Questions from the newbie :-).
So, what do I start with? I checked the dates for SAT for the year 18/19. Do I just register my kid for one of the dates here?
Can they run out of spots or I can totally wait with registration - as long as I register before the deadline?
Also, I see that our High school administers the test. Does it matter where the child takes the test?
My kids always seemed to be signing up late. The local high school ran out of spots at least twice, but there are lots of testing sites near us, so they just went to the high school in the next town over. If your kid is CTY eligible you might want to try and do it through them. (If that’s the way it works, it was when we were involved.)
My kid registered thru one of the Talent Search programs. For us it was NUMATS. Not sure what region of the country you are in. And yes, they run out of spots.
Some schools do run out of spots - particularly if that particular school doesn’t offer every test date. Our local HS offers October and June, the one across town offers November and May, but we have a private boarding school in town that offers all but August (when they only have summer program students on campus). If you don’t have many test locations near you, register early, because seats will fill. If your son is under 13, you won’t be able to register online, it will have to be done by mail.
The value I see is for the talent searched (the reason my daughters all took in 7th grade) and qualification for other programs. Those schools that use it for placement in HS should be more transparent, the examples offered sound like the schools chose who to invite to take the test. Aside from that, if you have a bright student who maxes out on the state testing, above-grade-level testing can give you an idea of where they really are. My youngest daughter got perfect or near-perfect scores on the state testing from day one, so aside from telling me she was above grade level, they were useless.
@2018Summer2018 - I don’t think it matters where your kid takes the test. When you register, you can find a list of nearby locations offering it (hopefully they are nearby). You can register up to the last day, and even up to the last late registration date I guess, provided the test center has room.
Depending on where you are located, the test center should have some familiarity with young kids taking the SAT, because so many middle schoolers take it to qualify for various programs.
At least when ours did it a few years ago, we had to go the paper registration route because the college board didn’t allow kids younger than 13 to register online (humble brag - ours was 11). This could make it tougher to gauge if your test center has room if you can’t see it online and you wait too long to submit the paper registration.
We found the experience invaluable for a number of reasons, including giving our kid instant credibility when looking to cross enroll at the LPS in 7th and 8th grades, and even in high school proper.
Good luck! Don’t listen to the naysayers. Some kids love taking tests, some don’t. No need to force it on your kid or justify it as “practice” imo. If your kid likes taking tests you know it already.
DS2 took ACT as a seventh grader last year . He scores at the top in grade level tests in both math and lang arts and so the ACT scores showed him where he needed some work. His percentile in reading, compared to other 7th graders who took the test, was much lower than in math and English. So we have focused on reading more during the summer. My older child would have derived no benefit from any of this. He took the tests junior year . So it really depends on the kid.
Good to know! I will try to register rather sooner than later.
@CTScoutmom , what is the benefit of registering through Talent Search? It is still the same test and we get the results. Am I missing anything? My child does not need to establish eligibility for CTY because he took SCAT before (while still in elementary school) and qualified for Advanced CTY and he remains eligible until the end of his school years…
@SatchelSF , SAT at 11! WOW! Mine is already 13.
@2018Summer2018 CTY will provide a statistical analysis of your child against his peers who also took the ACT or SAT.
@MaterS , that would be the only reason? My concern is that if my kid does not do well enough on SAT, he may loose his eligibility. I do not want to risk it…
Any other reasons to register through Talent Search?
Scores above 700 make them eligible for special programs. I don’t think you would lose eligibility, after all a kid can bomb a test because they are ill, but you could call them and ask.
I know NUMATS will not change your eligibility once you have qualified.
Thank you!
We used NUMATS for our kid.
Advantages for using Talent Search: better analysis what your kid needs to work on, placement for CTD classes and an award ceremony if your kid scores high enough.
Disadvantage: Talent Search registration typically doubles the cost of the basic SAT test.
@85bears46 , very clear. Thank you!
Greetings. Fairly new here, and have a related, but slightly different question which I had no luck finding results when searching the archives on the topic. Re: SSAT tests, my student has taken the middle level SSAT as a 7th grader to get a sense of the exam. In the fall, we’ll sign up for the test again, but this time as an 8th grader, which I understand to be the upper level SSAT. Does anyone have experience with whether scores tend to translate fairly consistently from the middle to upper level, assuming student stays at or above norm of learning progress in the interim?
You should start a separate thread for this, not really related to the original topic. Maybe in the prep school forum?