Hi all -
I am wondering if there is any reason to have my daughter take the CTY/SCAT if we are not interested in summer camps at this point. I know she could get a prize for getting a high score, but I am not sure how I feel about that. Are there other perks?

Do you need it for school advocacy? Will they even know what it might mean?

My son took it because he really wanted to do one of the family programs where you can scuba in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I agreed and signed him up to take the test because it had been a while since he did an out of level test. SCAT isn't comprehensive by any means but it let me know that his reasoning skills are still way out there.

High enough SCAT scores qualify a child for CTY online courses, but I think in the elementary grades some of those courses can be accessed more cheaply through EPGY open enrollment (search the forum for details).

Most school districts in MA do not identify gifted children -- if they did they might have to DO something for them. Thus it becomes the parents' job to determine if their child is gifted. We got our oldest son tested largely for this reason, and the results confirmed our view that he is gifted.

I know other kids at dd's school have done it - which was what got me thinking that perhaps I should have her do it. However, I think that her school is great - they really "get" her.

Wow - Scuba at the Monterey Bay Aquarium does sound pretty cool though.

we kind of did it for fun :P DS likes test taking, gets satisfaction from excelling on them (high honors for math & verbal) and I figured it couldn't hurt to have more "proof".
It has good street cred' apparently. I was signing DS up for SIG camp last minute and they were happy to have his CTY testing for proof of eligibility.

Also, there are courses besides the summer camps. DS wants to do a weekly competitive math interactive class through CTY. I haven't looked at too much of what they offer yet besides that ($$$$)

Keep in mind that those who qualified for CTY at younger age still need to re-qualified at 7th grade with SAT score. For that reason, some parents just wait until 7th grade to do the test and apply for CTY.

Having said that, I really don't see any downside besides the testing fee. People test for CTY for various reasons, summer camp, family program, online classes are all very good reasons. Advocacy is another one if you are thinking of grade skipping or acceleration. Sometimes, it is just curiosity of how advanced your gifted child is. Finding that out early on is actually important.