We're doing some standardized testing this week and probably next, so we won't be doing our regular schoolwork this week. We are using the California Achievement Test (CAT) that is available online through www.academicexcellence.com. It's $25, you can get the untimed version and break it up over the week or even two weeks. It scores almost immediately. It's actually a great way to introduce how to take a standardized test, because a lot of homeschoolers in Texas don't have any experience with standardized tests. It's helpful to test once in middle school so they learn some strategies and are familiar with what these tests look like.
What I am learning from testing this week is that my son has no stamina. We only did three sections today and he's wiped out. He also started getting nausea and a headache from looking at the computer screen. So we are going to need to break this test up even more than I already had planned. Also, the reading comprehension score is probably not accurate because he literally knew all the answers before even reading the passage. The reading passages were science-themed and he knew the answers to the questions.
So far, he scored in the 96th percentile for spelling, the 99th percentile for reading comprehension and the 75th percentile for vocabulary. Those scores feel like a bit of a mystery to me. I'm not sure why he struggled so much with vocabulary/word meaning, but it was noticeable when he was taking the test that he was uncertain what a number of the word meanings.
