I'm curious if others have had their 7th grader take the ACT for a talent search (or other reasons).

My son turned 12 last week and just got his scores yesterday.

He is a DYS, but still.... he got a 30.

I'm still in shock. Wondering if others have any insights into what this really means..... (Other than the psychs were right that college at 12 would be easy for him.)

Mary

HOLY COW!!!!! That's AWESOME! Congrats to HIM! WOW!

I would have him keep taking them each year... his scores will only go up!

Congrats to your ds! Dc20 didn't end up taking it in middle school but fairly soon after that to figure out his strengths and weaknesses (2e). It helped chart his growth in different subjects and helped us figure out on which subjects he needed some help catching up to his ability.

I took it around 12 (similar scores). Basically, it helped me obtain summer/after school research experiences and begin taking college classes (summer/after school/weekend). My parents had me take it every year to figure out if/how much I was progressing in each subject over the years (not as useful when one hits ceilings early on). However, my middle school didn't think anything of it, as some of the seniors in my district had similar scores.

I'm not sure that the school is really appreciating Snoopy's scores for the same reason you mention - There are seniors at the school with higher scores.

So far, the only benefits I can potentially see are some summer programs that require an ACT score. However, they all seem to require age 13 and Snoopy is only 12. So, I think this year, the score means nothing.

Maybe next year it will open some doors. Assuming we can find away to cough up a few thousand for summer school tuition.

Mary

That's really terrific, Mary! Definitely means that early college is a possibility, I'd say, and with scores like those, any college will probably be pretty keen on the idea. Congratulations to him!

I've wondered occasionally if we should have advocated for DD to take the SAT/ACT in 7th, but my research on the subject uncovered what you mention-- that below a certain age, it really doesn't unlock much of anything, PG or not. Plus, we never managed to find anyone that had ever even HEARD of gifted kids taking it so early, so we'd have had to do some major advocacy to even get her the chance. I have felt mildly guilty for not trying harder, however.

(DD was 10 in 7th, so she was in this same boat with your guy.)

There are many scholarships that may be available through your state gifted associations to help aid in the cost of these types of programs. worth looking into.

Dottie is right, you don't need a school to advocate for you to take the test at any age. Just pay your fee

Good to know. I'll be more assertive next time it happens-- local test sites = high schools, which means that they have a certain number of seats 'reserved' for their own students, with guidance counselors acting as gatekeepers. It was very annoying.

Maybe it was due to her age that we were being given the run-around (she was not yet 10 when I was asking)-- but it's also possible that it was due to disability and accommodations for that. Neither is legal, I know, but it seemed like a lot more trouble than it would be worth at the time.

Pretty sure that it wasn't the PSAT-- but thanks for the head's up on that one. I'll need to go loaded for bear, I see.

Ahhh-- now I'm remembering... since DD is a virtual school student, there was an additional political dimension to this, too.... good times... local HS wouldn't give us a paper packet, and OUR school doesn't have them, so we were sort of stuck there since we can't register her online due to age... and there was also no way to determine accommodations before registration, plus there were some issues about that since the accommodations are re: test setting, which is the local high schools (and therefore there are invariably these squicky "but we don't control" issues...) Anyway. Our situation is definitely not typical-- I wanted to explain why this was so much more convoluted than it should have been.

I also find this confusing. My 9 yo homeschooled kid had no issues with the SAT at the local high school. No one asked his age and the College Board will happily take money from anyone, no matter the age.

In terms of paper vs online, you cannot register online at under 13, but you still don't need your local high school. Just ask the college board (online or by phone) for a registration packet and they send it out to you.

Needing accommodations may have made this more difficult, but a child doesn't need to be enrolled in a local district, doesn't need to have the high school agree to having a young one test, and doesn't need to supply the paper packet.

Technically, I'm sure that is true, though when it comes to disability issues, that complicates things considerably.

As noted, this was more about me deciding that the amount of run-around I was getting over it was much more trouble than it could possibly be worth.

In looking at the now-streamlined process on the handling of disabilities with the College Board, I am vividly recalling why I didn't even bother.

The timing of begging for accommodations for a hidden/episodic medical condition and then registering at a test site other than one's own school is sort of a nightmare-- I just looked, and if we wanted DD to be able to test June 4 of this year, we should have an entire packet of medical information and specific justifications for each accommodation from medical/school "experts" ready to go to them by April-- so that they have a full seven weeks to review everything and decide, with no guarantee that they'll even agree to the accommodations that she's had for testing via school, nevermind having the cooperation of the test site (local school).

I'll note here, however, that this is a disability that often requires a great deal MORE documentation and explanation/advocacy than some; while I think it should be obvious, for example, that rescue medications and a cell phone should stay with my child, and that someone else in the room needs to be capable of recognizing a crisis and responding to it, others routinely don't see the problem with saying "no." There are also occasionally liability issues with the sponsoring site/agency once they understand what they are getting themselves into by assuming the duty of care for my DD. The specific language from College Board definitely doesn't give me the warm fuzzies on any level there... and experience tells me that feeling is often accurate. Kind of makes me go weak at the knees thinking about expending that kind of effort with a huge organization for a one-time thing... that is the sort of effort that I generally reserve for long-term/mandatory commitments.

Totally OT for this thread, here-- sorry!!

______________

Final back on-topic note-- for those who need accommodations in place, allow for at least a couple of months' lead time if it isn't a standard out-of-the-box accommodation, and at least seven weeks if it IS.

Our experience was exactly opposite of that. Without scores we could have used dynamite and not been able to cross through the college admissions door with a preteen. With the scores - open sesame! So, I would encourage anyone who thinks college is needed for their child to go ahead and try the SAT or ACT. We had zero problems with registering for either. The ACT has allowed registration online. The SAT will send you a registration packet by mail. And, of course there is always the option of registering through talent search but it is more expensive and less flexible on dates.

As far as accommodations, I agree it is a process and you need to allow time for that process. That is true no matter your child's age. If your child has a medical condition where they can't be apart from you or a person who has been trained in medical procedures probably you aren't thinking about registering them for independent college experiences at this point. So, I would guess it probably isn't something to worry about right now.

<nodding> Exactly why I said that it wouldn't unlock anything for her personally at this point, since residential summer programs are also problematic for her and independent college admission is also not in play.

We would have had her take it just for fun/practice/information anyway-- if it hadn't been such a pain to set up.

I just wanted to mention that for anyone else who has a child with a second exceptionality-- this adds another layer and a lot of time to the process.

That makes perfect sense. You can always do a sample test at home and get a pretty good idea how she'd score so that takes care of the information purposes part of it.

Thank you; that is a really terrific idea.

How did I never think of that??

Oddly enough, Snoopy did much better on the real deal than on the practice exam. Starting to remember now why I thought he would get a 25..... that is what he had on the practice exam.

LOL

Mary

Awesome score mayreeh! Did your son take it on Feb. 12th? Anyone else get scores back yet? I heard they are really quick on getting scores out but I had my dd take the writing part also. I think it takes 2 weeks longer to grade.

Dd12 took it on 2/12 as well -- at least that sounds like about the right date. She went to a party the night before and went on way too little sleep and no prep, but she did reasonably well. We just got an e-mail yesterday that her scores were available online. Apparently ACT doesn't have the same deal as the SAT where you cannot access scores online before age 13.

I really wish that we had the $ for the Duke Marine Lab through TIP b/c she does qualify for their "Center" program but $3800 is out of the budget for this year. Maybe next year we'll use her ACT scores from this year and see if we can get financial aid. eta: She's an 8th grader so we're past the application deadline for TIP summer programs for that grade for this summer.

I had read somewhere that you cannot access ACT scores online if under 13. Did you have to create an account?

They emailed me her login name which isn't something I had created. It seemed to be a combo of her name and something else. I tried to login and just said that I had forgotten the password and they sent me a new password. I was then able to login and get her scores. They do know her age. I put it on the application. I don't know. When she took the SAT last year that was the case -- we couldn't set up an online account b/c she was 11.

The actual printed copy of dd's Feb ACT scores came in the mail yesterday so maybe you all won't have too long to wait if you haven't gotten them yet.

Which talent search was your dd in? I remember last year on the Explore, it seemed that the Duke TIP recieved scores last. Hope not.

WATS/CBK (Colorado)

Yes - some of the programs that this opens up are really $$$$. Wish they were more affordable.

DD is in Duke TIP, but she got her scores this week from the Explore.

(Side note - DD's Explore was high enough that I am applying for DYS for her. She has the IQ score, but never did well enough on achievement tests before.)

Mary