Cym,
I would have liked to know my scores by middle school, maybe earlier, as my academic frustrations began early in elementary school--definitely not at 22. We came from a very poor district, and neither of my schools understood the difference between one of my classmates reading two grade levels ahead and me sneaking in college science and calculus books or choosing classical literature for book reports (in grade school). However, even if I had received the scores earlier, my parents still did not know what the scores meant, as the tester only told them that my school was much higher than what she had seen from other students. Most of my older relatives are also very bright (not very educated, but rising quite high in a field that they had self taught--physics, engineering, business), so I guess that my parents did not think that these scores would mean anything other than that I was a bright child.
As for siblings, I lived with five cousins close in age to me, all of whom are GT, as well. All of them read before school, and most could do simple math. We reasoned that if my oldest cousin read at four and did well being one of the youngest in his class that I would do even better in school as I had taught myself to read at two. Our comparisons usually helped us to push ourselves (especially us three youngest) in learning while we were at home. Our different levels of giftedness only created problems when I took the ACT in middle school and scored higher than the two who had taken it during their junior years of high school, but K and P usually treated me as if I were their age, anyway. We were all each others' best friends (still are), as we could relate to each other better than we could relate with most of our classmates (none of us accelerated through school). Several of them also struggled to fit into a one-size-fits-all education, three dropping out as well. Since we have discovered differences in giftedness, we have come to understand our situation better and have been able to help each other navigate through college and careers.
In the end, knowing my scores may not have allowed me to gain enrichment or acceleration, but it would have helped me to understand my frustrations at school and to understand why I had a much easier time relating to children almost twice my age than to my classmates. Also, it may have helped us cousins to understand our similar mis-adventures in school and some of the differences in our abilities. It also may have helped to reassure the older ones that they were very intelligent, even if W and I outperformed them at younger ages. If we had not all been gifted or if we had not been as close, knowing our scores may have created problems, but it has not been much of an issue.
I hope that this helps! Let me know if you want to know more
LilMick
