<p>Just onwdering about the programs your kids qualified for. Did the school they attend have these programs or were they more national in nature? My son did quite well but we did not have his scores sent anywhere. Should we be doing so in order to be invited to these progtrams?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>This is a thread from 2005, you should start a new thread. Go to the original list of threads and in the upper left hand corner there is a “new thread” button.</p>
<p>“Our school district encourages top quarter or third of 7th and 8th graders to take the SAT, largely for the talent search program.”</p>
<p>Well … our school district DISCOURAGES all 7th Graders, 8th Graders, 9th Graders, and 10th Graders from taking the SAT. Their reasoning? “The SAT is an aptitude test, so there’s no benefit to practice or preparation.” Combine this with elimination of all standardized testing except those lowest-common-denominator Mastery Tests, and it’s really hard to tell where your child could use some academic development. (Grades? Ha-ha-ha … 90% of the kids in my D’s class got all A’s last year.)</p>
<p>My point is that taking the SAT as a 7th or 8th Grader (as each of my D’s has done) can provide some indication of where your child is academically. I think the same objective can be accomplished with an SAT Prep programs … or better yet, the Xiggi Method … but it’s often easier to get an 8th Grader to commit one morning to the actual SAT than a dozen half-mornings to a prep program. YMMV of course.</p>
<p>The SAT <em>used to be</em> an aptitude test. It is now much closer to an achievement test. That was a deliberate choice made in the last adjustment to the exam.</p>
<p>I am strongly opposed to middle schoolers taking prep courses for the SAT, but that’s because the exam isn’t that important for a middle school student, and the prep won’t help as much as getting a good night’s sleep. It also raises the stakes for that family by too much, IMO.</p>
<p>I do not see any positive value of SATs for 8th graders unless your child wants to participate in a summer CTY program. These programs, however, are also quite expensive, and there are other interesting and worthwhile things to do with one’s summers.</p>
<p>A further thought: what if a child takes the SAT IN 8th grade, does not meet her or her parent’s expectations, and is soured on the SAT prematurely and unnecessarily? There is no such thing as a “no pressure” standardized test. I wouldn’t want my kid going into the SAT as a junior already feeling as if she’d “failed” it earlier.</p>
<p>am strongly opposed to middle schoolers taking prep courses for the SAT, but that’s because the exam isn’t that important for a middle school student, and the prep won’t help as much as getting a good night’s sleep. It also raises the stakes for that family by too much, IMO.</p>
<p>In our family- one D took the SAT in 7th grade with her friend who was in 6th.
It was so funny, neither one was in public school, & I accompanied them to the University of Washington, for their test.
We stood in line for a long time, but even though we were surrounded by teenage boys who must have been 6’1", we didn’t realize there was another line for middle schoolers!
:o
Anyway, I had never taken the SAT so didn’t know a thing about it & my D * liked* taking tests, it was just a big puzzle to her & besides she was keeping her friend company.
I allowed her to do it, to take the mystique away.</p>
<p>She did fine, & took one CTY snail mail writing tutorial ( she loved to write), but her private school already offered lots of challenge so after she finished the course, she didn’t take any more. ( she also went on to volunteer at the zoo summers- & yr round, neither of my kids did any academic type stuff outside of school)
Her friend however went on to skip high school & right to the UW.</p>
<p>I see the SAT for middle schoolers for precisely that purpose. Her friend, is brilliant and really thinks differently. She loved the special Early Entrance program at the university.</p>
<p>If your child is one of those kids, I can’t see how encouraging them has to be harmful.
[Robinson</a> Center Early Entrance Program](<a href=“http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/programs/early-entrance-program/]Robinson”>http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/programs/early-entrance-program/)</p>
<p>Taking the test as a middle schooler didn’t scar my D, in fact she went on to attend what is arguably one of the geekiest colleges in the US.
;)</p>
<p>D2 got some concrete benefits from taking the SAT in middle school. With no prep except taking one practice test each time (before 7th & 8th grade), she achieved scores that got her an invitation to join the Cogito website that CTY runs. This was a HUGE boost for her to link up with other bright kids online. Then she was able to use her scores to quality for Davidson’s THINK summer program (which we never would have heard of it weren’t for registering her scores with a talent search program). And in turn, her participation in THINK gained her entrance to the Davidson Young Scholars program. So we have seen some real benefits to it.</p>
<p>Haha, it was interesting to read the 2005 discussions with NewMassDad. I wonder if five years and a Rhodes Scholar in the family might change the conclusions. </p>
<p>Probably not! :)</p>
<p>PS I still believe there is no harm for a student to take the SAT in middle school. All that is needed is a getting familiar with the format. Preparation is totally superfluous. </p>
<p>The only danger comes from unhealthy expectations, parental disappointments, or premature excitement.</p>
<p>The other positive value my older son’s middle school SAT scores had beyond letting him take CTY summer classes, was that it really helped getting the high school to take any requests for acceleration seriously.</p>
<p>My kids did not feel they had failed by not getting 800s in middle school. They understood that it did not matter at all how they did. My younger son whose gifts were not always recognized got a real boost from his scores.</p>
<p>I just spoke to my 7th grade D this evening about taking the SAT and she agreed to take the test. She consistently receives 99% in the AZ standardized testing in Math, Reading and Writing plus she is already taking High School Honors Algebra (which does count in her high school class rank and GPA … she is getting an “A” in the class). Anyway, she asked what the purpose of her taking the test now was and I said:</p>
<p>1) It gives her the option (if she chooses and if she scores well) to get into some of the national gifted programs</p>
<p>2) It gives her and I a good indication of exactly how well she is doing in a national test (we think she’s doing great but this can confirm that achievement)</p>
<p>3) The test will help demystify the test when she takes it later</p>
<p>Anyway, she was up for the challenge and seems ready to give it a try. I’m proud of her for just trying.</p>
<p>CatnPhx</p>
<p>A word of advice - my son took SAT in 7th grade for the JHU-CTY talent search. I did not know about Davidson and EPGY. You can have the SAT scores sent to 4 locations - By sure to send scores to ALL gifted talent programs in the US. It keeps more options open for summer programs and on-line programs in the future.</p>
<p>That’s great advice, Longhaul, thank you.</p>
<p>To your point though, how do you “send” the scores to various programs? Do you have to know addresses or the program name or what? Thanks again.</p>
<p>S1 took the SAT in seventh grade for the Duke University TIP program.</p>
<p>CatnPhx, we registered our D to take the SAT through the Midwest Academic Talent Search. But to make sure she would be eligible for CTY classes and perks, we also enrolled her through CTY. I believe we did pay two fees to do this. Here is an email we got when I asked CTY about it (back in 2007):</p>
<p>“Thank you for contacting us. Students who test through a different program can
fax a copy of eligible test scores to CTY (fax: 410-735-6105) when they are
ready to participate in one of our programs. You do not have to apply to both
programs. However, you may want to view how we are assign Summer Program
courses here ([CTY:</a> Intensive Studies for 7th Graders and Above](<a href=“http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/catalogs/oscourseassign.html#how]CTY:”>http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/catalogs/oscourseassign.html#how) ). If
you enroll her into both the MATS program and CTY Talent Search, she would only
need to test once. The CTY Talent Search fee authorizes a student to test in
one academic year and only needs to be resubmitted if students wish to test in
the next academic year. Otherwise, a student will always be considered a
previous talent search participant.”</p>
<p>This email implies that you have some priority in the enrollment process if you are a CTY participant when you actually take the test. I don’t think she would have gotten the Cogito (online forum) invitation from CTY if we had not enrolled her through them (which we did prior to her taking the test). That alone was worth the fee, although she never did attend CTY. As I said before, her scores got her into Davidson THINK, though.</p>
<p>I’m sorry I can’t really remember more details about this registration process. In 2007, you couldn’t just send the scores to those programs like you could to a college (but maybe you can now, I don’t know). If I were you I would call the programs you are most interested in and ask them about this. Before you register your D for the test, as you will want to register her through one of their programs and pay their fee for it, I think, to get maximum benefit from the program.</p>
<p>Good advice, intparent … I think I’ll give them a call (or email them) to better understand today’s process. Thanks</p>
<p>When registering for SAT they permit scores to be sent to 4 different places.</p>
<p>I believe, but double check this, that you can simply complete the College Board SAT sign-up using the codes of the various gifted programs similiar in manner to listing the codes of 4 different colleges. </p>
<p>I think you only need to sign up with each gifted search program individually if you want to be considered for that gifted program now.</p>
<p>In my area all of the testing centers have twenty 7th/8th graders taking the SAT. Usually they put us in a separate room without even telling the High Schoolers that we exist. The main value to taking the SAT before HS is talent search camps (cty, midwestern, TIP, etc.), and if you have better parents then mine applying to early college programs(PEG at MBC) also the SAT is good for knowing if you are in the 99th percentile or in the 99.99th percentile.</p>
<p>Another advantage of taking the SATs early is that if you score high enough, at least in my area, you are given a scholarship to take a course free at a local college through CTY.</p>
<p>would you send me the link where I can make that test? or where can I get it?</p>
<p>I took the SAT in seventh grade. It was not a big deal. No stress, it didn’t scar me or make me feel like a failure. </p>
<p>I did qualify for (and go to) CTY. I had a great time. They do offer financial aid for some. </p>
<p>4 years later I just got my first SAT score. It was pretty high. I was never particularly stressed about the SAT, but that’s more because I find the test almost humiliatingly easy compared to what I do at school. IMO a kid will either be stressed about it or they won’t, I don’t think middle school testing has anything to do with that mindset. </p>
<p>No reason to take the sat in middle school “as an IQ test” or other indicator of intelligence. I find it more of an achievement test than an aptitude test, and especially at that age before heavy studying is done it will reflect the quality of the child’s school more than the child him/herself. If your family is looking into talent search programs, then take it. I promise your kid will be fine either way.</p>