<p>Hi I am new here--at least I think I am as I apparently registered. I have a 7th grader who has been nominated for Duke TID and Joseph Baldwin Academy. My son, a sophomore at Truman State was as well and was adamant he did not want to participate. My daughter feels the same way and does not want to consider taking the ACT in 7th grade. I have missed the deadline for the ACT but will pay the late fee if I can find a good reason to cajole, coerce, okay FORCE her into doing this. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Yes, she's gifted, but utilizes her time very well on her own unstructured time. My son seems to have been okay in spite of the fact he did not participate. Thoughts? Thanks!</p>
<p>My opinion is if she’s resistant, then let it go. It allows younger kids the test taking experience – but ultimately, her eventual success will flow from other things – not a 7th grade ACT sitting or (perhaps) pricey special programs</p>
<p>If she doesn’t want to do this…and uses her time wisely anyway, I would let this go. Even a gifted 7th grader is…well…a 7th grader. Let her enjoy her Tweens. She will be taking plenty of standardized tests in the future.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reply. I have been agonizing over this and when I looked for information online, I am overwhelmed by responses such as: take your son/daughter to the school to see the dorms, find the cause of their reluctance, etc. She is a good student, enrolled in the gifted program at school and is motivated to do well. All of the responses I saw where that students were glad they attended but I cannot feel assured that would be the case with my daughter. The last thing I want to do is to create resentment and deplete her intrinsic motivation at such a young age.</p>
<p>Feeling so much relief reading your responses. I would still love to entertain any contrary viewpoints but my gut feeling is to let this go.</p>
<p>My daughter took the SAT in 7th grade as part of the Johns Hopkins program and did not participate after taking the SAT. I did not push the issue. T2 is right- success comes from other things and not from a 7th grade SAT sitting.</p>
<p>Many of her friends are participating and she still has no interest. Many parents pushed to have their children tested for the gifted program but my daughter was recommended by teachers. The competition and anxiety over our children’s achievements is enough to drive me over the edge. She already is often finishing homework at 11 pm after finishing after-school activities.</p>
<p>My D is a Duke tipster. She took the SAT without any prep or angst. She is eligible to do weekend seminars and online courses and summer camps. We waited until summer after 8th grade to do a camp. They are eligible for 3 years afterwards. We all loved the camp. One subject for 3 weeks. D did creative writing. 16 kids one teacher one assistant. A dorm counselor for every 12 kids. Supervised evening and weekend activities. Bright kids from multiple States.
Great experience for a public school kid used to large classes in a small isolated town.
D is still talking about the experience and planning next summer.</p>
<pre><code> Just tell yr D it’s an honor to be take the ACT or SAT as a 7th grader and that u can’t fail it. All true in 7th grade. Then u can decide about any other activities.
</code></pre>
<p>It looks to me like your kid has a clear sense of what she is interested in and what she isn’t - much as her older brother did at this age. Let her take the lead on this.</p>
<p>There are many better things for her to be doing with her time.</p>
<p>If she doesn’t want to take the test I’d let her be, too. My kids weren’t interested either and so didn’t take it, despite a push from school to do so.</p>
<p>The boys thought “ugh, give up a a weekend morning to take a test? No way.” They were busy with sports and friends and sleep. </p>
<p>I didn’t want to torture them just so the school could brag it had TIP scholars.</p>
<p>I did consider the benefits. The boys could have been eligible to attend some cool, out of state, academic, summer programs. But we lived in a good sized city that had local enrichment camps, and as a family we took pretty exotic trips over the summer. It was unlikely we would have taken advantage of the TIP summer camps. Also, my kids didn’t feel isolated or freakish in their gifted ness. If they had felt alone or frustrated , felt like the only kid interested robotics or math in town, I may well have made a different decision.</p>
<p>My S was a Duke TIP kid. He did take the SAT in 7th grade but it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t make him do it. Several of his friends were doing it so he just went along and did it too. He scored high enough to be recognized at a state ceremony. He only went to that because he got to go out to lunch and skip a half day of school. </p>
<p>He never went to any of the Duke summer programs…way to expensive for us and S had no desire to spend any part of his summer taking classes. Even if we could have afforded it, I wouldn’t have pushed him into it. If your D doesn’t want to do it, let it go. It won’t matter in the long run.</p>
<p>Both of my children took the SAT as part of the Johns Hopkins program. They both qualified for CTY. My son never did anything beyond that. </p>
<p>My daughter didn’t show much interest either, until the 10th grade when she needed to find a way to get precalculus out of the way without being bored to tears. The class is very slow and primarily review in her HS.</p>
<p>Options: take precalc in summer school, take precalc at a community college, take precalc online with CTY, take precalc next year. As a high level athlete, her schedule had very little flexibility and thus the only choices were next year or online. </p>
<p>She chose online, fought through the first math class that actually challenged her and learned a lot about herself.</p>
<p>At testing time, neither child was too keen on participating but, for us, CTY was a way to keep our options open in case something changed in their lives later.</p>
<p>My S took the SAT in 7th grade for JHU CTY. This was something he wanted to do. He went to CTY for 4 years, and loved it. (He also received a substantial scholarship every year, but I hope you aren’t as poor as we were then! 
)</p>
<p>“Success” is not the issue. (What does that even mean in this context?) Being intellectually fulfilled and stimulated, and having engaging experiences that support the student’s intellectual and personal development is the issue. S mostly took philosophy courses–totally his choice–which enabled him to explore something not on offer at his school.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would be a little concerned that she might be taking this stance because her older sibling did. S has a friend who tended to walk away from such things because his older brothers told him they were “lame.” (In reality, they had just outgrown the activities in question, which were not CTY or TIP.) And let’s face it: the atmosphere of the country, and middle school in particular, tends to be anti-intellectual.</p>
<p>I would want her to keep her options open. Taking the test doesn’t mean she HAS to do anything. In the case of CTY, it also makes the student eligible for online classes, which can turn out to be very helpful down the road. (It was for S.)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t push her, but I would try to explore her feelings before completely writing off the possibility.</p>
<p>Hi multiplemom. I’m holding the option open. I have always let my children drive their own choices. It can be difficult though to separate my ego from theirs. Having gone through this 7 years ago, I have seen so many outcomes in other kids ranging from superb to total burnout. I think ultimately those kids who have the control over their path were the most successful in terms of how they define it. Guilt always comes into play for me too. Am I pushing enough…etc.</p>
<p>Sound advice Consolation. D’s brother actually encourages her to make choices he rejected. Being gifted himself, he is also a nurturing and kind brother. Both are weaker in Math and Superb in Communication Arts and Writing. I feel the Math drives the anxiety. I am keeping the door open for now and appreciate learning from all of the experiences and thoughts of parents in this board. I have let my son make his own choices, learn from mistakes. He declared a major in Anthropology as a Freshman and just changed it to Sociology this semester as a Sophmore. Many parents I talked to were appalled that I would support the anthropology decision but my S had to come to that decision on his own. Part if the path that has led him into the next chapter.</p>
<p>The biggest thing I learned in life was that my kids, while on paper - GPA, test scores - capabilities - were very much alike, they were very, very different in their approach to education, passions, sports, and the like. I agree with Consolation that it is good to “explore” your kids but it works best if you let go in the directions they want to go in. My “least” exploratory kid just blossomed in college.</p>
<p>Son took SAT in 7th grade as part of Duke TIP program. He was eligible to take special courses afterward through the program which he really enjoyed. But even if he didn’t take the courses I think the experience of just having taken the test paid off in the long run. The test results don’t count at all when it comes to the actual SAT given in HS so even if the results are subpar for the TIP program at least you got to try it out. I think just trying it lowers the anxiety for the real test.</p>
<p>You might show her the summer program options offered through Duke TIP, CTY, and the Davidson THINK program, etc. My D2 took the SAT in 7th & 8th, and was able to use her scores to attend THINK. THINK was life changing for her, and ended up helping drive her college search preferences as well (and she is now deliriously happy at a college we probably would not have considered if not for her THINK experience). </p>
<p>It is possible that your D doesn’t want to do it because she thinks she might not do as well as you think she will – some gifted kids feel like “imposters”. If you are clear with her about a couple of things:</p>
<ul>
<li>The scores get wiped out when she gets to 9th grade. They will never be seen by a college or anyone she doesn’t want to send the paper result to.</li>
<li>You could promise her that the only use they will go to is for her to look at summer (or regular) school programs that SHE might be interested in trying. Just so the door is open and she has the option if she wants to. If she doesn’t take the test, she doesn’t have that choice.</li>
</ul>
<p>I guess you could try a bribe – dinner at her favorite restaurant if she takes it or something. If she still won’t, you certainly can’t make her do it.</p>
<p>My daughter is also gifted and we never coerced her to take any of the tests/applications for CTY or TASP any of the other summer programs, even though we certainly encouraged her to. Some kids really don’t need the extras and some really do. Let your daughter take the lead on this. She knows herself and IME, this is not all that common for a child this age, even a gifted one.</p>
<p>Just to add, all three of my kids were invited to the G&T program that required an ACT in middle school. 2 of my kids took the ACT in middle school for G&T programs. Of those 2 one enjoyed it, one dropped it. The one son who refused is the one who blossomed in all ways in college.</p>