WPPSI/WISC Myths

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

4. That said, scores do have importance. If there is a 30 point discrepancy between, say, VIQ and PIQ, I might want to investigate a little more why this may be and how it might impact the child. If the scores are all consistently below average, moreover, I would have some concerns.

Do you find this is true even when the child is so young (say three years old) when tested? Isn't the reliability of these tests quite low at that age? Does a discrepancy of this nature really indicate a potential problem?

[Anonymous]

All I know is, DS's tester did not discern that he had been prepped (by me, at home) for the WPPSI prior to K.

Or, if he did, then he didn't put that suspicion in his 2=page narrative and he also didn't know which schools would get his report (so he couldn't have tipped them off in a phone call). So DS's school doesn't know, either.

I just needed to ensure, for myself, that DS would exceed a certain % benchmark and not be thrown out of the running. I wasn't aiming to move the needle from 94% to 99% and claim "Genius! My son is a genius!"

He was admitted to a couple schools, rejected/waitlisted at one. He's at the top of his class now in 5th grade, which might lead you to conclude that he didn't need prepping in the first place. You are right, but I wasn't willing to risk it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All I know is, DS's tester did not discern that he had been prepped (by me, at home) for the WPPSI prior to K.

Or, if he did, then he didn't put that suspicion in his 2=page narrative and he also didn't know which schools would get his report (so he couldn't have tipped them off in a phone call). So DS's school doesn't know, either.

I just needed to ensure, for myself, that DS would exceed a certain % benchmark and not be thrown out of the running. I wasn't aiming to move the needle from 94% to 99% and claim "Genius! My son is a genius!"

He was admitted to a couple schools, rejected/waitlisted at one. He's at the top of his class now in 5th grade, which might lead you to conclude that he didn't need prepping in the first place. You are right, but I wasn't willing to risk it.

Interesting. I just got back a so-so WPPSI score and have been stressing me out that I did no prep and didn't even tell my son anything about what to expect. After getting his score back, I googled WPPSI prep and found all that is out there. My husband has been talking me off the ledge, reminding that these tests have been shown to have such a weak correlation with future academic success that it is a wonder anyone uses them at all. I find this cold comfort if getting an average score will permanently rule out many options that might have existed. I do think any school really using the score as a predictor should refresh their research but, if every school is doing it, I guess the schools are not concerned about appearing uninformed. What a frustrating criterion!

[Anonymous]

Is doing puzzle workbooks, matching, rhyming, same differen workbooks considered prep?

[Anonymous]

Is doing puzzle workbooks, matching, rhyming, same differen workbooks considered prep?

Prep for some and cheating for others as you may introduce the child to similar concepts on the actual exercise. Then you have all the liars --- much larger category in these parts of town (wall street, lawyer and political crowd --- with low ethical standards in general and lack of a moral compass)

[Anonymous]

My kid was accepted to any school we wanted because I am fabulously wealthy. That's the kind of schools and people we are talking about here in Washington. Sure makes my life easy!

[Anonymous]

I seriously cannot believe anyone preps their child for an IQ test.

[Anonymous]

We did no prep for the WISC-IV test, but DD regularly does puzzles and other "educational" games anyway, and I would not consider this to be "prep." They even do these things in school. Anyway, DD got a 94% overall, and we stressed a bit when word of mouth had it that many of her classmates did better. But there was no need, as we were accepted at several schools, including a "top 3" that rejected some of her higher-testing friends. As the OP said, many factors are weighed, including grades, teacher recommendations, personality, attitude (of the child and the parents), etc.

[Anonymous]

In reply to 08:59, while I generally agree that you cannot really prepare for an IQ test, I believe that teaching a child how to approach solving problems and exposing them to different types of intellectual exercises is helpful to give the child confidence that they can figure out something that haven't done before. I don't consider that to be test prep, since I think it has a much broader application in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In reply to 08:59, while I generally agree that you cannot really prepare for an IQ test, I believe that teaching a child how to approach solving problems and exposing them to different types of intellectual exercises is helpful to give the child confidence that they can figure out something that haven't done before. I don't consider that to be test prep, since I think it has a much broader application in life.

I did not say you cannot prep a child for an IQ test...just that I cannot believe anyone would actually do it. Educating and stimulating your child, which is a part of parenting, surely provides some boost to an IQ score, but doing those things for the purpose of that boost rather than teaching your child a love of learning, etc. is terrible. Copies of tests, workbooks, classes, tutors, to "teach" the IQ test...just awful.