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.

The SCAT test is not that hard; its actually a reasoning test. 'The kids don't have to actually do calculate the answers, they just need to know which of two choices is the best answer. My perfectionist son did all the calculations, and almost ran out of time, but as long as the child knows which is the best answer, that's fine. If your child enjoys tests, he'll be fine. The questions they show in the mini are not exactly what they'll be tested on. I advise you to have him do the prep for the next age group as well, as the questions progress in difficulty.

ok,test is in the morning! we briefly looked over the sample test on that site,which was useful. He likes to know what something is and I really couldn't tell him until i saw that! He thinks he will do better on math.we looked at the next age up and it was the same only a bit more difficult.both showed only analogies and math.

Bumping up this older thread because I also just registered my DD (2nd grade, almost 8.5 years) for the SCAT. She’ll be taking the test this Saturday. Older 2 DSs never took the SCAT, so I’m learning about it here.

The prior advice/recommendations in this thread will be helpful for DD. For example, she’d probably be taken aback by adult testers at the center – so I’ll talk to her about this in advance. I’ll also bring earplugs in case she wants them.

Does anyone have more info on this “break” the testers will take – and will she be supervised by an adult during this time?

TIA for any advice. If you have questions/need advice re: middle-schoolers taking the EXPLORE, ACT or SAT…I can probably help. The SCAT…I have no idea!

I think the break situation may be very dependent on your local testing center, so I'd ask them this question directly. One thing that happened with our ds was he finished part of the SCAT *extremely* quickly - I was planning on being around during his predicted "break" and he was hanging out in a waiting room bored when I returned. He had an adult watching so he wasn't left unsupervised, but he would have been much more comfortable if I'd been around.

polarbear

FWIW, my DD loved the SCAT testing environment, because the test space (even with multiple other testers) was silent as a tomb. People don't even breathe loud in there, in large part because the adults are usually there for high-stakes testing of their own, where an invalidated score or a report of irregularity can cost a significant amount of time and money.

At our test site, I was not allowed to leave the building (and was asked to stay in the waiting area other than to use the restroom or get a drink). The test monitor would have put DD in the waiting room if she'd come out while I'd been in the bathroom, but that's it.

My son took SCAT in second grade. He loved taking it! (I'm not sure why, LOL). There were alot of other middle-aged men taking some kind of graduate engineering test at the same time, so it might be good to explain that other adults will be there. My son was the only kid there.
You also might want to explain what it's like to take an online computer exam. My son had never did that before either.
The center had a chair that didn't spin around, which I think is a good idea. They gave him a little foot rest since his legs were obviously too short to touch the ground!