Sometimes there are interesting effects taking these tests. A friend of mine whose brilliant son had struggled many years in school, transferred multiple times, and got in trouble with teachers/principals all the time. His grade, needless to say, was horrible. (But things turned completely in high school, he had a great experience and went on to an Ivy League school.) My friend let her son take ACT in 8th grade, and he scored so well that his confidence came back to him right away.
We thought about SAT/ACT last year after hearing this story. My son at that time was miserable in our public school (we ended up transferring him to a private gifted school which didn't really work out that well either), and was feeling hopeless and helpless. In the end, his SAT/ACT scores were useful for him to get in summer programs, but it was obvious that the scores really boosted his confidence.
