<p>My D was recommended for the Hopkins program by her teacher. D asked to take the SAT in 8th grade, and I said absolutely not. There is no valid reason, The Hop notwithstanding.</p>
<p>We were glad she took the test in 8th. There was no stress as it does not count for college entrance. She could have taken CTY classes, and she did get some nice certificates for instate scoring. Ultimately it was of no seriousness yea or nay--the only thing I didn't like was paying for the SAT, but overall it was a positive experience.</p>
<p>My Ss both took the SAT for JHU Talent Search at the earliest opportunity: all it was to them was a fun challenge and a chance to qualify for summer programs. There is (was?) a special computer-based version of the SAT for 7th grade test-takers which they took in private carrels in a test site (not in a big room with all the regular SAT test-takers, and not even on the same day). Both qualified for the CTY summer programs, which led to some completely fantastic experiences for both of them. (Older S was able to take AP Calc AB in 8th grade as a result of his CTY summer math programs, and younger S made the first real friends of his life at CTY summer camps.) It was by no means an inexpensive undertaking, but it was highly valuable for both of them.</p>
<p>And those early SAT scores have disappeared from their records entirely.</p>
<p>Mootmom, I agree with you about the CTY program. It literally changed my son's life and he can't wait to go back this summer. Like your sons, he took his through the computer-based version for 7th/8th graders so it was pretty low stress for him. We made it clear that the results didn't matter either way...although of course we were proud of the results when we got them!</p>
<p>I don't know if this is always the case, but where we are the 7th grade talent search kids take the SAT together in a separate room, not lumped in with the high schoolers. Their tickets are also a different color, and are handled differently. I know a bunch of middle schoolers who have done this. No one has seemed the least bit stressed by the experience.</p>
<p>my daughter took the SAT at the UW in 7th grade. THis was hilarious as we were both so used to being shorter than average, that when I stood in line with her, with a bunch of 11th grade boys, we didn't think anything of it. Finally someone came over and asked if we were looking for the middle school room!</p>
<p>EmeraldKity4:
Your story brings back memories of both my daughters taking the SAT in 7th grade, for the Midwest Talent Search. My wife is on the petite side (4'10" in height), and they take after her. The same thing happened for each D - here was this tiny girl, standing in line among all these <em>large</em> high-schoolers, who were getting totally freaked out by the sight of this small child standing calmly among them, ready to take the same test. I don't think any of the high-schoolers knew about the MTS; they thought our D's (and a couple of their fellow 7th graders there) were some freaky bunch of genius kids, the ones who enter college at age 11 and graduate in two years.</p>
<p>Even better was the reaction within the test hall when some of the 7th graders finished early, and walked out. (The departing kids had left entire chunks of the math problems untouched, because their courses hadn't covered those topics yet).</p>
<p>What a great picture you paint. Hilarious!!</p>
<h2>Haha, Optimizerdad!</h2>
<h2>Even better was the reaction within the test hall when some of the 7th graders finished early, and walked out. (The departing kids had left entire chunks of the math problems untouched, because their courses hadn't covered those topics yet).</h2>
<p>ROFLMAO.</p>
<p>I know she was a 7th grader, but what was her score? Just curious.</p>
<p>D1 was 530V + 560M = 1090, D2 was 580V + 600M = 1180. They were both 11 years old at the time.</p>
<p>wow - you know.. I know 12 graders with less stats! Really!</p>
<p>A senior in our school got a composite score of 760, haha. I suppose both got 1550-1600 in the end? No wonder why they were accepted to Caltech and other top schools. :)</p>
<p>Well, they're both smart kids <em>cough</em>, but I'll cheerfully state that they are no geniuses. Among other things, they happen to be good test takers - they wound up with SATI scores of 1550 & 1570.</p>
<p>I'll agree with a lot of other parental posters that it's the range of SAT scores (high/medium/low, for example) that matters, rather than the exact numerical value.</p>
<p>The computerized SAT that some 7th graders take is a pilot program. If it works out, it will be applied more widely. I did not like the idea that if a student answers a question wrongly, the next question will be easier. My S makes stupid mistakes on the easiest questions, but does far better on the more difficult ones, so he would not have benefitted from the computerized version. Sure enough, all his math errors were computational ones.
So he took the SAT with the seniors and found that the guy who had been teaching him to swim, a senior, was also taking the SAT. The poor guy was quite unnerved. It did not help that my S walked out early, too.</p>
<p>they are not important at all.</p>
<p>Marite, this is the way some other ETS tests are being done now. Students take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) that way. They have to use a different way to pace themselves from the previous (written) tests where the questions tended go from easiest to hardest. I wouldn't be able to time anything if I were taking such an online test. I hope the students have some way of gauging how far along they are at any given time.</p>
<p>A good way to practice for a computerized test in which the item content varies according to how earlier questions are answered is to take the online assessments for ALEKS </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aleks.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.aleks.com</a> </p>
<p>an online math-teaching course. I learned from a local friend, who phoned the company, that anyone can take UNLIMITED free forty-eight-hour trials on ALEKS, which always start off with an assessment that adapts to how the student answers the questions. I learned about ALEKS as a math-learning resource, and it's pretty good for supplementing a school math course. </p>
<p>My son has taken various JHU-CTY tests, out of region, at ProMetric test centers, and those tests are always computerized in the manner described here. (And, sure enough, adults were in the test center at the same time to take GREs and a variety of other tests.) He has usually gotten done with those tests very early, because he jumps right to the hard item content.</p>
<p>Our older D has always been a great test taker, especially multiple choice tests. We call her the bubble queen. She took the SAT I's in 7th and 8th, and got 2 one class scholarships to a local private college. At 13, she is 17 now and a first year at Smith, she got 800 V and 680 M. We had to figure out how to get them to save the scores, and then to unarchive them for applications last year. Sometimes, you do what to use those tests, she saw no real point in taking the SAT I again.</p>
<p>mini, do you think your daughter's age kept her out of Yale (or was it Princeton)? Has her adjustment to Smith been easier because of all the college classes she has taken?</p>
<p>mackinaw and tokenadult:</p>
<p>I am aware that more and more tests are computerized. ETS explains that it is using the Talent Searches as pilots and will expand the use of computerized tests for regular SAT takers.<br>
My concern was that when a student makes an error on a MC question, the reason for the error is not known; but the assumption driving the selection of levels of difficulty in the computerized tests is that the student gives a wrong answer because /she does not know the materials; therefore the level of difficulty is reduced. The student does not have the choice to pick up the more difficult questions. This affects the score that the student eventually achieves. I think this reasoning is flawed, at least in a certain proportion of cases.
Tokenadult, I don't know whether that gibes with your own S's experience. As I mentioned, my S can make careless errors on the easiest questions, but he pays more attention to the harder ones and does better. That's why he decided to take the paper test even though it might have been more comfortable taking the computerized one.</p>
<p>Several of you mention your kids "walking out early." When did that start to be allowed at the SATs?</p>