<p>if you get 1200~ in 8th, you will have no trouble getting around 1500 from what i've seen. if you get 1300~, well, everyone i know with a score that high in middle school has a 1550~ with minimal prep. I would predict 760m 760v with fluctuations either way depending on what your child's strengths are. I went from 1350 (710m/640v) without algebra 1 or geometry to 1590 (790m/800v) from 8th to 11th.</p>
<p>The New SAT will change things a lot for SET. I think SET was initially charged with finding raw math talent, and later on added the clause for verbal. the New SAT with its "higher-level" math seems to be an attempt to move away from testing reasoning to testing how well rote methods have been learned. And writing will be killer for nearly every middle school student. </p>
<p>Just a question for you parents who have kids in SET also. Does SET actually do anything for you? I'm in SET and all I get are occasional e-mails and a directory of people who are also in SET. I don't exactly see the great perk.</p>
<p>SET is not really intended to provide perks. As the name implies, it's the Study of Exceptional Talent. S has enjoyed reading Imagine, but that's about it.
S's area of improvement from 7th to 10th grade came in the critical reading section--a logical development due to the additional reading between these two grades.</p>
<p>My scores went up 440 points from 7th grade to junior year. His will definitely go up a lot with the good teaching that he will get and a good test prep book.</p>
<p>But I think kids should just enjoy learning in the middle school! Yes, my kids also got those certificates for getting high scores in middle school (they look the test as a requirement for the gifted program), but we filed them away and never gave them a second thought.</p>
<p>You (in general, not just OP) already know your kids are smart, right? They don't need to get numbers driven this early. Or if they ARE getting nuts over numbers, remind them that top schools ROUTINELY turn down top scorers for people who may have scored lower on the test, but were, for whatever reason, superior applicants. </p>
<p>I taught for years before starting my own business, and I saved a file of brilliant, insightful, thoughtful papers. They were very, very rarely from people who were hardwired to get good math grades from birth. I sometimes wish SATs DID correlate with something - genius, brilliance, anything - but they don't. </p>
<p>The SAT numbers mean very little and predict less. I know someone who had the highest GPA in my Ivy despite less-than-stellar SAT scores; people who were accepted into Harvard Law from a fourth tier college with scores in the 1300s; two 1600 scorers in my son's class were turned down by every single Ivy (yes, they applied to all of them), etc.</p>
<p>It's nice to know that the kids are all right; but scores are only meaningful in a range anyway (adcoms know that 100 points either way is truly not going to make a meaningful difference).</p>
<p>Stop the madness! And don't let it START in 12-year-olds!</p>
<p>Caveat - this is not from someone eating sour grapes - I went to an ivy, and my kids all tested in the top 2% of the nation - doing fine in top ten schools. I just know whereof I speak.....</p>
<p>My daughter is in the 7th grade. I think she would run away if I told her to take the SAT test this year. Her brother took it once, in the spring of his junior year of high school and did just fine. (I think he took the PSAT in the fall of his junior year). Does it really matter what a kid scores on the SAT in 7th or 8th grade? I hope not.</p>
<p>I agree with NEDad. Most kids who take it in 7th grade don't study or stress - they are offered the chance to take it and just go do it. In some cases, their score leads to opportunities for programs for the gifted, but if they don't do well, it doesn't matter at all. It is interesting to see the final SAT scores compared to the 7th grade scores, but that doesn't mean anyone should be worrying about this in 7th grade.<br>
My D was one of the few in her "Gifted Class" in 7th grade NOT to be invited to take the SATs (based on scores on standardized achievement tests) and she did fine on her SATs and received a nice merit scholarship to her first choice college.</p>
<p>My oldest three children were all offered the opportunity to take either the SAT or the ACT in 7th grade. My oldest son (now a senior) wanted very much to take it, and he did take the SAT (only three kids here took the SAT--most took the ACT). Though he wasn't particularly jockeying for anything, he did receive a high enough score to be honored by our state. He did NO prep. for this and did not sweat it even a tiny bit. I highly discouraged my oldest two daughters from taking the test in 7th grade. As their mother, I was well aware of the emotional differences between them and my son, and I made a suggestion for them to not subject themselves to this in middle school. Both of them followed my suggestion. I don't see any particular harm in students taking the test in middle school if the whole thing is kept strictly in perspective. It is definitely an individual decision though.</p>
<p>We live in a State (and school district) that does not recognize "gifted" children. I never heard of taking the SAT at age 12. I think it would be very depressing if my daughter took the test at age 12, and compared her scores to her brother who took his SAT at age 17. It would be hard for her not to compare. </p>
<p>P.S. She knows his score because she was very much aware last year of the whole "college process" with him. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want the "college process" to start for her yet. LOL</p>
<p>I believe we may be living in the same state (MA). My S took the SAT in 7th grade because an RA in a previous summer camp recommended he attend CTY after 6th grade; for that he had to take the PLUS test. He enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to return after 7th grade, so he had to take the SAT. But there is absolutely no point in taking the SAT at an early age "just to know" and especially not to compare oneself with high school seniors!</p>
<p>Marite:
I work in your state, but live in a neighboring state a bit further north. We never heard anything about CTY or PLUS. Our public school doesn't want to differentiate kids based on academics or academic potential at the middle school level. Infact, they seem to strive for total mediocrity at that level! They don't want the non-academic achievers to feel bad, so no one gets recognition. </p>
<p>(We got so frustrated with our public school philosophy that we sent our son to a private school. However, that didn't happen until high school!)</p>
<p>"But I think kids should just enjoy learning in the middle school! Yes, my kids also got those certificates for getting high scores in middle school (they look the test as a requirement for the gifted program), but we filed them away and never gave them a second thought."</p>
<p>My kid enjoyed learning, primarily by staying away from middle school! (and all schools -- we homeschooled all the way.) And, once she did the 8th grade SAT, she never took it again. (the possible gains would have been miniscule anyway.) But the reason we did it? Same reason I've always taught my kids when taking these ridiculous tests. You do well, they give you stuff! Got someone to pay for a month at a music camp, and a trip to England, a couple of college courses, and some other cool stuff.</p>
<p>My 7th grade D had to take te SAT for a scholarship. I didn't want her to stress and didn't want her to prep...so she went in pretty cold with a bunch of 11 and 12 graders. She is a shorty, so it was pretty funny. Because I didn't allow her to get all uptight about it, she was fine. She did great and did get the scholarship! I would not have done it for any other reason.</p>
<p>My S took it in 7th grade, on the computer, which was available only for the middle school students taking it for CTY and got 1120, 560 on both math and verbal. Impressed me at the time as the verbal was higher than my hs one from years ago. As a junior he took it and got 740 on M and 680 on V, took a county offered review course for verbal and raised that by 70 pts to a 750. Now, if only his grades had done the same....</p>
<p>when my D did it, not more computer tests!! So off to the local public high school at 730 in the morning...she took the test with everybody else...some places place the 7 and 8 graders all together in one room, for my D it was fine...she thought peopl;e would look and wonder about her, but sleepy teenagers paid her no attention</p>
<p>I took it in 7th grade and got 1050 (530m/520v). In 8th grade, I got (550m/530v). As a senior, I got 1550 (750m/800v). I was a lackluster student in middle school, and didn't have algebra until 8th grade. I wasn't interested at all in taking the SAT and, at the time, found it to be pretty hard. Recently, the test has become quite easy to me and I did very little prep to get what I got (especially compared to some CC people!). To be honest, I don't think scores from middle school matter very much. I know someone who got a 1270 in 8th grade, and, in 11th, got a 1270. Three months later, after a Kaplan prep class, he got a 1470. Kids mature at different rates, and I think some are just more mentally ready for a test like the SAT at that age.</p>
<p>My daughter could have taken it in 7th grade but didn't want to and that was fine with me. This year, I encouraged her to take it because she had at some algebra and I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have a dry run, taking it without it counting. She took it at an unfamiliar high school in the next county because our local site was full. This happened to be a more affluent suburban school district. There were plenty of middle schoolers there, and while we waited for the tardy proctor, parents were going over vocab lists with their kids to the last minute. I hope it's not offensive to say this, but my daughter was one of two caucasion girls in her room, and it was Indian parents doing this last minute coaching. I could see my daughter tensing up because she had not done any prep work beforehand. She commented about the parents afterward and I tried to stress that her results don't matter much at this age and to relax. We were both pleased with her scores, not that they predict anything for the future, but that she scored just well enough to qualify for CTY, and that she's in the same ballpark with her peer group (the kids at school were quick to compare scores but seemed laid back about it).</p>
<p>I agree with nedad. We took it a step further. When my daughter had the opportunity to take the SAT through the Duke TIPS progarm in 7th grade, we declined the offer.</p>
<p>My S took SAT in "7-th grade" (he was a homeschooler, so the grade is just "where his school would list him if he stayed there"). M800, V600. I was not aware that CTY gives scholarships - or he would take it a year earlier and through the Talent search. Anyway, the score helped him tremendously, when he decided to return to high school with a "grade skip". I doubt the school would be THAT accomodating if not for his SAT and AP scores. He also sent the score when applying to a competitive summer camp, and I think it helped, too.</p>
<p>In the Fall of 11-th grade he took SAT again (M800 V730), and I requested Collegeboard to send his old score to the colleges he applied (to tell you the truth, I was not so sure he will get the 800 again)</p>
<p>So, despite not getting anything from CTY - taking SAT that early was quite useful for my S... Oh, and SET sends recommendation letters when the student is applying to colleges... I don't know how useful that is (we actually forgot to ask them to send the letters)</p>
<p>Oh, and he does enjoy learning.... the SAT scores just allowed him to enjoy it more. :)</p>
<p>My D took it for a separate scholoarship through Institute for Educational Advancement. I figured it wouldn't hurt as long as we didn't push her. She had fun at the test...ps- she got the scholarship</p>
<p>The SAT taken in 7th and 8th grade do not mean much and can lead to false expectations. It is obvious that students who have great testing abilities -because of prior testing- and attend better than average schools will do rather well. In the midst of the the better than average students, you will also find exceptional students who could score anywhere from better than average to an exceptional score, depending on their mood or frustration on that particular day. </p>
<p>When looking at SAT scores, one needs to understand that a student could bypass EVERY hard question -by answering only easy and medium questions- and score 600 to 620 on each component. Based on this, a student who was told to ONLY answer questions he knows, NOT guess, and skip everything he does not know -saving time- would score what some people construe as a great score. The reality is that the easy and medium math questions are at a 6th or 7th grade level. </p>
<p>As far as the comment about the continuous discrimination of lesser prepared schools, it may be wise to remember that the test is a COLLEGE entrance test. Moving the difficulty level from a mere 8-9th level to a 10th grade level is hardly incompatible with the "expectations" of colleges. I am sure that most everyone has heard about the students who live in impoverished villages overseas and find the SAT math test to be quite easy -once they understand the arcane format. They probably find it easy because they have been tought to think for a few seconds and not immediately jump to a graphic calculator at the first sight of an equation or a right triangle. </p>
<p>Doing well on the SAT has much more to do with the discipline and motivation to practice than with the curriculum of a school. Among the 3,000,000 students who graduate, there is only a fraction who considers the SAT to be important. If you look for the reasons behind the lackluster scores, you do not have to look much farther than the people who love to find excuses for the mediocrity and laziness of students and ... K-12 faculty.</p>