Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Teenager - Testing?

We are fairly new to the world of testing and giftedness and advocacy.

After an unusual set of circumstances, we recently had our dd11 evaluated, and her scores were surprisingly high.

My dd14 has always been quirky. Fun, funny and quick. And she's been known to score in the 99th percentile in language on standardized tests. Knowing what I now know (from the books and this forum) I'd venture to say she's somewhere in the gifted range.

I know Grinity often says, test one, test 'em all -- but I can't see far enough ahead to know why or how we would test a teenager.

We have found a great girls school for her for High School. I know she'll be challenged. I've been talking with her about "feeling different" in middle school and how people with divergent thinking and "a lot of mental horsepower" can feel unusual at school.

If we can find a good date, I will could have her take the SAT at some point next year, I guess.

I have some guilt about not being on top of this when my children were younger.

I'd love to hear how you used the information you have about your child's abilities to make decisions in high school and beyond, and any advice you'd give.

I have a D15 (sophomore in high school) that has had testing a few times over the years. Benefits from testing for us have been:
- My D is very strong verbally like yours, but an absolute disaster organizationally. Testing revealed that she has a non-verbal learning disability, which has helped get some accomodations (extra time on math tests, more support from teachers with organization while she works on those skills).
- Good test results helped us get an entree into some online communities for gifted kids. Given how few kids there are like her in our community, that was a godsend in middle school. She is still close friends online with a few of those kids, and met one person in our city that she sees sometimes.
- She also took the SAT through the Midwest Academic Talent search in middle school, and we were able to use that score for her to attend Davidson's THINK. Which she LOVED. I am not sure how they treat a SAT score taken later, though. You would want to look at the THINK admissions info for that, an IQ score or some other test might be better. THINK is available until they are 16, so that is something to consider.
- I can't say that my D's IQ test results are really driving much from a college perspective. Except I guess that we KNOW she can do the work anywhere (if she just will - hah). We expect that she will take honors/AP classes in high school, but we expected that from her older sister as well (who is smart, but not in the highly gifted range).
- Not sure what benefit you will get from her taking the SAT now. She would retake in her Junior year anyway for college. A lot of people do have their sophomores take the PSAT as "practice" prior to the PSAT fall of Junior year (when it counts for National Merit). If she takes PSAT as a sophomore, you start to get a flavor then for her possible scores and it helps you start to think about what colleges are possible.

I don't know if I would do IQ testing at the teenager stage - I really was thinking of younger children, but here's my brainstorm.

If a younger sibling qualifies for Davidson YSP, you may as well qulify the older one so you can go to Summits together and dodge some hard issues.

If the high school doesn't work out as planned. Many a 'suprisingly gifted kid' has withered at a 'really great school.' These kids can be frustratingly individual. I know of several instances where 2 kids in YSP when to the same private school and had totally different experiences.

If the 14 year old 'crashes and burns' later in college, it might be nice to have documentation of how things were in happier times to compare to.

and most especially:
If you pretend for a second that DD14 scored exactly what DD11 scored, and would do anything at all differently than you are currently doing, then yes:'Test one, test them all.'

Otherwise the SAT is terrific - and I would do it now, in 8th grade - there are still plenty of dates- and it will be easier to compare her to the talent search kids.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I fogot to mention, if DD14 is in 8th grade now, then she can take the SATs and get an official score report, and then the scores will by wiped from the College Board system at the end of the year - so no college will ever see it. How cool is that?

DD14 might well enjoy THINK, CTY summer camp, CTY family weekends, and other Talent Search activities. SATs will do the trick for all of these if they are high enough in either Reading or Math parts.

Of course you will feel guilty to a degree, but try not to dwell - afterall, if someone had been there for you in this way, or the schools had done their duty all along, you wouldn't have been in the dark. I'm sure you did the best you could with the availible knowledge at the time. Really.

Grinity

Grinity is right (of course!). About the SAT testing. I was thinking your 14 year old was in 9th grade. If still in 8th, yes, do the SAT. Be sure you get an official score report (quickly) before they wipe the scores.

Thank you everyone for the information. I am trying to wedge the June SAT into our calendar, but it's not pretty. Is the ACT an option at all for an 8th grader? Would the information it yields be as helpful? Is it testing the same things?

Yes, the ACT is also accepted by the talent searches. The writing section is optional. If you visit the websites for both, you can see in-depth explanations of what they cover and see practice questions.

By all means use whichever test is more convient. For advocacy it's good to use the test that is 'most known' in your local area - so for us it's SAT all the way. But since I don't know where you live, it's just as possible that ACT is the better test for your child.

((Sometimes I try to post 'SAT or ACT' but then I feel like I'm just being confusing!))

The ACT has four sections if you don't do the optional writing section: math, reading, english, and science. Math and reading should cover similar items but probably not in the exact same way. English on the ACT has some overlap w/ the multiple choice part of the writing on the SAT.

The SAT has a history from years past of being more of an aptitude test not straight achievement, but it really was reworked a while back to be more achievement oriented like the ACT. In other words, they are both now designed to test what a high schooler has learned through things he has been formally taught. The verbal analogies we all did on the SAT, for instance, are no longer there. Those types of questions got more at ability and vocabulary than do the types of questions they ask now.

My 8th grader took the ACT this year so she'd have a chance to try both the SAT (last year in 7th) and the ACT this year before they stay on her permanent record. ACT did tell me that they don't wipe the scores out at the end of the year like SAT does for middle schoolers, but that they never send a full report with all of your ACT scores from all testings when you have them sent to colleges. They only send the one test date you request.