Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment ACT and SAT at a young age

Do any of you have suggestions about which test is better? I know they are used more in different parts of the country, but I'm not worried about that.

Only the SAT can qualify someone for the Study of Exceptional Talent http://cty.jhu.edu/set/ (with a score of 700+ on math or reading before age 13), although the main benefit of SET for us has been the free Imagine magazine.

The SAT in a few years will be different from the current SAT (see the thread "Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board" http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/188617/1.html) , but I have not read of planned changes for the ACT, so practicing on the current ACT may be of more value than practicing on the current SAT.

I appreciate the suggestion. I have seen the information on the changes in the SAT and it seems worth considering, but I wasn't planning on asking my daughter to practice. She can always practice later if necessary. I just want something I can show to colleges to help convince them to take us seriously when we ask about classes. I think she can do reasonably on the verbal part without practicing (apart from just knowing what the questions are like and the rules for guessing). She would need to practice the math because it's different from what she is used to and she is just stronger in verbal skills; I'll just leave it to her whether she is interested.

That seems like a very good point to consider if she was going to prepare. Do most kids prepare if they take it early? I took the SAT in a talent search and basically took it cold (they did show us what the questions were like in advance); I didn't even really know what it was at the time (my family is not from this country and we weren't familiar with the SAT). I hadn't thought about asking my daughter to practice. Maybe I should, but I don't want to make her worry about exam prep so young.

Without pressure, the free practice exam offered by college board may be of interest: http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice.

Some families do extensive test prep, an issue which may cross into what is commonly known as hothousing or tiger parenting.

I think Bostonian was perhaps thinking of taking one of these early as being in itself practising, for taking it later to use for admissions purposes? But you've now explained that you have an immediate purpose for the score, so that doesn't really apply.

As for whether it's a good idea to practise before this instance - depends on all sorts of things, like your child's preferences, the score that would be useful and how confident you feel that your child will exceed it, how your child does with time pressure, etc. It's likely that a bit of practice would increase the score, but that doesn't mean it's necessary.

PS I started a similar thread years ago, although in fact the moment passed and we never followed up - but in case it's useful:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....3927/Experience_of_taking_SAT_young.html

Why are you testing? If it's for school advocacy, take the one that is most commonly taken by your local high school students, so as to better give the school an understanding of your child's score.

How old is your DD and at what sort of college would she take classes? I am just wondering since I doubt most colleges around here would allow that (since they are fairly selective schools). Don't know if you would want to take a course at a less selective school either.

While I don't advocate prepping for these tests when the kid is younger than HS age, they should do a couple of practice sections to understand the type of question and timing. Why don't you have her do a practice test of each (at least the verbal sections, since that is your focus) and score them? Don't know your target score, but that would give you an idea of where she stands. And if she practiced both tests, you could see which is better for her. I think the verbal on the ACT is easier for a young kid, but the math would be tougher since she would not have seen that math yet.

This has all been very helpful. Thank you very much for taking the time to help. She is 9.

With the ACT, I am not sure how she would do on the other parts (science, social studies). It seems like that depends a lot on exposure. If we did one practice test, though, then that would give a reasonable idea.

I understand the point about whether it would be worth taking courses at a less selective school. Right now, I'm not concerned about college classes for credit towards a degree. She may end up doing early college because her charter school only goes to eighth grade and she is working independently, so it would be difficult to transition back to regular public school.

She just has a particular love of some areas and I would like to help her get access to some of the resources at a local state university. That could involve taking courses, but might also involve getting access to student groups and activities where she could find people to share her interests. It may completely not work, but right now they just refer me to the elementary education department when I call. My daughter is placed at the eleventh grade level in independent study for ELA at her charter school, so elementary ELA is no use. She is only in seventh for math, though, so that is a completely different story.

They say they don't allow anyone to take classes until they are at least at the high school junior level, but it seems worth at least asking if she gets a high score. At the very least, we might be able to get lined up with a graduate student we could pay to help as a tutor. First, though, we have to convince someone to talk with us rather than referring us to elementary education.

Okay-- that is helpful information, actually.

1. Why won't your school administration go to bat with you at the local college? It seems like THEY are the ones that need to be doing some of the asking here-- you are being referred back on the basis of age, and the school where she attends is partially responsible for supplying (at least) documentation which reflects her need for advanced instruction, yes?

2. Coursera/EdX? Might give you both an idea of whether this will work well-- much of that would play to your DD's strengths.

3. Given what you've stated about your DD's profile, I suspect that she may score better on the ACT than the SAT. How fast does she read? ACT has more pressure on speed, but the science section is more about reading and general understanding of how science works than specific facts.

Scores alone may not get you local access in higher ed. But I agree that it's worth a shot.