I don't know that there is any real evidence to back this up-- or if anyone has actually looked at this effect at all, even-- but I have to wonder if HG+ kids tend to do increasingly worse on some types of achievement tests as they outgrow them. Well, "outgrow" isn't the term that I'm looking for, here, but basically what I mean is that if the SAT is "appropriate" as a tool for measuring a particular 6th-7th grader, then that same student as a high school sophomore is probably taking the SAT as a "below level" multiple choice assessment.
Okay, with that in mind, I feel that the ACT is much better-constructed. It's.... just...
well, the questions that I saw in prep materials were tighter. Less ambiguous or open to interpretation in different levels, if that makes any sense.
That's why I think that my DD probably found the ACT a better reflection of where she is NOW.
At 12, the PSAT was already somewhat below-level for her-- and it showed as she took practice tests. Her responses to looking up wrong answers wasn't; "Ohhhh, so THAT's how you do that..."
It was more along the lines of "Ohhhh-- so THAT is what they wanted me to read into that..."
Which, in my mind, is a mark of a test that is too level-locked to be very good for students below or above that level of cognitive function.
She was simply not reading the questions the way that a sophomore with the assumed background would do; aside from the grammar and math sections (which are very right-wrong and non-ambiguous), the test items were a struggle for her since she had to put herself into the position of "what would my classmates be expected to read into this item?"
For an example of what I'm getting at here, try taking a quick reading practice yourself-- with both ACT and SAT. I do much better on the ACT version, because it doesn't assume that I have any particular scaffolding beneath me to support interpretation, and therefore it's less prone (IMO) to over-thinking. KWIM? In looking at her practice tests for any patterns (particular types of questions, etc.)-- there wasn't a pattern of what she missed, usually-- I often found myself scratching MY head at the SAT items, and pretty much never with the ACT ones.
Could just be my family, too. I'm a zen-master of the standardized test, and DH and DD not so much. I tend to test probably better than I should, and both of them about as they should or a bit worse than that on the day.
