Gifted & Talented

What and why is it important

Our children are sent to school to learn. To learn, the material must be new. Most people only learn how to swim once. You would not put someone who knows how to swim in a beginner’s class no matter his age. Once you have learned the front crawl, you want to move on to other strokes, like the butterfly. Spending time swimming laps while your classmates are still figuring out side breathing is time spent not learning. The classroom is no different. Some children are ahead of their classmates in academics. Re-learning the material makes no sense for them. Some children learn much quicker than others. Giving them additional worksheets (“swimming laps”) will not teach them more. At Young Minds In Motion we focus on what material is academically aligned, not age aligned.

How do we continue this once they leave Young Minds in Motion?

NYC already has a program in place for these students; they have to qualify by passing an exam. Here are the details. The NYC Gifted and Talented Test is an assessment administered by the city’s Department of Education (DOE) to identify gifted children aged 4-7 (students who are entering Kindergarten through third grade) and determine their eligibility for admission into New York City’s G&T schools and programs. NYC’s G&T test includes two equal portions derived from two commonly administered gifted assessments:

• Verbal section of the OLSAT® (Otis-Lennon School Abilities Test®, Eighth Edition) – comprises 50% of the composite score
• Nonverbal section of the NNAT®-2 (Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Test, Second Edition) – comprises 50% of the composite score

There are two types of Gifted & Talented programs. Admission to these programs are based on your child’s test score:

• District G&T programs are offered at district elementary schools. They prioritize admitting students who live in the local communities served by the school. You are only eligible to apply to these programs if you score a 90 or above.
• Citywide G&T schools accept students from all boroughs. There is no admission priority given based on where you live. You are only eligible to apply to these programs if you score a 97 or above.

Sample NYC Gifted and Talented Questions

Wondering what kinds of questions your child will be asked on the NYC Gifted and Talented Test? Here are five examples.

IMPORTANT: While the NYC Gifted and Talented Test sample questions shown on this page are representative of what your child will be seeing, they are not directly taken from the actual test being administered this year.

 

NYC Gifted Test Sample Question #1 — OLSAT® (Otis-Lennon School Abilities Test®, Eighth Edition), Following Directions

Parent, say to your child: “Point to the picture that shows a bird flying.” 

NYC Gifted Test Sample Question #2 — OLSAT®, Aural Reasoning

Parent, say to your child: “Point to the picture that shows two animals that children often keep as pets.”

NYC Gifted Test Sample Question #3 — NNAT®-2 (Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, Second Edition), Reasoning by Analogy

Parent, say to your child: “Look at this puzzle.” Point to the empty box and say, “Something is missing.” Then point to the answer choices and say, “Which of these answer choices goes here?” (Be sure to point back to the empty box when you say “here.”)

NYC Gifted Test Sample Question #4 — NNAT®-2, Spatial Visualization:

Parent, say to your child: “Look at this puzzle.” Point to the empty box and say, “Something is missing.” Then point to the answer choices and say, “Which of these answer choices goes here?” (Be sure to point back to the empty box when you say “here.”)

NYC Gifted Test Sample Question #5 — Stanford-Binet® V (Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition®), Matrices

Parent, say to your child: “Do you see these four boxes? The pictures in the top row go together in a certain way. Now, look at the bottom row. Do you see the empty box? Which of the four pictures shown in the answer choices on the right goes with the picture in the bottom left box the same way that the two pictures in the top row go together?”

In 2016 NYC Gifted &Talented program tested 14,513 kindergarten students only 4,539 became eligible. There were only 2,507 students that were offered slots throughout the city.  Staten Island only had on 2% of those applicants to be offered slots. As you can see from the numbers G&T programs are in high demand with a low number of slots. Being prepared for the exam is of extreme importance.

 

At Young Minds in Motion we will provide Test Readiness classes and prepare your child for the exam and a higher understanding in everyday interactions