When Sydney mother of four Kate Mannix signed up her twin 11-year-old children to sit a test designed to tell whether or not a child is gifted, she knew what the results would be.
Or at least, she thought she did.
According to Ms Mannix, her son Jack is well above-average in his academic – particularly mathematical – abilities.
So Ms Mannix expected her son to outperform his sister Eleanor, when the two Year 4 students sat the Opportunity Class Placement test.
The Opportunity Class Placement test consists of mathematics, English and general ability sections and is taken by around 10,000 NSW students every year. The 1200 kids with the best results in the test are offered placements at the 73 schools that offer special classes for the gifted.
Understandably, competition for the places is fierce about as combative as the men’s water polo final at the Olympics.. Mostly because the kids who get those gifted places, usually go on to get the very highly sought after places at selective high schools around the state. (And for parents who can’t afford $30,000-a-year fees for private high school; selective schools are where it’s at).
When Kate Mannix received the results of her twins’ tests, she was surprised to learn that neither of her children had been selected for the Year 5 Opportunity Class. And while Jack had scored higher overall, he had scored the same result as his sister in the maths section.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Ms Mannix said the results were “offensive.”
“One of my kids is brighter than the other, yet these tests say they are the same,” she said.
Ms Mannix is convinced the tests were flawed and that they are designed to benefit students who are coached by professional tutors before the test.
Top Comments
My niece sat the tests last year and got accepted to a specialist OC school for Year 5/6. She has never been coached or done any extra studies, she is just very smart and quick and (as much as we all dislike the term) gifted. There are lots of bright kids and lots of talented kids and getting into the special schools does not mean they are not bright or not wonderful/compassionate/talented kids...it just means that compared to the other kids sitting the test they are not fast enough at computing the answers.
I don't have much to add to this article but would like to share that my son has spent the last hour outside hitting the bottom of a bucket with a stick. #genius lol
Reminds me of the kid Steve Martin's character has in the movie Parenthood who puts a bucket on his head and bashes it against a wall! Haha! I reckon even the most brilliant and "gifted" kids have their fair share of idiotic 'hitting a bucket with a stick for an hour' moments (my kids seem to have more than their fair share of those sort of moments! haha)