Reply to How exactly do children get selected for AAP?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just a friendly note to parents who feel icky about prepping for the the CogAT and NNAT. By virtue of the fact that the tests are trainable (extremely trainable) they are not really reliable indicators of native intelligence. So, you should not feel like you are gaming an intelligence test because they are absolutely not at all reliable or good as intelligence tests. I have personally trained above average kids to perform on these tests as if they were geniuses. Prep your kid if that's what's going to help you sleep at night if AAP is that important to you.

Only intelligence tests administered in a clinical setting by a licensed professional are reliable.[/quote]

Not true. These tests are not different in kind from IQ tests (I am a researcher who has administered IQ tests to children). Matrix reasoning, for example, appears on these tests in some form and is an index of fluid intelligence. IQ as indexed by IQ tests is trainable, but that's not going to transfer broadly to other indices of IQ. Verbal knowledge is also tested in IQ tests and of course that's trainable, just as you can practice matrix reasoning. There's likely a limit to improvements made by practicing items but to the extent that you can improve your score by training, why not? It shows you and your kid are highly motivated, can learn, and these things are likely well correlated with success in AAP and beyond.

It is true that a highly intelligent person completing these tests with no prep would get a result that is a better measure of something like IQ (although they may have been partly "prepped" by a life of privilege and enrichment). But ultimately what matters is what the tests tell others about likely success in an advanced program. What evidence is there that prepping leads to kids being ill prepared for advanced work in AAP?

There is nothing magical about a licensed clinician administering an IQ test. [/quote]

When we appealed, we had DC take the WISC privately. It helped bolster their case and they were admitted.[/quote]

This widely used tactic is often successful. Wear them down by repeatedly appealing. [/quote]

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