Iowa test scores coming back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can one prep for the Iowa test? DC is in 7th at a parochial, and they use Iowa among other things to determine their math for 8th grade. Is it just the Mercer Publishing guide/practice tests?

Plenty of places have prep programs. I know RSM has an IAAT prep class. I am sure that there are other ones out there. DS has participated in math competitions since third grade, I am guessing that those will help him on a test like the IAAT because he is used to timed tests.

[Anonymous]

We got our results on the 17th via email. Daughter scored in the 96th percentile. She's definitely good at math but has always just missed pass advanced on her math SOLs by about 3-5 points so that may be what holds her back in terms of "officially" making the cutoff.

However, I am not sure I want her in Algebra Honors as a 7th grader due to the difficulty of later math classes. She has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up (though she has expressed some interest in science careers) so I just don't know what pushing her so early is worthwhile. I find these threads very enlightening and would love to hear from more parents who DID take Algebra 1 Honors in 7th and how they're doing now later on down the line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got our results on the 17th via email. Daughter scored in the 96th percentile. She's definitely good at math but has always just missed pass advanced on her math SOLs by about 3-5 points so that may be what holds her back in terms of "officially" making the cutoff.

However, I am not sure I want her in Algebra Honors as a 7th grader due to the difficulty of later math classes. She has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up (though she has expressed some interest in science careers) so I just don't know what pushing her so early is worthwhile. I find these threads very enlightening and would love to hear from more parents who DID take Algebra 1 Honors in 7th and how they're doing now later on down the line.

Your daughter sounds a bit like my 7th grader. She either had PA by a few points, or missed it by a few points in prior years. I told her that unless she had a SOL of above 550, we won't consider Algebra 1. So, she brought home a 565, and is in Algebra 1 now. So far, so good. Her grade in the class is something like a 98.

FWIW, English has been much more difficult than math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got our results on the 17th via email. Daughter scored in the 96th percentile. She's definitely good at math but has always just missed pass advanced on her math SOLs by about 3-5 points so that may be what holds her back in terms of "officially" making the cutoff.

However, I am not sure I want her in Algebra Honors as a 7th grader due to the difficulty of later math classes. She has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up (though she has expressed some interest in science careers) so I just don't know what pushing her so early is worthwhile. I find these threads very enlightening and would love to hear from more parents who DID take Algebra 1 Honors in 7th and how they're doing now later on down the line.

I think my daughter got 93rd percentile on the IAAT in 2019-20, and didn't take SOLs because of the pandemic, so everyone who scored well on the IAAT had the option to take Algebra I Honors in 7th. She got an A in Alg I Honors in 7th (all remote because of pandemic), A in Geometry Honors in 8th (in person) and is now getting an A in Algebra II Accelerated (we moved to a different state but school has similar math rigor). We'll see what happens in pre-cal and beyond, but so far so good.

[Anonymous]

We still haven’t gotten the results!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got our results on the 17th via email. Daughter scored in the 96th percentile. She's definitely good at math but has always just missed pass advanced on her math SOLs by about 3-5 points so that may be what holds her back in terms of "officially" making the cutoff.

However, I am not sure I want her in Algebra Honors as a 7th grader due to the difficulty of later math classes. She has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up (though she has expressed some interest in science careers) so I just don't know what pushing her so early is worthwhile. I find these threads very enlightening and would love to hear from more parents who DID take Algebra 1 Honors in 7th and how they're doing now later on down the line.

Your daughter sounds a bit like my 7th grader. She either had PA by a few points, or missed it by a few points in prior years. I told her that unless she had a SOL of above 550, we won't consider Algebra 1. So, she brought home a 565, and is in Algebra 1 now. So far, so good. Her grade in the class is something like a 98.

FWIW, English has been much more difficult than math.

Is your daughter in honors English?

I’m one of the PPs whose kid wants Algebra, plus honors everything except English, because she doesn’t love writing. And I’m trying to let her steer this process, because I figure it will be harder to do the farther we get down this road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can one prep for the Iowa test? DC is in 7th at a parochial, and they use Iowa among other things to determine their math for 8th grade. Is it just the Mercer Publishing guide/practice tests?

There are prep workbooks on Amazon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can one prep for the Iowa test? DC is in 7th at a parochial, and they use Iowa among other things to determine their math for 8th grade. Is it just the Mercer Publishing guide/practice tests?

There are prep workbooks on Amazon.

+1
I didn’t even know there is a prep class for IOWA. I bought a IAAT workbook for my daughter just to see what types of questions.
Not that hard questions for take algebra 1. If they didn’t get a good score, they are not ready to take algebra 1 in 7th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can one prep for the Iowa test? DC is in 7th at a parochial, and they use Iowa among other things to determine their math for 8th grade. Is it just the Mercer Publishing guide/practice tests?

Speaking as a Tiger Mom, there are prep materials for Iowa, which you shouldn't use. Why do you want to plunge into something intensive where he'd struggle when he'd be better off using the time to solidify the basics?

If you want to improve his pre-algebra skills so he is better at math, work on his pre-algebra skills. Don't just try to cram for the Iowa test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can one prep for the Iowa test? DC is in 7th at a parochial, and they use Iowa among other things to determine their math for 8th grade. Is it just the Mercer Publishing guide/practice tests?

The test material is EASY. The hard part is working through the questions quickly and accurately. Just work on that. We used a workbook from Amazon and the material was considerably harder than the test. The timing aspect, and answering questions on the basis of graphs and charts (which had been de-emphasized during the pandemic) were the only useful things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can one prep for the Iowa test? DC is in 7th at a parochial, and they use Iowa among other things to determine their math for 8th grade. Is it just the Mercer Publishing guide/practice tests?

The test material is EASY. The hard part is working through the questions quickly and accurately. Just work on that. We used a workbook from Amazon and the material was considerably harder than the test. The timing aspect, and answering questions on the basis of graphs and charts (which had been de-emphasized during the pandemic) were the only useful things.

I would agree with this. DC got in the 96th percentile, and I suspect most of the questions he missed were a result of him not reading the question thoroughly due to the time constraint. That being said, I'm torn about him doing Algebra next year, but he seems to want to do it so we'll see.

[Anonymous]

This is interesting. My DC scored in the 65th percentile. DC came home sharing classmates’ scores — only a couple of kids they know scored above the 91st percentile. This is a LLIV school, and half of the sixth-grade is in advanced math.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing that data point. Do you mind sharing either the school or pyramid?

[Anonymous]

Robinson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. My DC scored in the 65th percentile. DC came home sharing classmates’ scores — only a couple of kids they know scored above the 91st percentile. This is a LLIV school, and half of the sixth-grade is in advanced math.

DS is in Advanced Math at Fox Mill. The parents of kids who are now in MS said very few kids from Fox Mill end up in Algebra in 7th grade. I have not heard about IAAT scores but I know that many of the AAP qualified kids stay at Fox Mill and I would guess that many of those parents are less concerned if their kid ends up in Algebra in 7th grade. There are plenty of places were there is not a huge focus on accelerating math or AAP as a whole.