
The InView Portion of the Terra Nova
By Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D
Q:
What is the difference between the Terra Nova and InView? My
child scored 99 percentile in Terra Nova, 99 percentile in
Verbal part of In View and 78 in the non verbal part. This
brought her down into the 88 percentile in the In View part
of Terra Nova. We always thought she was better at Math and
reasoning than on the Verbal part. So this came as a
surprise. She is prone to making silly mistakes. Any advice?
A: The Terra Nova tests compare
students with others in their grades around the nation.
Hence, the scores are listed in percentiles. It also
includes a component that acts like an IQ test (the InView
portion). Therefore, this is a part of the Terra Nova test
rather than a separate indicator. This component measures
the students' ability to use information and apply it to new
and different situations. It also gauges how a student
analyzes and employs higher-level thinking skills (includes
verbal reasoning, sequences, analogies and quantitative
reasoning). In short, it measures cognitive abilities that
relate to a student's ability to learn and succeed in
school. The tests are designed to work together to measure
student achievement.
In this case, the test does show a different scenario than
what you may expected based on her abilities. It is hard to
tell for sure what the problem may be since she scores very
well in the other parts. Since you mentioned that she may be
prone to making silly mistakes, this could be the case; but
probably not the only one. You may want to consult the
school for a better interpretation and perhaps follow up on
her weaker areas. You can also try asking her if she found
the non verbal part quite tough or she was tired or any
other reason that may contribute to her lower scores. It
would be good to find out the reason for her low scores as
it appears significantly lower compared to the other scores,
hence indicating an area that may need some attention. Best
of luck!
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