slight hijack—
At what age are some of you finding your kids ready to tackle/try the SAT or ACT?
What kind of testing had the completed before taking this on.
Two of my four took it in 6th grade, and another might take it in 6th this year. They both said that they had no problems finishing it, but they skipped some math problems on which they had no clue. Neither found it frustrating and both did pretty well (one about average for seniors and the other at NUMATS-awards level- perhaps closer to 85 or 90th%-ile). However, neither one took the writing (both were through school gifted programs that didn't offer the writing). I can imagine that that would have been hard for both of them, since they are both more math-science than writing. My writer chose not to take it in 6th (because she was intimidated by the math) but she rocked it and the ACT in HS the first time she took them, so I don't think that one HAS to take them. And I completely agree with the poster who said that the reading is hardest to improve. For my writer, she got a 35 or 36 in the Reading/English and an 800 in CR first time out, and she was able to pull up her math pretty easily through self study by taking the ACT again. She just got a study guide, reviewed which sections she needed to improve, and busted her butt for a few weeks (nothing crazy). I think she improved about 5 points in math. She said her mathy friends tried everything to improve their reading scores and most failed.
