Is my year 3 DS on track?

[mum-of-two]

Looking for some thoughts from parents whose DC's are a bit older than my DS. He is in year 3 now and is a June baby so still only 7. It was parents evening last night and in the absence of the levels to assess his current ability they had done INCAS tests. He came out with a reading and comprehension age 2 years above his actual age and for maths he came out at 2.5 years above. The teacher said that if he carries on his current progress she thought he'd get into the grammar schools in our area but just wondered if this reflects anyone else's experiences.

Thanks

[SlighlyStressedMum]

My ds is an August birthday. He has always been working a year or more ahead and was at the end of yr 3. He just got a place at our local grammar for September.
I don't think you need to worry about it at all yet though. We didn't do anything really until he was in yr 5, when he started group tuition (one hour a week) for the year before the test.
I guess it depends on the type of test where you are, competitiveness for places in your area, and how you feel about the local comprehensives but I found that my son only really need familiarisation with the type of questions used in the exam rather than actual tutoring to be able to answer them.

[PettswoodFiona]

DD did INCaS throughout her prep years. For the age she was always many years ahead and for the scores typically got 135 or over. She did really well in the grammar tests and starts in September at a highly sought after superselective but some of her friends dod worse in the INCaS tests and better in the grammar. I just think some tests suit DCs better then others so it can be a helpful indication but can't be taken in isolation. when DD got the max score for Maths three years in a row in the INCaS which technically put her in the top half a percent - I knew it wasn't something to be relied on as whilst in the top set in maths there were others in her class doing better on a daily basis so yes the tests identified she had a flair for maths but for her over-inflates her ability and for others didn't quite show their true ability.

[Hope4Ken]

Thank you. That's really helpful.

[raa]

what is incas test? can someone explain it please

[PurpleDuck]

InCAS stands for Interactive Computerised Assessment System and it is one of CEM (Durham University) assessment tools. There is more info about it in a CEM document below:

http://www.cem.org/attachments/Getting% ... 072014.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;