Timing is everything, even when you’re 4 years old.
Two Upper East Side identical twins who got exactly the same raw scores on the exam that determines admissions into Manhattan’s elite kindergartens ended up six points apart in the final tallies. The result meant that one boy got into a posh school, and the other was wait-listed.
The twins took the exam, called the ERB, in September 2009 and got the same number of questions right in all sections.
Their final scores for verbal skills, performance and speed were exactly the same, said Suzanne Rheault, CEO of Aristotle Circle, a company that helps parents prepare their kids for the 45-minute exam.
But one twin’s scaled score was 100 — landing him three points above the coveted 95th-percentile rank that is the unofficial admissions cut-off in the competitive world of Manhattan private schools.
The other twin’s score was scaled to 91 — which put him three points below the 95th percentile.
The only difference was the date the two brothers took the test. The higher-scoring twin took his exam just days before his fifth birthday. The lower-scoring twin took his exam a week later, a few days after his fifth birthday.
What the family didn’t know was that in that week, the “norming” period used by test-makers to compare results among kids of similar ages had changed — as it does every three months.
The first twin who took the ERB was 4 years and 11 months old. His grades were scored against kids his age and three months younger. His brother was five years and zero months when he took the test a week later. His results were compared to kids his age and three months older.
The ERB changes its norming periods every three months because at 4 and 5 years old, kids’ mental development is moving at lightning speed.
“On the ERB, the older you are, the more questions you have to get right in each age bracket to get in the same percentile,” said Rheault, who has used the twins’ case to show parents how vital it is to pick the right date for the ERB.
“These boys got the same number of questions right in each section, but the second child was expected to do more five days later,” she said.
Most Manhattan preschools give the ERB in mid- to late October. But parents can also call ERB and make an appointment for a specific date for their child to take the test at the company’s Midtown office.
Down-‘graded’
Upper East Side identical twins took the ERB test used by many posh Manhattan kindergarten programs to weed out applicants. One twin took the test when he was about to turn 5, but was still technically in a 4-year-old age bracket. His brother took the test a week later, after he had turned 5. His scores, right, were compared to kids in an older bracket, up to three months older.
Twin one
Test scores, sept, 2009
Verbal: 50
performance: 49
speed: 18
full scale: 117
Rank: 98%
Twin two
One week later
Verbal: 50
performance: 49
speed: 18
full scale: 117
Rank: 92%