Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Just signed up for SCAT

Hi, just signed up my 4th grader (he's 9, will be 10 in may) to take the SCAT next week. He likes testing so not a biggie and I have procrastinated do it for 2 years. Lost my app. fee last time, duh!!

So, anyone have anything to tell me about this? Do you find out results quickly? He is taking it in the morning next week and he doen't get nervous about tests so I am not concerned about that and I don't prep lol So, I don't know - just any general experiences you can share from taking this test in the past?

thanks!

My son (just turned 8) has done it twice now- he missed the qualification by one point in both the first time, cleared it by 10 pts in both the second time.

Are you doing it at a Prometric place? One thing that really weirded my son out the first time is that there are tons of adults in there taking tests for other things. I would have warned him about that in advance had I known. They were all staring at him and whispering. One of them left to use the restroom and walked by the waiting room. He thought my son was there taking the MCAT like all the other people :-)

There is a decent amount of background noise while people are typing essays and thinking etc. If your son is one who gets distracted by random noise, take some earplugs. They did have headphones but they were not kid-sized!

thanks for the info! it is a prometric place i will certainly talk to him about those things!!

do you remember how long it takes to find out the results/score?

We got our scores online in about 3 business days. It took about 3 weeks to get the letter in the mail.

ok thanks

I had my son (then a 2nd grader) do the practice test, and he did much better on the math than the verbal. He had not seen analogies before, so I bought a book on analogies for kids and spent maybe an hour practicing with him. He improved his verbal score and qualified for the talent search in both math and verbal.

where do you find practice tests? like i said, i am not a prepper!

There are links to mini SCAT tests at the bottom of http://cty.jhu.edu/ts/scat.html .

JoAnna,

You might also tell him that they have some security protocols because some of the adults there are taking high stakes tests. Thus, he may be asked to show that his pockets are empty, turn around and show he doesn't have electronics hidden on his person, and we saw them make one woman with a large locket remove it! The people at the center were very nice to my son, but it still freaked him out a little bit the first time he went (he tested last year as a 2nd grader and this year again).

Also, make sure he understands about the break, and watch the time when you take the break.

My son came out the first time (in a much what I worried was a much too short amount of time) grinning and saying it was fun!

And yes, scores are available online really quickly.

holy moly, i just looked at the practice SCAT and I'd be horrified if I was taking it!! eek.