Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment SAT for 12 year old

DD13 is about to turn 14 and is in 8th grade. She is not accelerated. My wife and I were both accelerated and we don't think it helped us much, particularly in our teenage years. Again, this opinion is counter to much of what you will hear on this site.

I fully realize that moving is a major ordeal, especially given that there might not be a "fit" in the new school which you won't know until after you have moved. If moving is an option, some schools to consider would be some of the top performing Math & Science charter schools, or exam schools (e.g. Stuyvesant in New York).

I would agree with this if it is a possibility. The main reason we agreed to accelerate our dd, who was already the youngest in her grade, was b/c we had no options where the type of situation you describe would have been the case (save for a major move). Dd is probably about two months older than your dd and attends one of the highest performing high schools in our state as a 10th grader. The fit is about what you describe for your dd in 8th: she's one of the strong students, in AP & pre-AP classes, but she's not so far beyond the other students that it is a cake walk across the board. I really don't think this is b/c my dd is more able, but just b/c we don't have enough of a population of somewhat similarly gifted & focused kids for her to find that fit among her age peers.

We've been fortunate, though, that she really seems to socially prefer her grade mates and even some older kids over her age peers. While she has a few friends who are close to her age, her closest friends are, for the most part, around 16-17.

(Yes-- to the above post.)

We didn't really have a feasible option other than radical acceleration without a MAJOR move and a major re-alignment of our needed income/careers/lifestyle otherwise, and we'd already done that once to deal with medical issues in our child (which often present competing and incompatible needs). DD is still quite handily one of the highest performing 4 or 5 students in her graduating class, but at least the difference isn't so large that she can't relate to her classmates as a high-achieving 11th grader. Most of them figure out that she's "young" for her grade, but they also mostly think that this means 15 yo, not barely 13.

Ditto to the friends comment, as well; DD has literally ONE friend who is remotely similar to her in age (within 6 mo older) and that friend is HG and +1 grade accelerated. DD's best friend is a male age-typical classmate who is HG; the two of them joke that they share the same brain, in spite of the gender difference and the three years separating them. Neither of them has ever had a close friend before now (this past year, I mean). Partly this is because we live in an area without true gifted magnets, so neither of them has been able to find true peers very easily.

If we had been able to enroll DD in a gifted magnet which was suitable, we'd have done things very differently. Or we'd have tried it, anyway.

OP, if your DS is enrolled in CTY, you may (or may not) know that he's *only* 10 pts off on his SAT math score to qualify for JHU SET. If you're already considering the Dec SAT for your DS, you might want to have him focus on math prep because, as I understand it, SET offers support/resources for your DS if he qualifies.

Our DS2 (7th grade) is taking the SAT right before he turns 13 just to see if there's any chance he could hit 700 on CR. I really doubt it, but there's no harm in having him take the SAT just to see (aside from the fact that he has to get up early on a Saturday!).

http://cty.jhu.edu/set/services/

I'm sorry I can't offer any advice beyond this, but perhaps SET could be a good resource for your DS if he can make 700 on SAT Math before age 13.

Sending positive thoughts your way.

Thanks for all the sharing again! Moving may or may not be an option. I have already moved 18 months ago and just gotten DS9 settled into a school and accelerated a year. DD16 and DD15 both got settled into their unis and DS18 had to transfer credits into a new college and graduating soon. Though I am open to it, I had wanted to wait another 2 years or so for DD16 to graduate or she will have to do transfer credits for a second time, and might lose some credits.

I see that I am in the same position as folks like Howler Karma and Cricket2 who are left with little option except to accelerate the children. My problems come with the many behavioral problems when he attends school at any grade. I have been called up so many times to go fetch him from school, it is tiring. There were times he hid in the bathroom afraid of being beaten up by others, and there were times he was accused of bullying kids his age and suspensions.

We tried college out of curiosity and trial and error, and was pleasantly surprised by his ability to cope with the social environment, and he is also good with professors who are more accommodative than teachers. My worry is actually his executive skills.

Jewel, DS12 will be turning 13 in a few months too! I think getting him to 700 should be doable, but I'd need him to sit down and listening and negotiating with me for a few days before we find out what he cannot do on the test. It took me two weeks of priming him about a coming Saturday test before he actually agreed to do that. I had to be there at the test centre, and bought lots of chocolates, drinks and McDonald's breakfast. Once we got there and the chocolates were there, the four hours passed quickly. Thanks for the info indeed, I will look into SET. I was a little concerned over his CR and Writing because he is a 'literally' person and always tested higher for English over Math since young. It seems his Math score has caught up... wonder if such a switch in subject/domain strength is common... or was the test format something he couldn't understand.