Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment When is it too young for SAT?

I am considering having DS9 take the SAT sometime in the next year or two. When is it too young? He took the Explore last year as a 3rd grader and there was still some room for improvement. I have not decided whether to have him take it again this year mostly because it was a rather long drive for us (about two hours). However, unless he stagnates in his development (completely possible), he may outgrow the Explore by 5th grade. We still have the SCAT, but it is so brief, particularly for DS, who tends to finish in half the time, that I prefer him to use another measure.

Anyway, I started thinking about the SAT partly because his Pre-Algebra teacher mentioned giving him some SAT stuff to give him some challenge. If his past MAP scores put him in the 90+ percentile for 10th graders and 11th graders typically take the SAT, does it mean that DS should at least be comfortable with the SAT even if he doesn't score high?

The other issue is that CTY will not administer the SAT to anyone below 7th grader so DS would have to make special arrangements and probably take it with high school juniors. Does anyone have experience doing it?

Yet another issue is whether have him prep or treat it like the SCAT and Explore without prep.

Is it better to do it sooner (within the next year) or wait until I can expect him to do really well?

Any thoughts?

My only concern would be if there is subject matter that they haven't had yet. Maybe you can get some practice materials or something just to make sure they are familiar with it first, even though by that time they might have had it in class (like geometry or some algebra topics; I'm not sure what's on there these days). Plus theres an essay now, right? I guess that's graded separately though.

I started taking it pretty young without prep for placement purposes and use for age-waivers on classes (college courses, community center/art classes...). It was very helpful, as it is an objective, out-of-level test. Not sure how Explore works, but if he hasn't taken a fill-in-bubbles exam, I'd suggest going over that before the exam.

That's good to know. I heard/read somewhere that sometimes you need the local high school's permission. I am assuming that is just if you want to use their facilities for the testing?

I am undecided whether the first time should be with or without prep. On the one hand, an unprep score will be more reflective of true ability. Of course, if we wanted the score to qualify for a special program or something, then obviously prepping will increase his score substantially.

Thanks. DS is a public school kid so very test savvy and used to computer tests, fill-in-bubbles tests, and writing tests.

We have seen nice improvement in Explore test scores for DS10 for the last three years. Now at grade 5, DS thought Explore was too easy for him and wanted to try ACT/SAT. NUMATS only takes 6th graders or higher, the only option is register directly through the testing agency and choose local high school. Since DS has been working with 8th graders in math class, I don't think a room filled with high schoolers would be a problem. DS might need some basic test taking strategies and get used to the pace and time management.

My dd12 has no interest in talent search testing or similar so we didn't try SAT/ACT out with her but she'd be one of those smaller kids who would have been taken as even younger. Dd14 was 10 the first time she took the SAT and was probably 4'6" (before her 10" height spurt in middle school) so clearly young, but also not the only kid in the room.

Yeah, he was taller at nine than dd12 is at 12, although she's getting awfully close to 4'8" - lol! Her school PE teacher deemed her height and weight "not proficient" when they measured and weighed them all at the start of the year.

I do imagine that having the test not count for anything in terms of college admissions, etc. might make for greater confidence in the young kids vs. the high school teens. I must admit, though, that dd14 came out of her first talent search testing at 9 (Explore) crying. She's kind of an anxious person and I think that it was the first test she'd ever taken where she didn't know everything easily and it spooked her. She did a lot better than she thought she would, though, despite leaving during the test repeatedly to go to the bathroom and recompose herself.

Just fyi, we were told that we could request a waiver for ds10 to take the SAT through NUMATS if we wanted, because he did so well on the EXPLORE that it was pointless to take it again (I recall that your ds did as well). The only drawback is that he wouldn't qualify for the awards ceremony no matter how well he did, but I think going once was probably enough for him. To the OP - my other son took the SAT at age 11, and one of my dds at age 10 (both through a middle school gifted program) and neither considered it particularly frustrating, or felt out of place (but they were both with other middle schoolers).
This year, both my boys (10 and 12) decided not to take any standardized tests outside of school. Ds10 had a ton of gifted testing for middle school and ds12 has just moved on to other things. I think it was more useful when we were trying to get the school to realize they needed some accomodations.
As for prepping, we've never done it, and I can't imagine my boys being that interested in prepping. I will say, though, that we recently had 3 kids (7th grade) over for a group project and all 3 had both taken an SAT prep class and were taking ongoing outside math enrichment. So, I guess it's more common than I thought (and they did do better than my son on the math section, where I think prep makes a bigger difference). I'll advise my kids to prep when it counts, and we've still got a few years.
It was really interesting, though, to do the out-of-level testing and see how they did and where their strengths are. It definitely helped guide both us and the school.