Performance

[Goodenoughiam]

Does you gifted child always get 100% correct answers in tests?

Have you been drinking?

I don't drink, so not I wasn't drinking.

It is a genuine question. Perhaps I should have qualified question by asking whether your gifted child normally or regularly gets 100% in tests.

No they don't

No

Depend on subject. He does, in Maths and SPAG termly tests. Not in reading comprehension.
Other subjects, it varies. If the topic was something interesting for him, then yes. Otherwise, no.

I've known a couple of gifted children, varied according to personality. 0ne in particular would have thought it shocking not to, another would go to any pains if they were interested but not for the sake of marks and could be pretty lazy if they weren't interested.

Thanks. I'm thinking about it also in the context of whether a child is being stretched enough. I guess there is less of a case to make if the child isn't achieving 100% on a regular basis?

It depends on the subject surely? Maths, spellings and rote knowledge tests are more likely to achieve 100% than more subjective and narrative subjects.

Yeahhhhh what sort of tests? In primary, those spelling tests and basic times tables, sure. You’d be hard pushed to find any child getting full marks for any/all secondary endeavours requiring essay responses etc. Although some full marks, obv. Out of my three, they mostly pull 95-100s, but at that level the kids are supposed to self-extend. There isn’t a limit to the possibilities of most essays. So teachers really are under remit to point out where the paper could have been (even) better.
Without knowing ages and what you are counting as ‘tests’ it’s hard to say.

Year 1 going into year 2

Oh well yes. That kind of thing is very fact based, so a child who understands basic maths and spellings will find it easy to regurgitate the answers. Mostly at that point there isn’t any learning involved for that type of kid. Probably haven’t bothered to look at the weekly spellings list anyway, so a mistake will be because of that
They aren’t really tests of critical thinking or any in depth knowledge/ understanding. A mistake would be a silly mistake/ misread rather than an indication of not knowing or understanding something.

I actually don’t think those tests are in any way indicative of whether a child is being stretched though. They are just cookie cutter snapshots. The real stretching at that point will be speech and discussion based during activities. Those tests don’t mean much in that context at all.

You won’t have a test result that displays extension at this point.

I'm thinking about it also in the context of whether a child is being stretched enough

I'm not impressed with the ideas of Y1 tests, but yes any test is going to be undifferentiated by its nature, and most of them are going to be designed that lots of kids get most of the them right, Y1 is all about practice and repetition to breed fluency, they're not really testing what is actually known, just giving practice.

Agree with blackdog and SirFred. My DD (able but probably not gifted) does very well in tests, but the only way I know she’s being stretched in Y2 is because she tells me about the conversations she has with the teacher and the head, and she doesn’t complain of being bored (unlike last year).

Personally, DS wasn't getting all the answers correct in y 1-2. He started getting better at formal exams/maths tests/spelling tests in year 3 and 4, and was occasionally getting all the answers correct in some tests, but not all tests. The school has to test all the children at the same level as they have to benchmark them really, and see what the gaps are (if a number of children don't get answer 3 correctly then they teach it again). I didn't pay much attention to test results TBH.

Do you expect that a gifted child will have all their tests different from the other children in year 1-2? Or do you expect that the teaching will be different? it's two separate things.

My DD rarely gets 100%. But if it is too easy she doesn’t pay proper attention. She is incredibly fast though. She was given a Y4 maths test which she thought she had 30 seconds per question. She finished in 2 1/2 minutes. The time she had was actually 15 minutes. She made a few silly mistakes but was close to 100%. Her speed gets in the way of her accuracy but it doesn’t stop the work from being much too easy.

My child is not gifted and age 16 she is predicted to get Grades 6/7 in her science GCSE's that she has just taken.

However I was very concerned (and complained) that back in Year 8/9 she was regularly getting over 80% in science exams but was not being taught higher content material in mixed ability classes. The errors were silly mistakes/content she hadn't been taught.

Twofish: ”Do you expect that a gifted child will have all their tests different from the other children in year 1-2? Or do you expect that the teaching will be different? it's two separate things.”

I started off expecting both.

I soon realised that even the top group spellings didn’t extend beyond year group expected levels. After posting on the subject a few months ago on MN I was advised to consider myself lucky that DD didn’t need to learn spellings at home, and leave it at that. I now recognise that the tests are pretty meaningless for bright children at this age.

Differentiation in teaching is much more important. The problem is, it’s harder to spot as a parent, especially if your child is not the chatty type.