Transition from elementary to middle school is a big deal. Gifted kids are no exception. Based on personal experience, sixth grade is not like any previous elementary grades. Introduction to different placement tests, meeting with councillors, choice of electives, official twelve year old tag, the teenage growth spurt, attitude, constant quest to prove their point, it’s all coming at them faster than they can handle. You are the lucky ones to witness it all ! The year is demanding on all fronts and academics in particular. We will discuss testing during sixth grade first. Throughout the year, assessments and exams seem to be an endless cycle. Needless to say, it impacts their grades to some extent.
This could be hard on the talented kids who have not seen anything but all ‘A’s so far. Give them time and space to adjust to this change. I think parents need to prepare kids to handle the change as it’s going to continue here onwards. Preparation could be to manage time effectively. Increased workload can only be handled by spreading tasks thin. In California, all sixth grade students take a math placement test sometime before spring break. Idea of the placement test is to find out their depth of knowledge on concepts covered in first half of the grade curriculum. Students who pass the test, can choose to take Accelerated Pathway for Math in 7th and 8th grade. Gifted or not, each student should appreciate opportunity to show off math skills among all the talented kids around. There is a lot of information worth sharing about this test. Some knowns and some unknowns that worry parents more than kids.
Nature of Exam – Exam is usually two sets of problems. Each set is twenty problems to solve in forty-five minutes. Some problems can have multiple possible answers. Problem usually hints if there are more than one possibility. You can expect challenging questions on chosen units from textbooks. Exam is usually objective in nature and its a paper-pencil test.
Evaluation – A passing score of 60% with 100% accuracy is required to pass the test. There are no sample questions available from the school districts.
How to prepare – Every text book unit typically highlights learning targets at the beginning of that units. This exam is to find out if that target has achieved.
Preparation for any exam would be on mark by mastering math strategies. Competitive math exam books often describe popular math strategies and how to use those. These techniques are the tools to get the job done.