Customer Reviews

Test Prep, Grade 3 (Spectrum)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book for my 8 1/2-year-old homschooled son. We just moved to a state requiring standardized testing, and I wanted to get an idea now of how he would do when I still have a year to work with him. Overall, I found this book to be okay, but not great.

Positives
1. Relatively inexpensive.

2. Breaks questions within each subject (math, science, language arts) up by category so that you can easily see which areas need improvement.

3. Answer key in the back.


Negatives
1. There is really no information about test mechanics. How long does the student have? The practice tests give you no idea of what time frame they are to be completed in. Or of testing strategies. I also had no idea if they were the standard length of a "real test" or just a shortened sampling. And there was no explanation about how the tests are scored (percentiles and such).

2. How did he do? The mini-tests at the end of several sections tell you how many you should get right before moving on. But the full practice tests for each subject give you no idea of what number of problems would be normal for a child to miss. So, if my child missed 4 out of 22, would that be average, below average, or above average?

3. Not enough practice questions. Each section is short, then you take the mini-test after a few sections, and then what do you do if the end result is you need to review? No more questions to do it with.

4. Practice tests not thorough. There was a section with practice questions on spelling and subject-verb agreement, and then the mini-test for those sections. But the practice test at the end of the language arts unit didn't have a single spelling or subject-verb agreement question. So, I don't think the practice tests are large enough to be representative of the "real thing."

5. The subsections had a lot of questions in essay/written format considering that my son is preparing for a multiple choice test.


Overall, I think the book was okay, but the only real positive was the price. There are a lot of negatives. This is more a brief check-in for a parent near the end of the year after very thoroughly working to cover all areas, an opportunity for the student to get a slight taste of what to expect. It will not help significantly with preparing for the test.

I bought this with the intent to prepare my 3rd grader for a standardized test (later learned it was the Iowa). First, all the test formats are not multiple choice so the idea of practicing is lost. Second (the BIG one), much of the math stuff is beyond 3rd grade. After trying for 2 days and getting all worked up (aka, my kid too), I looked at my grade guide to compare. I have not opened it since then! Now I'm looking to sell it for a $1.

FYI We're in CO which requires standarized testing during odd years starting with 3rd. I read the laws on this website.
<...>
I clarified with a lady from the Christain Home Educators <...>
The law does not specify WHICH test to use. I purchased the CA achievement test (CAT) on the internet (does not require a licensed teacher to administer it) and costs only $25 through Christain Liberty school. It is the 1970 version and what they use for placement.

This book is filled with questions very similar to ones found on the STAR test. It has all areas of study. It has been really helpful in familiarizing my students to the kinds of questions they will see on the STAR. I have found this book to be very useful!

Spectrum has completely redone this series of books, cutting the number of questions by what seems like half! They have also included questions where the student must write essays, etc. I only wanted multiple choice questions and felt like I wasted my money on this book:( I won't make that mistake in the future!