if you sent the application in and they haven’t contacted you in a reasonable amount of time, call them. You can say that you are calling to confirm that they received the application. As long as you have them on the line, go ahead and set up the appointments. In some cases […]
November 25th, 2010
Avoid talking to other parents who are going through the admissions process at the same time you are because you’ll hear things that will freak you out. Half the time, what they say will be wrong. They may repeat gossip they’ve heard or share information about school reputations, which are often years out of date. […]
November 25th, 2010
If at all possible, identify a public school in your zone that you can absolutely send your child to if you want to. If you have a good back-up school you can rely on, you won’t be as stressed going through the admissions process for private school or gifted programs. If you can’t find a […]
November 25th, 2010
This will depend on the school district you are in. In some cases, the same test is given for kindergarten entry and for 1st grade (and beyond) entry. If the test is the same, it tends to get more difficult as the grade levels go up. In other cases, the tests themselves may change to […]
November 25th, 2010
In Testing For Kindergarten, I talk about the 7-abilities children need to do well at testing and in school. They are: language/listening, knowledge/comprehension, memory, math, thinking, visual-spatial, and fine-motor skills. Any good nursery school curriculum already incorporates all of these abilities into the material they teach. The teacher may not be thinking about every activity in […]
November 25th, 2010
If you are going to take your child to a testing facility or a psychologist’s office to be evaluated, here are some tips to help her do well: Make sure your child is rested and feeling well on the day of the test. Reschedule if she isn’t feeling well. Don’t take your child to be […]
November 25th, 2010
When you have more than one child that you are trying to get into private school, it can get tricky. There are usually a limited number of spots in a private school, and with twins, one family gets two spaces. Private schools depend on parents giving to the annual fund and by letting one family […]
November 25th, 2010
There are no fees for public school, just your tax dollars. And yes, you still have to pay those even if your child is in private school. I want to point out, however, that even if you have a child in private school, if your child has learning delays, your local Board of Education still […]
November 25th, 2010
I’m not a huge fan of tutoring because I think parents can do so much more at home in the course of daily life. That said, it may be helpful for some kids who are very shy and need to learn to warm up to an adult tester. If you do use a tutor, make […]
November 25th, 2010
My book, Testing For Kindergarten, tells you how to prep a child for the ERB and other tests without using tutors. On my website, you can check out the top 20 products I recommend for test prep –http://testingforkindergarten.com/recommended. You can also work with IQ Fun Pack, a game I developed that prepares children for the most […]
November 25th, 2010
If you do test prep correctly, you are strengthening the underlying abilities a child needs to test well. These would be his abilities in the areas of language, knowledge/comprehension, memory, math, visual-spatial, thinking and fine-motor skills. If you do this, whatever your child scores on a test will reflect his actual ability to keep up […]
November 25th, 2010
In New York City, all of the private schools send out their acceptances on the same day making it easy to commit because they all have the same deadline. However, the public gifted and talented programs send out their acceptances much later. In other cities, private schools do not necessarily mail acceptances on the same […]
November 25th, 2010
Administrators try to take the “personality” aspect out of the equation as much as they can. In a city such as NY, where thousands of tests are being administered, proctors are given specific instructions that they can say the question, but they cannot repeat it. They cannot prompt a child or clarify a question, that […]
November 25th, 2010
The directions are as clear as they can be for a tester as to when a child receives credit for an answer and when she does not. As it happens, with coding, vertical and horizontal lines or circles don’t need to be perfectly drawn as long as the mark is recognizable. With the WPPSI®, each […]
November 25th, 2010
I’m assuming you are in NY and if this is the case, you can’t really hold your child back a year and get her tested later in the hopes that she will do better. This is true in most public school districts across the country. You have a window of time that your child must […]
November 25th, 2010
Some kids have a hard time “warming up” in admissions situations. If Jamie is in preschool now, he may be more talkative a year from now, after he has more experience interacting with teachers. If he is still very shy, let the admission directors/testers know before you go for interviews/testing. They might make accomodations to […]