I apologize for the repetition -- I know I've seen threads on this topic fairly recently, but I'm not finding them via the search function and can't seem to find the relevant page on collegeboard.com. Here are my questions:

Does the College Board automatically erase pre-9th-grade SAT scores from a student's record?

Can ds12 request that the CB keep them?

(Found a fairly recent thread on the Well-Trained Mind forum that said 'yes' to both.)

Is there any reason not to keep them, especially now that it seems so many colleges are superscoring? (Ds aced math, did less well on CR and CW.)

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/register/special/8th-grade This explains the procedure for asking the scores to be saved. If you want to keep them you need to make a request in writing soon otherwise they will be lost.

It is pretty common for 7th and 8th graders to take the SAT so admissions wouldn't be surprised to see those old scores there later. Most students don't need to keep them, but they may come in handy if your child ever considers dual enrollment or early college classes.

Also, SET is something worth considering. http://cty.jhu.edu/set/index.html

Thanks very much! I hadn't thought to look on the 'professionals' side of the site.

Yes, I'll be contacting CTY about SET once ds gets his paper copy of the scores. I'm not sure what it provides that the DYS program doesn't, but there do seem to be scholarships for CTY summer programs that ds's score might qualify him for.

Here is the previous thread of keeping or discarding 7th grade SAT score.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted..../Re_another_SAT_question.html#Post100367

My take on this: You can use 7th grade SAT score for SET or DYS. Then discard it.

Do you think there is any value in figuring out what age a child reaches 700+ level on the SAT? I wonder if it's worth keeping early scores because there seems to be a distinction between an 11 yo who scores 800 and a 17 yo who does. Would there be any value to that distinction to a college?

It seems to me that there are lots and lots and lots of very high SAT scores these days, but there would be many fewer super high scores for much younger students.

Anyone think age matters in terms of demonstrating a high score at a young age?

I would doubt that a college would be THAT interested in the score of an 11 yo- if the 11 yo got an 800 math and then at 17 got a lower score, that would look bad. If they get an 800 at 17, great.
There are lots and lots of study prep materials out there for the SAT, so that's largely why you see such high scores.

This is not relevant to the original question, but I did want to mention that I believe that SET will accept kids who are 13 if their scores were somewhat over 700. I believe that it is +10 points for every month past the 13th bd. She might still qualify if getting some recognition is something that matters to her.

Is it so common for 7th and 8th graders to take the SAT. I thought they would take the SSAT? I know DD has to take the SSAT in 6th grade for admission to a couple of gifted high schools that start in 7th grade.

Very common through the talent search programs like CTY, Numats, TIPS. Used as admission criteria to their gifted summer programs and for things like the SET program. Also useful for admission to Davidson THINK

Some schools recommend students for talent search testing, although as far as I known any parent can sign there kid up if they choose to.

DC20's scores were discarded, but my experience was that they were useful in gaining entrance into college courses and research programs/opportunities when I was a preteen/young teen. If this is of interest, it may be worthwhile to show community college/research mentors to show abilities to handle the work and understand the material of interest.

Scores were necessary for our child to gain access to opportunities for early college classes. Our copy would not have sufficed - the scores needed to come directly from the College Board. I would keep in mind that even if you don't plan to have your child graduate from high school early, they may end up wanting to take a summer course or single course while in high school.

If a kid did very well in SAT (e.g., meeting SET requirements) under 13, it raises the expectation of admission officer. I feel that the kid need to have significant follow-through in high school years, like doing well in AMC12, AIME, winning Intel award, Davidson fellows, etc. Verbal kids have less opportunities for national recognition, but winning some writing awards would be good. On top of that, the kid need to follow-through with a perfect (or near perfect) final SAT in the junior year.

It is just some extra pressure that you may or may not want your child to face.

Really, they look at the highest scores period. Often the lower scores may not even appear on what the admissions officer is looking at. They really don't have time to spend time worrying about the kid's 7th grade SAT scores. Also, anyone who understands testing knows that the difference between a 750 and an 800 can be very little - a question or two. Not significant enough to worry about.

Thanks to everybody for their thoughts on this. We decided to keep the scores, based partly on the advice of our DYS family consultant and partly on the idea (hope?) that ds will probably be able to come close to matching the math score whenever he takes the SAT again -- his only prep this time around was a single practice test, on which he scored 760, so I don't think the 800 was a fluke.

I also agree with ptp's point, which I've seen made on College Confidential, that above a certain level, small differences in subtest scores just don't carry that much weight with admissions committees.

Apologies for reviving an old thread, but DD14 just got her SAT scores back and I'm looking into this.


Can you share your thinking on why keeping scores would be a bad thing, especially if they're very good. I allowed her age-12 upper-1300's scores to be discarded, but upper-1500's at age 14 is above average for even the elite colleges and I don't see a downside. With so many applicants to elite schools in the ceiling range/mid-to-upper 1500's, I would think showing that ability at an early age could be a differentiator. Similar to differentiating among 780-800 Math scorers with high AMC/AIME scores.

A 1560-1590 as a junior supplemented with 1550-1570 in 8th grade should compare favorably to just a 1560-1590 as a junior, no?

DD12 just scored 1290 and I'm planning to keep her scores, not the least because I'm not sure when I'll be able to convince the school to test her again, and with her special needs stuff I don't think can really test through a test center. And I think we'll need those scores over the next couple years for camp and program applications.

I kept my son’s because the 750 reading at one month after 12 was impressive. His math wasn’t bad but he was only half way through algebra 1 and he isn’t a mathy kid so it was good at 560 but not in the broader scope of what is really impressive. If both his scores had been in the high 500, low 600 I wouldn’t have kept them

Not sure when I am going to have him take it again.

Our DD scored a round 1400 (740M/660R) last year when 12. We don't plan on asking for them to be kept. I am not sure that admissions people really care how someone was doing before even high school.

Cranberry does raise a fair point but it to me it just shows what a low ceiling the SAT actually has.

With less than 0.03% hitting the high score and less than 0.2% being within 50 points of the high score, from the latest detailed data released by College Board, I don't think it's a low ceiling. This isn't an instrument to differentiate among PG students, it's applied to the entire population.

0.03% is about 3.44SD, or an IQ of 152 on a 15 point SD. I'm sure many of the tools we discuss have ceilings in the 150 range.