So I know that the winter dates are popular for talent searches (the ones that come before March deadlines...) is there any other characteristic of test dates that would be useful for an underage tester to know? Like are May/June going to be weighted toward the kids who are taking it for the eighth time? or is November/ December the ones trying to eke in under the college deadlines?

What do you think? Is there much difference?

The thing I like about the less popular dates are that they aren't as crowded with big people. When we show up in Dec or Feb, there's a giant crowd of high schoolers that is pretty intimidating to a 10-yr old half their height.

Interesting question about weighting--I don't know the answer to that.

So do you think the later spring dates would be less crowded? I'm thinking about signing up that tiny 10 year old (9 year old..) for the ACT, depending on his Explore scores, and it's between June and September... He'll be fine either way but I think the more low-key the better iykwim!

As far as weighting - all the reading I have done on the subject seems to suggest that it prety much evens out.
As for size of the students - mine has shoot up so much over the past year that he almost (almost) looks like a junior...

Another option - my kid's middle school has been approached by a local test prep company (Sylvan???)about an interesting idea.
They will pay for an ACT test for the entire 8th grade class as long as parents will meet with them later on for a "diagnostic" conversation based on the scores. Since mine only took SAT through the talent search this year he is very eager to do it.
Also, the same school will administer Explore to all its 8/9 graders for a fee of $7.50 per student!