So You’re Being Tested for P.C.?? What to expect from each of the tests and how you can prepare to do your best.

General Information You will be tested in 4 areas: Mental ability Achievement Creativity Motivation Not all areas are pencil/paper tests, but none of the tests can be passed or failed. They simply measure where you are compared with a group of peers the same age as you. You will still be the same person when you finish that you were before testing.

Mental Ability Test You can’t study for this test. Make sure to get a good night’s sleep and eat breakfast. The test is timed, but you will have enough time if you follow the directions. There are 9 different tests grouped into 3 areas: verbal, quantitative and nonverbal. You don’t have to do well on all 9 tests to get a qualifying score.

Achievement Tests You can prepare for achievement tests because they test your level of knowledge in either reading or math. You have probably already taken an achievement before. The STAR, ITBS and Stanford-9 are all achievement tests.

CREATIVITY TEST You will need your imagination!! You will be asked to draw, but this is not a test of your drawing ability. The person scoring the test will look at what you have drawn and the story you were trying to tell, not how well you drew the picture. RELAX and have fun.

Motivation Motivation means your love of learning. Your grades in school can be used to determine your motivation or your teacher may complete a checklist rating your motivation. Your motivation is also something that can change with your attitude and your effort.

What happens when testing is finished? When all the testing is completed, each test must be scored. This can take a week or longer. Next, an eligibility report will be mailed to your house. It will contain your scores for each of the 4 areas. The scores (except motivation if grades are used) will be reported as percentiles. The next slide explains percentiles.

Percentiles If you scored at the 50th percentile on a test, then half of the students who took the test nationwide scored higher than you and half scored lower than you on the same test. Any score above the 75th percentile is above average because it means you scored higher than 75% or 3/4 of the students who took the same test.

Did you qualify or not? If you get a letter saying you qualified for program challenge, you can participate in gifted classes if your parents give permission. You will probably get to start immediately, but in some cases you’ll have to wait a few weeks. The teacher at your school will contact you. If you get a letter saying you did not qualify, REMEMBER, you did not fail anything. You simply did not score high enough to qualify. You should be very proud that someone thought you were a bright, creative person!