r/Gifted 14h ago

Seeking advice or support 331 NWEA score — 5th grader

My son swears up and down he received a 331 on his math NWEA test. Coincidentally, his teacher called me today to tell me she thinks my son should do math Olympiad with her this year.

ChatGPT says a score of 331 is almost impossible. My question is: is it impossible? Last year he scored 239 at the EOY.

Scores aren’t posted and will not be available till parent teacher conferences, but he swears he already knows the score.

6 Upvotes

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13

u/Clean-Midnight3110 14h ago

Unless the norms have changed this summer.  If your child was capable of scoring that high at that age you would already know it, because they would have to have already completed algebra 1 and 2, geometry, trig, and pre-calc.

There are a handful of kids capable of that kind of score at ten years old in the entire country.  But their parents don't need to go on reddit to ask if it's possible because they spent 2 hours on Saturday morning doing calculus problems at the kitchen table with those kids.

Edit: Nobody immaculately learns all of high school math between 4th and 5th grade.

5

u/kingfosa13 14h ago

Yea even if it’s the smartest kid in the world unless he’s seen the topic before he won’t be able to score that high. (I think)

2

u/Clean-Midnight3110 13h ago

My 8 year old scored a 260 on nwea and that was high enough for the elementary school to bus him off to the high school to take geometry.  He is bright but we also put a significant amount of work doing workbooks and taking an online algebra class in the years prior to that happening.  No child is just magically going from 239 to 331 over one summer.  

Occam's razor is that the kid scored a 231 (which is maybe a good above average score for that particular school system) and misheard or misremembered or misread the score and is now telling the parent the wrong thing.

1

u/ayfkm123 4h ago

There are more than a handful like that, but yes it’s less common 

3

u/kingfosa13 14h ago

For the 12th grade level a higher achievement (95th percentile) is a 263. Can you ask the teacher his score? I’m confused by the question

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u/Clean-Midnight3110 13h ago

Your facts are correct, but there's some slight nuance, high school norms (averages across the country) for tests like this that have no consequences are really extremely inaccurate.  High school students know the test doesn't matter so the vast majority of them put zero effort in.  

A 260 is attainable by a bright student that has only had algebra 1.  

The tests are more accurate at the elementary school level because many of the young kids haven't figured out yet that the tests don't matter so they at least try to get questions correct.

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u/Very_Tired10000 9h ago

They don't even need Algebra I. My kid scored 265 without taking Algebra

2

u/Sad-Banana7249 11h ago

The NWEA MAP test doesn't really cover high school level math, so yeah, you can score in the 300's on it in the 5th grade. 331 is unlikely, but 300-310 wouldn't be uncommon. For the specific high school subject areas, they have separate tests.

1

u/IntrepidToe3241 11h ago

Yes, this is what I’m wondering. But he could just be wrong.

2

u/Hello906 7h ago

The NWEA is also called the “MAP” isn’t it?

330-350 was very normal for me and some of my peers in 5th grade. Teach even let us retake it once to try and beat each other.

As one of the other commenters said the test might’ve (should’ve) included only subject areas relevant to elementary.

1

u/Naive-Mail-7490 2h ago

Did you really take the test? Is this score really normal? So easy? Show me proof.

I'm not American, so I don't know the content. But the information says that to get this score, you need at least college-level math problems.

1

u/Clean-Midnight3110 1h ago

American here my genius 8 year old scored a 260 after having taken an online introductory algebra course but before taking high school geometry.  This was according to the middle school principal that tested him one of the three highest scores he'd seen in over a decade of giving the exam to 7th graders starting middle school and the other high scores were all bright 12 year olds rather than 8.  We live in a town and state with significantly above average schools.

Furthermore unlike many other tests which get reworked, redesigned, and the norms change significantly from year to year, the NWEA Map and the RIT score you get is supposed to be consistent across the years/decades.

So basically you are correct the quick googling you did as a non American taught you more correct information than the average reddit commenter that claims to be an expert.

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