Saxon Math Assessment

[PottersDaughter]

Hmmm... So I gave my two children this assessment last night after dinner, in good moods. My son is entering 2nd grade, and daughter 1st grade. My BFF I'm HSing with this year has a son going into 3rd grade, and is doing his assessment this morning.

I thought my kids would BREEZE through this.... Got to part to, and my son, struggled. Well... not struggled, but thought he got some answers right and he didn't. He wasn't focusing well. I love him, and say this with love, but he's lazy. Something I'm hoping to "fix" in homeschooling him. I think he just wants to 'get the work over with' instead of concentrating and doing it right. Anyway... Not saying that WOULD have changed his answers, but I took the directions on my part literally. "It's not a teaching time." So I just marked his answers either right or wrong.

So he did Level 1 Saxon Math (to my knowledge) in 1st grade. But so did my daughter, in Kindergarten. (Their background is a Classical Private school).

The assessment placed my son at Level 1! I'm not disappointed in him by NO MEANS, but obviously, that discourages me as a parent because I "expected" him to move on to Level 2 (I mean... I paid a hefty tuition afterall!!!) Now, the other side of that coin is, I looked at his report card from last year, and it DOES show a decline in math.

I talked to a public school teacher of mine, and she suggested starting somewhere in the middle of Level 1 with him. Pick up with where he seems to be struggling.

My daughter was easily placed in Level 1.

I hope my BFF's 3rd grader places for Level 3 because I already bought it off of ebay. LOL!

Any opinions, suggestions, etc are appreciated! Thank you so much in advance!

[Lily]

I only have personal experience to draw from, but I can tell you that our year with Saxon was a disaster. We didn't even finish the year it was that bad. It took a very different curriculum for my son to not only become interested in math, but to understand it and grow with it as well.

If I were you I'd try to keep my options open and perhaps find a curriculum that made sure to work with how your son learns.

Just my .02.

[hscoach]

It seems like people either love Saxon math or they hate it. I used it for first grade with one of my sons and I liked it okay. But it becomes more difficult in the older grades and I don't like it. It seems to be put together in a confusing way to me. I wonder if you should try having your children take a different placement test to see how the results compare. Here is a page from Sonlight. It includes a placement test from Singapore math, which is my favorite for younger children and a placement test from Teaching Textbooks, which is my favorite for higher grade levels.

http://www.sonlight.com/placement-tests.html

See what you think.

[dkocur]

If you think he didn't do as well as he should have, then maybe some other factor got in the way of an accurate assessment. If you suspect that's the case it certainly wouldn't hurt to have him retake the test. From personal experience I did much better the second time I took the SAT. It wasn't because I learned anything between the first and second test, but because I took the first one after staying up late.

I have a sneaky suspicion that your son would have done better had he taken the test in the morning rather than after dinner. You're in a much better position to make that judgment, but keep in mind that studies show that people think clearer in the morning.

[PottersDaughter]

dkcour - Do you think after eating lunch is fine to retake it? LOL

I guess retaking it wouldn't hurt. There are definitely more positives from my opinion to Saxon than negatives. I'm going to go check out that link now though, that hscoach posted. (Thank you!!!)

I appreciate the feedback everyone!!!

[mindy8]

What I love most about Saxon is that it reviews things constantly. So if there is something your son struggles with he will likely do a problem of it everyday. I used Saxon 1 for a little while but decided to just move up to 2 for my first grader because it seemed like a waste of time. Look over the scope and sequence - you can google that and see what each one covers. But there is no harm in redoing the placement test. I guess my point is - even if you start in 2 he is going to review the items from 1.

[Am07]

We've used Saxon for 4 years now and I have decided to put both of my girls on different math programs in the fall.

My older daughter will be going into 4th grade in the fall. She did amazing in math through 2nd grade but this year she just did average. I feel like Saxon is too all over the place for her and a mastery program will work much better for her. She also struggles with memorizing her math facts and hates the Saxon times math facts practices and tests. We are switching her over to teaching textbooks this fall.

We did the first half of Saxon 1 with my younger daughter for first grade. She did average and I feel like she might do better with a different curriculum as well, so we are switching her over to math u see.

It's my understanding that Saxon is one of the tougher curriculums and that could be why your son is testing at a lower level? Maybe try a test from another curriculum and see where he places?

[Aliraza153]

This curriculum is what I'm going to be using next year with my eldest! We're pretty excited about it!



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[faithmoore]

Thanks for the details. I will use this curriculum next year for my students.