**IAAT Results- post here (2020)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't it mean that a student received 99% correct, rather than being the top 1 percentile?

No. It's a percentile rank. I think 91st percentile corresponds to around 43 correct out of 60 problems.

[Anonymous]

62%

[Anonymous]

45%. My child is in 6th grade doing advanced math and the 7th grade sol. They essentially skipped an sol/combined a year of math to do this, so I don’t care that she got that grade and they will do 7th grade honors math anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:45%. My child is in 6th grade doing advanced math and the 7th grade sol. They essentially skipped an sol/combined a year of math to do this, so I don’t care that she got that grade and they will do 7th grade honors math anyway.

Isn't everyone's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:45%. My child is in 6th grade doing advanced math and the 7th grade sol. They essentially skipped an sol/combined a year of math to do this, so I don’t care that she got that grade and they will do 7th grade honors math anyway.

Isn't everyone's?

All of the ones in AAP or advanced math. It's like 40% of the total FCPS 6th graders.

If my child scored a 45%, I would be worried that my child had a really poor understanding of many of the concepts from 3rd-6th grade math. M7H might even be a huge struggle next year for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Page 27 of this link shows the raw score to percentile conversion chart for IAAT

https://static.abeka.com/ABT/Resources/PDFs/AbtRiversideGuide.pdf

Children can get 8 problems wrong out of 60 and still land in the 99th percentile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Page 27 of this link shows the raw score to percentile conversion chart for IAAT

https://static.abeka.com/ABT/Resources/PDFs/AbtRiversideGuide.pdf

Children can get 8 problems wrong out of 60 and still land in the 99th percentile.

Wow!

[Anonymous]

Guess not many want to post results!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guess not many want to post results!

This is one of the tests that makes a lot of parents especially sensitive. Most people don't want to admit to a low score, because it shows that the child isn't as smart as the parents would like to think. People don't want to post high scores, because they get accused of bragging and invite snarky comments about how all of the kids in the top 1% are in FCPS.

I'd love to see stats across all of the FCPS schools. When a decent number of kids in an AAP classroom aren't even close to meeting the IAAT benchmark, it means that either FCPS is being overly generous with allowing kids into AAP who clearly don't belong in accelerated math, or the math teachers at that school are especially bad.

[Anonymous]

Well, I can post, not sure what difference it makes - it's an anonymous forum:

98%

The bigger question is what is the best placement for my child (not any child or your child.) My son is headed to ward engineering, most likely. He has specific and deep interests in software engineering, uses production level coding (not just a generic Python), and pursues his engineering activity outside school. He is good at math but not particularly passionate about it. He didn't prep, in fact I forgot the date for the exam, and when he reminded me the night before I felt like a gigantic failure, but in hindsight I have no idea how I would have prepped him. He does math enrichment outside school (AoPS) as the school AAP program is not exactly challenging.

He is not interested in TJ.
He will be headed to an IB school.

I am unclear as to:
- What benefit Algebra I in 7th provides, other than seemingly Math 7 Honors may be easy for him. I would want him to take math in a rising progression up until and including his senior year in HS, so he can start college with calculus fresh in his mind - the IB schools now offer IB Comp Sci or IB Econ as a math course but that will do kids a disservice, in my opinion. Even if he did take Multivar Calc, he would have to retake that in college - no reputable engineering program will accept those credits from HS or GMU. So what are we getting for Algebra I, if the kid isn't headed to TJ, even if the level is right for him? And what's the right thing to do here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I can post, not sure what difference it makes - it's an anonymous forum:

98%

The bigger question is what is the best placement for my child (not any child or your child.) My son is headed to ward engineering, most likely. He has specific and deep interests in software engineering, uses production level coding (not just a generic Python), and pursues his engineering activity outside school. He is good at math but not particularly passionate about it. He didn't prep, in fact I forgot the date for the exam, and when he reminded me the night before I felt like a gigantic failure, but in hindsight I have no idea how I would have prepped him. He does math enrichment outside school (AoPS) as the school AAP program is not exactly challenging.

He is not interested in TJ.
He will be headed to an IB school.

I am unclear as to:
- What benefit Algebra I in 7th provides, other than seemingly Math 7 Honors may be easy for him. I would want him to take math in a rising progression up until and including his senior year in HS, so he can start college with calculus fresh in his mind - the IB schools now offer IB Comp Sci or IB Econ as a math course but that will do kids a disservice, in my opinion. Even if he did take Multivar Calc, he would have to retake that in college - no reputable engineering program will accept those credits from HS or GMU. So what are we getting for Algebra I, if the kid isn't headed to TJ, even if the level is right for him? And what's the right thing to do here?

If he is ready, it buys him a continuation of challenging and fun math appropriate for his age and interests. At any point, he can decide to scale back but I think he should not take a break because “what will he do as a senior” - it will become obvious as your son grows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I can post, not sure what difference it makes - it's an anonymous forum:

98%

The bigger question is what is the best placement for my child (not any child or your child.) My son is headed to ward engineering, most likely. He has specific and deep interests in software engineering, uses production level coding (not just a generic Python), and pursues his engineering activity outside school. He is good at math but not particularly passionate about it. He didn't prep, in fact I forgot the date for the exam, and when he reminded me the night before I felt like a gigantic failure, but in hindsight I have no idea how I would have prepped him. He does math enrichment outside school (AoPS) as the school AAP program is not exactly challenging.

He is not interested in TJ.
He will be headed to an IB school.

I am unclear as to:
- What benefit Algebra I in 7th provides, other than seemingly Math 7 Honors may be easy for him. I would want him to take math in a rising progression up until and including his senior year in HS, so he can start college with calculus fresh in his mind - the IB schools now offer IB Comp Sci or IB Econ as a math course but that will do kids a disservice, in my opinion. Even if he did take Multivar Calc, he would have to retake that in college - no reputable engineering program will accept those credits from HS or GMU. So what are we getting for Algebra I, if the kid isn't headed to TJ, even if the level is right for him? And what's the right thing to do here?

If he is ready, it buys him a continuation of challenging and fun math appropriate for his age and interests. At any point, he can decide to scale back but I think he should not take a break because “what will he do as a senior” - it will become obvious as your son grows.

Thank you, I myself am coming around to this perspective. I will have a call with the HS math department to see what they think of the options, but I was so put off by the enormous effort the MS teachers made to make sure no one signs up for Algebra I Honors in 7th. I can see how they have been burned by the TJ striving crowd (I myself am allergic to those), and I do want to make sure the peer group is good for my son. He will continue with AoPS as the level of instruction and challenge there is so much superior to that in the public school, and the next level there is Algebra I (there is nothing between Pre-Algebra, and Algebra I, and as I read the Math 7 H description online, it just is more pre-algebra.) The fact he showed up for the IAAT having totally forgotten about it, and got this score tells me whatever knowledge he has is solid and lasting.

Apologies for my stream of consciousness...

[Anonymous]

99%
My kid has always loved and “gotten” math. While I’m not sure honors will be the best fit for my younger son, this seems like the perfect path for my oldest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ literally 5 posts so far. But yes I would I expect an outsized chunk of top scorers to live here.

Yes, there are lots of bright kids here but...

I used to teach in Fcps. We used to say, “A small percentage of the population is highly gifted and they all live in Fairfax County.” Hint: we did not believe that they all lived in FX.

IAAT isn't an intelligence test, and we don't know anything about the norming group. It may include all 6th or 7th graders, including the ones who haven't yet been exposed to pre-algebra.
Since it's measuring mastery of pre-algebra skills, it's not surprising that kids who are at least brighter than average and are currently taking pre-algebra would do well. Also, FCPS has many kids who are already taking algebra in some sort of outside math class by 6th. Those kids are likely to test as "ready for algebra" on IAAT.

You’re missing the translation: many, many parents of kids in this area think their kids are smarter than they are.

I'm not missing the translation. I think the IAAT is a poor example. A 99th percentile score in IAAT doesn't mean the kid is gifted in math. It just means that the kid is prepared for Algebra next year. Since so many people are making sure that their kids are prepared for Algebra in 7th, it's hardly surprising that kids are testing in that range.

I think a lot of parents are in denial about how much economic privilege, outside enrichment, and direct prepping can increase scores.

I think it just means that smart parents, who overwhelmingly disproportionately live in zipcodes around DC, tend to have smart kids.

[Anonymous]

My kid got 86%tile. Is there any way to retest? She is pretty disappointed.

I don't think she is that good at math personally, but she didn't prep at all and still came close.