Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment SAT prep?

DD12 will be taking SAT next year for Talent Search, I was curious, do middle-school students taking SATs actually "prepare" for these tests? ie. run through practice tests, or go through study books etc like the HS kids? For the SCAT, all we did was to go through the six or so "sample questions" in the Test info packet just so she became familiar with the format, but the format was the same throughout anyway, so the "test prep" took all but few minutes.

SAT seems so daunting and long; on one hand, I feel little guilty having a child even go through such testing, so the idea of preparing for the test seems alot too but on the otherhand, she has done so well in the SCATs (that being a very short test in comparision), that taking the SAT seems the next logical step. Besides, that's been the expectation for Middle School Talent Search participants, right? So it can't be that bad, I keep telling myself. And going in cold without any prep doesn't seem right either. I know JH CTY now offers the option for MS students to take the SCAT, but on the other hand, I am curious to see how she would do on a test like the SAT...

Any thoughts or experience?

thanks for asking Mominsac -
The SAT is fine for gifted 12 year olds to take. The test is long, but she can skip the writing portion if you think that will help her not run out of steam.

If you are taking the tests as a diagnostic 'above level test' to get an idea of what her LOG - level of giftedness, then the preperation should be
1) a few sample questions so she knows the format
2) the idea that guessing subtracts points, so wild guessing is a bad idea, but if one answer can be confidently ruled out, a guess is worth taking
3) that this test is developed to be super hard for HS kids, so don't be sad if there are lots of questions that she can't answer. The point is only to compare her to other bright kids who are 12 years old to help make educational decisions and perhaps get to go to cool activities and summer camp.

Actually, there might be a few instances where more prep than that is nescessary, but it doesn't sound like those apply. I know I felt nervous sending my son in with all those big kids, and I even drove to the next community so he wouldn't have to be with kids he knew. But as for the nervousness about sending her in to take a test she will find difficult - Celebrate that she can have her first experience like this in supportive environment!

She really can not lose.
Grinity

My D did one practice test before taking the SAT each time in 7th & 8th grade. No study book prep for us (plenty of time for that in high school ).We did not go far from our home school... and D ran into one of her older sister's classmates who was making a last gasp effort to raise her score. D did not seem to care, but the classmate was taken aback.

My dd12 took the SAT twice -- once in 6th and once in 7th. She didn't do any prep either time. My kids are somewhat uncooperative with test prep so it's hard to know if I might have asked them to do a little more if they had been amenable to doing so.

She did well both times, but not like SET well .

I'm no expert in this but I'll tell you our experience.

My 12 y/o enjoyed doing the practice tests for the ACT, so we did quite a few and I spent quite a bit of effort preparing him. He did so well on the practice test I went a little overboard thinking I could coach him up above 30 in everything but math because he was in the high 20's his first try.

The difference between his first practice test prior to any coaching was within a couple of points of his actual score a few months later.

It seems that there were a few things we were able to fine-tune, but the score difference was very small. He stayed within the same few points on each subject on every pre-test, and carried that same general score on test day.

If I could do it again I would have spent the time doing something else. It seemed in our case there was pretty much a ceiling to what he could do maturity-wise, and that was that. The questions he'd miss were typically those that required inference or on subject matter he just didn't 'get' at age 12.
HTH

Thank you everyone for sharing your experience and offering some affirmation and encouragement! I feel MUCH better about this already and to know that 6th graders can take SATs too w/o much "test-stress"

I suppose I was somewhat reacting to my own past experience of taking such tests ages ago! Truly at 6th grade, there is no pressure, so we should approach it more as exploration, just like we did with SCAT.

Thanks, Grinity, for the specific advice on SAT test-taking. That's a good idea about skipping writing section to save some mental energy, although, she loves to write, so I will see what that is all about first - who knows, she may enjoy it. Also, great idea to go somewhere else in town to take the SATs, so we don't run into some awkward moments too with HS kids we know.

intparent, Cricket2, Indy - thanks for letting me know about your "prep" experiences. Sounds good to me - to just allow DD to familiarize with the sections and not feel obligated to study. Again, you are right that they have time later to really study for these tests - in HS!

thanks again.

The most awkward part was this kid we knew looking at D and saying, "Great, and even you are probably going to kick my b*** on this test..". Which I suspect D did, but OF COURSE neither of us knew what to say, and we certainly didn't say that. I will say that we might have run into someone we knew at any reasonably close testing location. If you register late, as some kids do, you don't get first choice of location, so you could run into people you know even if you pick the 2nd or 3rd closest location.

another good point, intparent. I will be sure to apply early. We plan to test in June - hopefully, not too many HS kids will be testing by then, but it would be nice to have choice of location...thanks!