1.  What do I do when I get students who can read all the words on the Determiner to the last set (Set 20), but cannot comprehend anywhere near this level?

The idea of the Determiner is to help determine the starting point for using PROBE. Of course you do not want to spend a lot of time working your way down the levels to find a reading age. That is time consuming for you and not good for the energy levels and morale of the students.

Many teachers pick up possible indicators of a lack of comprehension by listening for hesitations, pauses, slight mispronunciations, incorrect stressing of syllables and take these into consideration in deciding where to start using PROBE.

Some teachers have even asked "Do you know what that word means?"

Some bring the students 'back' to their chronological age.

Some schools with many high decoders have a standard procedure: starting students 2 - 3 levels (or more) below the Determiner result.

2.  Is there any other test (other than the Determiner) available that would give a baseline age level to start at?

YES. You could use one of a number of word recognition tests (e.g. Burt). Unfortunately, NONE will pinpoint exactly where to start using PROBE any more than the Determiner.

3.  Should I stop the test as soon as the student makes two errors in a SET?

Remember that you are simply using the Determiner to reduce the amount of time spent using PROBE Reading Assessment.

Sometimes students make one or two errors in one line (SET), but make no errors in the following line(s).

Keep going until the student is consistently making two or more errors on successive lines (SETS).