I just wanted to add the story of my youngest ds who took the SCAT last year at age 7. He was in 2nd grade. He is not a great student, and not all teachers recognize him as above average intellectually. We did not get the JHU CTY referral from the school, since they don't refer before 4th or 5th grade, and quite honestly I think they would not have chosen to refer ds anyway, based on school performance. On the first try, he did not finish either SCAT section. He took his time and did thirty something problems in math and forty something in verbal (according to him, right after the test). I was sure he must have done poorly (since he did not even finish) but he made the cut for CTY in math and just missed qualifying by one point in verbal. So I signed him up to take it again at the end of May, telling him only that he had done great and qualified for special programs, "but take it again and see if you can finish this time!" On the second time, the math score was similar (and still he did not finish), but the verbal score was something like 8 -10 points higher, and not only did he qualify for verbal courses, he won a "high honors" award on that section. So scores can go up, sometimes by a lot. This year (in 3rd grade) he has been doing EPGY math (not open enrollment) and has quickly gone through all of third and half of fourth grade math (in a short time) so when he takes the SCAT again in a couple weeks (which we will have him do for fun and practice), I will be interested to see the new scores. This year he became quite a voracious reader (which he was not last year) and he knows so much more math. I wonder if the scores will change? Maybe I will return when we get his scores this year and post the results (along with exact numbers from last year, which at the moment I am too lazy to look up).
I never understood the point of the award ceremonies for the high test scores (when older ds was getting them). My older ds knew he was really smart and the award was gratifying but seemed unnecessary and in some ways silly (why award someone for something outside their control, like being smart?) OTOH my youngest ds has only this year come to see himself as smart (I think) and the award ceremony for the high honors verbal score was a very high point for him this year (he received it late in the fall 2009 for the May 2009 test score). I think he gained confidence from it, which was something he needed.
