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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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/[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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