Reply to Prepping for aptitude/iq tests

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just a word of caution, if you're preparing a child for the WISC, and they mention to the evaluator that they've seen similar questions before, some (possibly all) providers may consider the results invalid.

In my experience, aside from helping the child become familiar with the format of tests like the CogAT or NNAT, scores generally don’t shift dramatically with prep. You might get more value by focusing on general test-taking strategies, things like staying calm and following directions carefully.[/quote]

I do t understand the connection between “providers will invalidate the score if they find that you’re familiar with the type of questions” and “you can’t really increase your score by prepping”. 
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Neither the WISC nor the CogAT were normed using kids who were already familiar with the types of questions asked, and no one really knows the extent to which prepping will increase a score.  There wouldn't be a huge $$$ prep industry if it had no effect.  We also wouldn't see 10% of the FCPS kids scoring in the national top 2% if prep had little effect.  But it's also likely that you can't prep a completely average kid into having gifted level scores.  I would guess that a 5-15 point increase would be expected or possible with prep.

One of the reasons you can't take the CogAT multiple times in a year or the WISC within a 2 year timeframe is that they use the same questions.  So, it's not a case of being familiar with the types of questions being asked so much as it is remembering the exact same questions that were previously asked.  I doubt evaluators are invalidating results if it seems like the kid has worked on similar tasks before.  Every kid who has previously taken the CogAT and NNAT would have some familiarity with some of the types of questions asked on the WISC.  It's more an issue if the kid seems like they perhaps took the WISC 3 months ago from a different provider, but didn't disclose that.  Or if the kid seems like they've been heavily drilled in WISC type problems.

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