Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Experience of taking SAT young?

AlexsMom's post reminded me to go and trawl through the CTY website again, and there are a number of online courses there that might appeal to DS-almost-8. But qualifying, particularly from outside the US seems like a rather bureaucratic palaver; he'd have to take SCAT, pay twice to do so, and the sample questions (I guess he'd count as a 3rd grader so would have to take the elementary one) make it look as though he'd be more likely to come out of the testing experience patronised than stretched. So that doesn't totally appeal, although it may be that really I should just get over that feeling...

OTOH, he's been doing the SAT daily question daily for fun for the last 6 weeks or so, and in that time I've seen *one* maths question that gave him any trouble at all. Experimentally, I had him take two timed sections of the maths practice paper, and his performance was such as to scale up to a SAT-M of over 600, with time being the only real issue (he made one careless error on each section, and otherwise lost marks only for what he didn't get to). The 700 that would qualify him for SET looks within foreseeable-future reach, and for purposes of CTYOnline it looks as though that'd be a good way to sidestep the bureaucracy as well as being more fun, and perhaps more worthwhile in that his having qualified young for SET might impress somebody someday. (There's a SAT centre near us, and you can just sent in SAT scores that qualify for SET after the fact, rather than having to sign up with CTY before you even take the test as happens otherwise.)

But - the full SAT is a long, long time to concentrate (and not chatter!) when you're 8. He would, I assume, have to sit there for the whole thing, even if he was only doing certain sections? (There would definitely be no point in his attempting the essay, that's my main thought; the rest is all quite fun, though he'd do less well in the writing and CR sections than in the maths of course.) Has anyone had their child do the SAT at around this age, and if so, how did it go? I'm not sure whether I'm crazy to be even thinking about this, or not.

I believe the actual SCAT is harder than the sample questions, but yeah, I wouldn't anticipate your DS would be challenged by any of the levels of SCAT math.

AIUI, you do have to sit silently through the entire test, no matter how early you finish, in order to not disturb the people around you. And it is a long test.

I am also curious. Would a child be able to leave the room for the essay section (for example)? Or would they have to sit quietly. Or if it is at the end, could they leave early?

ps -- I absolutely don't think you're crazy at all Your child is approaching the SET ballpark, and "soon-enough" might hit the 700+ he'd need. Obviously you're planning carefully, so as to ensure the possible outcome is worth the long testing.... Hats off.

Can you use the scores from the subject tests interchangeably with the SAT reasoning test scores for admission to programs like SET?

No, not that I've ever seen.

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I've read that the essay always comes first. The reason they don't want people leaving the SAT early is, I think, that they don't want them texting the answers to people taking it elsewhere. However, logically it ought to be OK for someone to enter the test late, in one of the breaks so as not to disturb others - as they haven't yet seen the paper they have no cheating opportunity. Then logically it should be possible to miss, rather than sit through, the essay section. Of course, this doesn't mean it'd actually be allowed!

I think that the child has to sit until he leaves for good, but it's probably best to contact someone at College Board, get the real answer, and write it down with that person's name (LOL)

I think my son was permitted to bring a novel to read and relax during breaks...but I can't remember. I say, practice sitting for 3 hours at home, and go for it as soon as that's fine.

The essay portion does have some multiple choice parts factored in, so no matter how weak the essay, the score won't be dismal.

And it's fun to see the CR portion rise over the years.

To qualify for SET only the Math portion has to be over the cut off. I encourage you to try it if your child knows that the test is designed to be 'hard' and is willing. My son quite enjoyed it at age 12 - he said it was like being inside a video game.

Smiles,
Grinity
Grinity

I took my first SAT and ACT really young (didn't know about SET, but needed it for college courses). Does he have any older friends/cousins/classmates... taking it that day? For me, they put me in the same room as my senior classmate so that he could help me with finding the room again after breaks/finding the bathroom/registration... It was a pretty good solution, and I'd recommend it.

There wasn't a writing section when I took it, but they did allow me to read by the proctor during breaks and as a back-up if I hit my limit of testing. However, I was pretty excited by the whole experience and was able to work through all of the sections, though I didn't finish every section in the allotted time. You may want to explain that and go over filling out a scantron sheet before he takes the exam, if he decides to take it. Those were my biggest issues as a very young tester.

He doesn't; SAT isn't used for university admission here, so taking it is very rare (the facility exists for the few people who want to apply to US universities). On the plus side, I imagine that that means it won't be a "hundreds of people in one room" situation. Actually, I don't know how many do take it on any one date. I could find out... It has occurred to me that I could take it myself to keep him company!

Yup, we talked about that when he did the sample paper sessions and he filled in the sheet veeeerrrry sloooowly each time. I think he'd get an extra 3 questions done per section just through getting faster at that; but colouring in has never been a strength of his :-)

Thanks everyone for the useful comments.