assessment fears!

Well, I don’t know for sure what tests they’ll give you. I had an eval done myself — but by that time I was aawfullly familiar with some of the commonly administered tests like the Weschler Intelligece Scale, so those weren’t given (I *know* I’d have been a genius :-))
Much of the testing is like a bunch of puzzles or quizzes — so the best approach is to try to think of ways to do well at ‘em and even have fun. YEa, that’s right — after all, this is for your information, it’s not going to get put on a report card! Listen close to directions… and they’re not trick questions. And realize that most of the tests start at a guess of where you are, andthen get harder and harder — so if you feel like you couldn’t do anythng because there were always questions you coudln’t answer or things you couldn’t do, remember this is *not* a HIstory test fo the chapter you were supposed to study — to try to rank the high end, they get pretty hard!
I remember reading aabout a study in which two groups of students were given IQ tests — but one group was told they were IQ tests, of ability, and the others were told something else…. and the other group did significantly better — that’s to say, statistically significant, and that is hard to come by in the research world. The groups were properly controlled so there really shouldn’t have been variation. (They were minority students — I’d be curious to know whether the same thing happened to Caucasians.) It rather screams that attitude and expectation have an awful lot to do with how well you do — so I suggest going in there with the firm knowledge that you will have strengths and turn on your “show-off” persona. Hey, you don’t have to worry, your weaknesses will display themselves — they probably don’t need *any* help, right
:wink:

Thank you for your input i appreciate it! That’s an interesting study about the peopel that new they were getting an IQ test and those that didn’t. So when I am tested will I know what tests I am getting and when? Or are they all mixed up or kept a secret?

They probably won’t tell you “Now we’re going to test your intelligence with teh Weschler…” — for one thing, that stuff *does* activate anxiety. However, the report you get *will* say what the test was, and should have a lot of details about the scores and what they mean. I’ve seen good reports and not so good — and since the folks testing me knew my background, even if they didn’t normally (I don’t know), they knew I would understand the analysis; I’ve gone through enoguh of other peoples’ test reports :-) So when you get the thing, I’d be glad to help translate any parts into “this is what that means in daily living” langauge.

thank you for that! I will come back and talk to you when I get my results! I’m excited to know hwat they have to say but also nervous! Why have you looked at so many results? are you a special education teacher?

I was — and that was one of the things I was really good at. (Now I’m helping college students — get to teach without having to make lesson plans, keep track of grades or, actually, hardly ever deal with somebody who doesn’t want to learn since people come to me).

I went to the students with disabilities office because I have a hearing loss, and I received an Assistiive Listening Device. But during the process of my program as a Jr/Sr….I had really bad test anxiety which impacted my grades. I was so frustrated because I am gifted but I was making ridiculous inattentive errors on exams. I was given the Nelson Denny Reading Test, the TOVA and I aced the TOVA which was for ADD, there was some kind of personality profile that showed how I thought, and what kind of student I was..I had to write about myself and my frustrations……but what really showed my ADDness was the Nelson Denny Test…My reading speed was way up there…my vocabulary knowledge was stellar…I aced the first half of the test but when I turned the page…on the reading comprehension part…I missed a bubble on the scantron and the rest of them were all wrong…the psychologist figured out what I had done and lined them up…bingo…

It was kind of fun actually…I got accomodations for testing which helped me…but I was really super careful on the scantrons from here on out…In graduate school I didn’t have any more scantrons…they were all short essays…That was a whole other nightmare…my ADDness showed there…”You are in the ballpark you just aren’t hitting the ball…” But guess what I got my MA and I am working at something I am good at and college test anxiety is now behind me…

You should not be nervous about having an IQ test. I know it sounds like this big scary monster, but really it is not bad. I am a graduate student, and in the last six months I have administered 19 IQ tests. Every single person I have administered a test to has become extremely nervous, and the anxiety can affect your performance. The examiner will inform you that you are not supposed to get every question right, and you are not, so keep that in mind. A lot of people get nervous and antsy when they know that they got something wrong, but don’t let it bother you, IQ tests are designed to measure people’s cognitive abilities from the lowest end of the spectrum to the highest end of the spectrum. Good Luck! :D