<p>Don't even know this is relevant, but want to share my joy with other parents. S, 8th grader just got his SAT scores in. He took the test in participation of the JHU's talent search program. The sores: CR - 730 97% Math - 777 98% WR - 680 94% (essay got 9 out of 12, but didn't do so well in multiple choices). My wife, S and I bet on his section scores and total score last night. As always I was the most pessimistic, and I lost the bet, but I am happy to accept the punishment - 30 minute back rub for my son (he knows best about himself duh, and I don't think he has the patience to take that 30 minute rub), and for my wife (who's the runner up) 20 minutes. LOL</p>
<p>Do you think we should send a copy of the score report to the school he's applying to? Would that help?</p>
<p>Thank you, PhotoOp. Do you think the SAT scores helped your daughter? What school did she end up with? PM me if you don't want to be ID'ed by disclosing that info.</p>
<p>Kudos to your son! My son also got his SAT scores today. I had to call because he's only 12 and they wouldn't let him have an account for email. Though he qualified for CTY, not by near the margin that your son did! Congrats. I would absolutely send in his scores. As a matter of fact, I would call whoever interviewed him and ask how they want you to go about it. (whether on his school transcript or otherwise). </p>
<p>Congrats and I hope he gets in where he's applying. He'll need the stumulation. My son is thrilled that he'll be able to take the three week summer course in logic. Your son will qualify for the "grand ceremony" with those scores and may well have other accolades because of them. They are truly exceptional.</p>
<p>Thank you, neatoburrito. This is the second year he's taken the test for CTY. Last year he got scores of low to mid 600 ranges, and he too took the logic course this past summer and he enjoyed it. Good luck with your son's summer school!</p>
<p>Congratulations, Watertester! Your son's SAT scores are truly fantastic! Clearly he is super gifted. My daughter has qualified for CTY awards for the past three years and I am sending her scores to the schools. You should definitely send in your son's scores. To be gifted in both Math and Critical Reading, to such an extent, is amazing. You must be so proud of him.</p>
<p>I should be shouldn't I? I was just chatting with a member of this forum. She made a point saying that sometimes we parents are so used to our kids' talents like we take them for granted. It's so true. Yes, I will send a copy of the score report in, and hopefully they will pay attention to it as I know they are dealing with probably a million of pieces of paper.</p>
<p>Having a child with such gifts is both a blessing and a challenge. It makes parenting easier and harder. Start with the reality that, by definition, most other parents will not be able to relate. It is difficult to find other parents with whom to share experiences (good and bad) as this child's parent. Sharing successes runs the risk of appearing the braggart. Sharing challenges and, at best, other parents will not be able to relate. Then there's the perception that "every parent thinks his/her child is special" when you try to explain to teachers and others that your child is different and needs a different approach to his education. Keeping such a child engaged and interested in a prepared curriculum is not always easy and often requires your advocacy. Then there's the possibility of complacency on the child's behalf if he finds school work easy. </p>
<p>One of the biggest challenges is when your child meets success, others will say "oh OF COURSE he got that grant/scholarship/award/recognition, he's so smart!" when in fact you know that he worked really hard and earned the achievement by applying the gifts he has.</p>
<p>We once had a very helpful conversation with our child concerning giftedness. We said that a student having a gifted brain is like a basketball player having a 7 foot tall body. It a fact to accept and appreciate, but not to take untoward pride in. The pride comes from doing the best with whatever G-d/genes/fate gave you. Pick a 7' NBA star, past or present - Wilt, The Chief, Hakeem, Yao - and be certain that getting to stardom in the NBA took a lot more than height. It's not a perfect analogy, but for a young man it can be a helpful starting point for a discussion. </p>
<p>So congrats on your son's high scores, and sincere best wishes in helping him find happiness and success! It's hard but rewarding work.</p>
<p>Very well put, Laxtaxi. I have two children like this but that are very different. One is very good at adapting his assignments into something meaningful for him and the other just does what is necessary to get the A. It can be very challenging advocating for these kids. When advocating for my d's grade skip, I had an administrator tell me that "most of our students are above average." yeah....50% of them. It wasn't until illustrated with a concrete example that over 90% of the material was not learned (because it was already mastered) and had individual achievement test results to show that I was only asking for her to be nudged a tiny bit closer to her actual level that they allowed her to advance.</p>
<p>I had a similar talk with my kids. I told them that there will always be people above and below them. Their jobs were to learn from those who knew more and help the ones who knew less. I think it is also important to stress that there ARE other children like them and give them tools for dealing with the sometimes profound loneliness that can creep up on highly gifted kids.</p>
<p>Now....I've got to wrap presents. Merry Christmas everyone!</p>
<p>watertester- my son is scheduled to take the sat for cty for the first time this month. How does the test / percentiles work? Are the kids compared to highschoolers taking it too? Or only to those in 8th grade taking it. How did his sat scores compare with his projected sat score that you see on the ssat report? Just wondering if there is a really good correlation there... TIA and congrats on your son's achievement! Did he study at all? :)</p>
<p>Those are super scores, watertest. Yes - send them to schools - just be sure to also send SSAT and/or ISEE scores.
PA-C - as I recall, you will get percentiles from college board which compare to highschoolers, and other percentiles from CTY which compare to CTY kids. I think it's by grade/age, but I'm not absolutely sure.</p>
<p>The percentiles that come from college board compare the 7th or 8th graders results to those of college bound seniors, not others in their grade.</p>
<p>neatoburrito is quite correct. The CB scores are compared only to college bound seniors. There is both a state and a national number. I pulled out my records and didn't find any CTY percentages. They provide those for the earlier tests but not the SAT. My child took them as a 12 year old, then just took the PSATs as a 15 year old - the numbers followed a similar pattern and were higher (not surprisingly) by about 80 points per section.</p>
<p>The only info I can find regarding percentiles of non-college bound seniors and the sat is from the Duke TiP program. This link <a href="http://www.tip.duke.edu/talent_searches/grade_7/7TSResultsSummary.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.tip.duke.edu/talent_searches/grade_7/7TSResultsSummary.pdf</a> will show the results of Duke's talent search among 7th graders who scored at or above the 95th percentile on grade-level tests. As you can see, the qualifying scores of 550+ put the TiP and (CTY) kids in the top ten percent of the brightest students. These talent search use such out-of-level tests to "comb out" the end of the grade level bell curve and find the kids who can do work for which they have not had instruction. In other words, they are separating the really good students from the gifted students.</p>
<p>Neatoburrito is right - and the SAT/ACT have the considerable advantage of being available everywhere. It is also exceedingly expensive to develop tests for teasing out the high end kids. IQ tests are expensive and don't really do the job for a number of reasons.
CTY says that about 25% of the 7th/8th graders qualify for the state awards by scoring above 550 as 7th graders or above 600 as 8th graders (on math or crit. reading). About 30 of the 7th/8th graders qualify for CTY summer with scores of
Grade at Test Date Verbal/Critical Reading Score
7 >=510
8 >=560
9 >=610
10 >=660</p>
<p>SAT Option: Math and Science Courses
Grade at Test Date Math Or Math + Verbal/Critical Reading
7 >=580 or >=1040
8 >=630 or >=1140
9 >=680 or >=1240
10 >=730 or >=1340</p>
<p>SAT + STB Option: Math and Science Courses
Grade at Test Date </p>
<p>STB Score
And SAT Math
7 >=500 and >=530
8 >=500 and >=580
9 >=500 and >=630
10 >=500 and >=680</p>
<p>ACT Eligibility Requirements: Humanities and Writing Courses
Grade at Test Date </p>
<p>Reading
7 >=21
8 >=24
9 >=27
10 >=29</p>
<p>ACT Eligibility Requirements: Math and Science Courses
Grade at Test Date </p>
<p>Math
Or Math + Reading
7 >=23 or >=41
8 >=26 or >=47
9 >=28 or >=53
10 >=31 or >=57</p>
<p>ACT + STB Option: Math and Science Courses
Grade at Test Date </p>
<p>STB Score
And ACT Math
7 >=500 and >=20
8 >=500 and >=23
9 >=500 and >=26
10 >=500 and >=28</p>
<p>and about 50% for CAA with scores of </p>
<p>7 >=410
8 >=460
9 >=510
10 >=560</p>
<p>Eligibility Chart: Math and Science Courses
Grade at Test Date SAT Quantitative Score Or SAT Math Score & STB Score
7 >=430 or >=380 & >=400 STB
8 >=480 or >=430 & >=400 STB
9 >=530 or >=480 & >=400 STB
10 >=580 or >=530 & >=400 STB</p>
<p>I don't know if they offer fee waivers for internationals. However, you do not need to go through CTY to take the SAT. Anyone can sign up and take the test. If you're under 13 you'll have to send in a paper form. The benefits of CTY are a little recognition if you do well, and the opportunity to do the summer programs (which cost about 3500 for three weeks). I don't know of anyone ever getting more than half scholarship for the summer programs. </p>
<p>I just wanted you to understand that you do NOT have to go through CTY to take the SAT or ACT.</p>
<p>I helped him take some timed practice tests. It helped in terms of mental readiness for a long and intense test kids at that age had never taken, and in managing the time in the test, but it is an ability test, so studying just for the test may not be as effective. As to the projected SAT scores in SSAT score report, his actual scores do fall in those ranges, but they give you a pretty wide range. e.g. In SSAT, he answered all math problems correctly, and he got 800 in SSAT math and they give him a predicted SAT math score of 700 - 800.</p>