Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Out of level/early SAT

The SAT will be offered in my home district this year. I'm thinking of having both my 7th and 9th graders take it, mostly to see if they would meet the DYS qualifying scores. I guess it would have to be after my daughter's 13th birthday in February.

Would this information be useful at this late date in their educational careers, or would it be a waste of money? Also, is there a chance that my 15yo's score could count against him in his eventual college search, assuming it's lower than he would make his senior year?

Thanks for any information!

Technically, <13 y-o are allowed to take the SAT, but not to register for them online, or take them at any nonstandard administration date. But yeah, it would be simpler to just wait until her birthday!

I've had my young teens take the SAT at around this age as a reference point for myself (especially as each of them was homeschooling at the time of their respective tests), and so that the first time they sat for it, it would be very low-stakes. Good thing, too, since one of them failed to turn the page at the end of a section, resulting in an artificially-lowered reading score! One set of scores also turned out to be useful when we started dual enrollment not long thereafter, and the school was willing to take SAT scores for placement.

For the younger child, any scores 8th grade or earlier will be deleted on high school entry anyway, unless you actively request to have them retained. For your older child, I personally wouldn't worry about effects on uni admissions, as I think most schools routinely superscore. And it might be a nice practice test for the PSAT/NMSQT (technically in reverse, I know!).

Also, I really doubt his score will go down between now and senior year!

Students under 13 years old are no longer allowed to register for SAT weekend administrations.

I believe this change happened within the past year?

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/special-circumstances

http://www.profoundlygiftedparenting.com/act-sat-testing-for-students-under-13/

Yep, it was my understanding that the no kids under 13 rule was new. I guess we will think about a March test date, if they offer one locally -- now that I see the registration deadline is in February, that gives us some time to think about it!

To answer the other question, when we did ours, we could pick which SAT scores to send. At that time, there was one school (Carnegie Mellon) that required ALL scores, and I think they dropped that since, but you'd just have to check the schools. Might be that no schools require all scores to be sent anymore. Most likely, it will not be an issue at all-- you just send your best scores. You can look it up on the college board website to be sure since the landscape seems to be in a state of flux.

Here in our part of Oz, the education system uses the most recent score for any subject to calculate a student’s tertiary entrance rank which I think is very reasonable. This is the third year of our son’s HSC campaign and he has another year of school to go. Any score of 98+ is ceiling bumping, so he decided at the outset that he would only retake a subject if he scored less than 98 (he has scored 98 in two of two exams so far). His principal recounted an anecdote of a pupil at his old school who scored a 96 in music (which is pretty exceptional given that assessments are more subjective in this field) and agonised over whether to retake the subject.

During my time in high school, they took an average of all attempts to calculate the tertiary entrance rank. I prefer the current system. I took no chances, however, and requested written confirmation from the principal that only the most recent mark in each subject was applicable.

Ugh, I'm still waffling about this. Today is the last day to sign up for an in-school SAT testing date in March. It seems like a cheap way to get access to DYS, and my son might end up needing the extra documentation to get early access to dual enrollment, which is something he's considering for his sophomore year. But is the potential for test anxiety and the awkwardness of sitting the test with juniors and seniors worth it? Dilemmas, dilemmas.

*sympathetic nod*

So much depends on your particular child, and how s/he experiences the test-taking experience. Ask. What does he want to do? Keeping in mind that, all the way up until test day, I think you can cancel/postpone the registration to another administration date (check CB to confirm this, though), so there's an escape hatch.

My experience was that it was more awkward for the juniors and seniors than it was for the young test taker.

At least it'll be exam experience.
And if the daughter scores exceptionally, maybe look into the Study of Exceptional Talent?

Thanks! Both my kids were up for it, but the counselor ended up telling us that this date was really meant for juniors and seniors and those slots were full. We will keep looking for a weekend test I guess. The counselor suggested that my freshman take an early ASVAB instead, but I politely declined.