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In Georgia, we are required to give a standardized test starting in 3rd grade, though nobody sees it but the parent.

I wondered if anyone had used Seton Home Testing. They use the California Achievement Test. You administer it at home and send it to them for scoring. It is pretty inexpensive.

It appeals to me not to have to put the kids through a "testing environment" at this age.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with this.

I used Seton a few years ago. The CAT they offer is very basic. It gets the job done for meeting state requirements, but it won't give you a whole lot of information. The results only indicate how many questions a child got right out of the number asked, along with a percentile and stanine, which I found not to be very helpful due to the nature of the exam. (Even though my ds received a perfect score, his percentile in several areas was only 90th, indicating 10 percent of the test takers received a perfect score in those areas.) I've also had my ds take the Stanford and found it was much more involved, covered more academic areas and gave many more details (and had a few confusing questions, in my opinion). A major difference is that the CAT tests at grade level, to see if a child knows what he should know at that level, whereas the Stanford tests several years above to see how high up a child could score. It really depends on your goals. I liked how "quick and easy" the CAT was, I liked testing at home and I liked having minimal pressure. The next year, I was curious as to my ds's actual grade level, so I opted for the Stanford. It was nice to have the information, but this year I opted not to do the Stanford. I didn't want to lose several days of homeschooling, I didn't want the hassle of driving him back and forth and having the pressure of the exam, plus his scores confirmed what I knew already about his progress. This year I might do the CAT again, just to meet the requirement, although I've been toying with having my ds take the IOWA at home to get more detailed information.

I guess I basically "just want to meet the requirement" in as stress free an environment as possible.

We used Seton this year for the CAT test. I understand that some want all the information the other tests give, but I just wanted to get the requirement met since I know what DD knows and doesn't know. Seton was reasonably priced and gave us a quick turn around time. The test was very easy for my mom to give (here in PA parents can't give the test). She felt it was a great way to do the required testing and is happy to do it again when we need it.

Thanks so much for this feedback. I think I am going with Seton.

I have used Seton a few times with my older ones. It is easy and you can do it at home then mail it back to them.

This is our first year testing and I choose to go with Seton. It was a "meet the requirements" choice.