Private school testing for kindergarten?

[Anonymous]

A simpler and sober suggestion:

Why go to all that length, expense and trouble. At home, teach your kid great number sense and to read, write and speak. It's much, much, cheaper and rewarding. It's just as easy as teaching sports and playing video games...and costs pennies to boot.

[Anonymous]

The dial? not used in DC anywhere we applied...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A simpler and sober suggestion:

Why go to all that length, expense and trouble. At home, teach your kid great number sense and to read, write and speak. It's much, much, cheaper and rewarding. It's just as easy as teaching sports and playing video games...and costs pennies to boot.

But if we all do that, a great number of very highly trained and essential people won't be able to make their boat payments. /snark/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But if we all do that, a great number of very highly trained and essential people won't be able to make their boat payments. /snark/

Are you the person who keeps posting that the WPPSI is just a big scam to funnel money to child psychologists who provide the test? I really think you're overestimating how profitable these tests are. Here are two ways to think about it:

(1) I estimate the average test takes about 90 minutes of a psychologists time. That's about 45 minutes to administer the test; another 15 minutes to welcome the parents, get the child situated, and say goodbye when it's over; and then 30 minute to write up the results. If the psych charges $350 to administer the test, she's earning about $233/hour gross. There's surely a licensing fee of some sort to obtain the test, and office overhead costs. So in the end, she's earning maybe $150/hour off the test time. That's a very good living, but not "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," especially given the schooling required to get there. It's probably a comparable hourly rate to what these psychs charge for meeting with children who need help (maybe even less).

(2) I looked at Beauvoir's website, and I see the school lists 8 psychs who do the tests. That's a pretty good level of competition, so it probably holds down prices. If you estimate a total of about 300 children are applying each year for Beauvoir's 60 odd PK slots (assuming about a 20% admissions rate), that's 300 WPPSI tests provided by 8 testers, or 37 tests per psych. At $350 per test, that's gross income of only $13,000 per year attributable to the WPPSI tests. Yes, they're each providing tests for several different schools, so the number will increase. But it's still probably only a moderate percentage of what they earn from all sources.

And ultimately, if it's that profitable to administer the tests, I'd assume the "invisible hand" will just push more psychologists into offering this service and bringing down the price through competition.

I'm not a psychologist, and I'm just estimating the costs. Maybe some psychologist on this board will have better info on the costs/income. But I do not think this is the get-rich-quick scheme that you want to make it out to be.

[Anonymous]

Some psychologists I know prefer not to administer the WPPSI for precisely that reason-- it is a lot of work, much more than 30 minutes post-test, for not a lot of income. For example, to administer a full battery of tests to assess potential learning disabilities, the paycheck will be closer to $2,000. At $350-400 a pop, giving the IQ test alone just isn't a money maker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some psychologists I know prefer not to administer the WPPSI for precisely that reason-- it is a lot of work, much more than 30 minutes post-test, for not a lot of income. For example, to administer a full battery of tests to assess potential learning disabilities, the paycheck will be closer to $2,000. At $350-400 a pop, giving the IQ test alone just isn't a money maker.

Also, I think many (most?) educational psychologists chose the field because they want to help children with challenges...not to help private schools screen candidates. Many don't offer the service and those who do probably only spend a fraction of their time on this and spend most of their time actually helping "real" patients.

[Anonymous]

But if we all do that, a great number of very highly trained and essential people won't be able to make their boat payments. /snark/

???

[Anonymous]

But if we all do that, a great number of very highly trained and essential people won't be able to make their boat payments. /snark/

???

[Anonymous]

Same test results can be sent to multiple schools, so the 9:48 assessment is slightly off, but the point is taken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same test results can be sent to multiple schools, so the 9:48 assessment is slightly off, but the point is taken.

Good point.

That actually means they make even less on admissions testing.

[Anonymous]

Yes this thread was interesting to say the least but the facts remain most private schools administer The Dial or similar (30+ min teacher given on the premises "entrance exam" to see how your child ranks among other testers) and the WPPSI (psychological/IQ administered by a psychologist usually)
It makes no sense to just show up and take the test without having worked at least a practice test. Your child may know the material inside out and backwards (the stuff you have taught at home, alphabet, reading, colors, numbers, concepts and physical - catching/throwing etc that are on the test) but if the test format confuses them or makes them feel uncomfortable, they will not do as well as they potentially could. If they applying to a competitive school, an excellent test scores might be one of the deciding factors in their favor.
That SMARTY TEST PREP app for the iPad that someone wrote about earlier spells it out exactly to give you a head (or few) up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same test results can be sent to multiple schools, so the 9:48 assessment is slightly off, but the point is taken.

Good point.

That actually means they make even less on admissions testing.

So child psychologists actually lose money on these tests and perform them purely as a service to society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same test results can be sent to multiple schools, so the 9:48 assessment is slightly off, but the point is taken.

Good point.

That actually means they make even less on admissions testing.

So child psychologists actually lose money on these tests and perform them purely as a service to society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same test results can be sent to multiple schools, so the 9:48 assessment is slightly off, but the point is taken.

Good point. That actually means they make even less on admissions testing.

So child psychologists actually lose money on these tests and perform them purely as a service to society.

Keep your eyeroll to yourself. No one said they're losing money; just that administering the tests is not a big moneymaker, and may be less profitable than other psych services these professionals offer.

So why do they offer to administer the tests if they can get paid more for other psych services? Not my field, but I'd guess it's because (1) few psychologists have a steady 40-50 hours/week of higher-paying psych consulting appointments, so administering the tests is a good way to profitably fill time, and (2) administering tests creates a good first-contact point that can lead to other more-profitable work.

[Anonymous]

Hey, I like the eye roll. It's right on point.