Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment SAT testing for 9 year old?

Hi, I'm new here, and I was wondering if anyone has had a nine year old child, or younger, take the SAT. Is that a good idea? Does it help or if the child doesn't do well, does it have a negative effect on their self-steem? I have a nine year old, he's homeschooled and he's currently working on a mixture of Algebra I & II (the reason is that its both is because he's really on Algebra I but somehow he's picked up a lot of Algebra II and Geometry on his own). Anyway, I'm not sure if having him try for the SAT or Act might be a good idea because I would like to apply to DYS and can't afford IQ testing; the SAT or Act would be much cheaper. Does anyone have any advice? I would really appreciate it.

My dd12 took the SAT a few months after her 10th bd, so not that young. She was a 6th grader at the time, though, so she just did it through talent search. At his age and at this point in the year, you'd be registering him directly through the testing company I imagine. The only thing I'd be unsure on is what grade level DYS would be comparing him to b/c I don't think that their admission criterion list those tests for grades below 6th. He'd be considered a 4th grader or what right now? If he meets their requirements for a 6th grader and you have a good portfolio, I'd think that could make for a fairly good application.

Depending on the kid, the ACT might be a better idea. You don't have to do the writing part on the ACT which could be good for a child who isn't fast at writing. There is also no penalty for guessing on the ACT whereas you lose 1/4 of a point for every wrong answer on the SAT. If he's going to freeze up with worry about losing points for guessing, the ACT might also work better. Beyond that, I don't know! Hopefully someone else with more experience having that young of a child take the SAT will chime in.

The EXPLORE might also be an option if you are mainly interested for DYS purposes. It would be a lot shorter, but it is offered less frequently.

While it defeats the purpose of talent search if students prep for exams, it would certainly be reasonable to get a book from the library and have your student take one sample ACT or SAT test at home. You could get a ballpark of how they might score and it would help them get used to the directions and to bubbling process.


I would explain to any kid that it is different from other tests you have taken in your life. You can get A LOT of questions wrong and still do very well. As a younger student they should expect there is quite a lot on the exam they've never seen before and don't know. That's okay. If your kid tends to be bugged by this it is a good reason to take the ACT because it doesn't have a scoring penalty so they can guess on every question and lose nothing.

As far as "not doing well" - I'd say that's all in how you define the bar of success. If they can get anything right on a test designed for students getting ready to go to college they are doing great.

Thanks for your responses! I think getting a book and doing a sample SAT/ACT to have an idea of where he is at is a good idea. He doesn't like to write, so the ACT sounds better. I'll go the ACT route and see how it goes...

I took the PSAT at 11 when I was younger. I was personally happy with my results, even if they were below average (for a high school senior). I was the second highest scorer among the group that took it with me though.