<p>My 13 yo sat for first SAT in 2009 -7th grade (scored 1425) she will sit again May at 14 -8 grade</p>
<p>She sat for her first ACT 12 yo in 2009 -7th grade, not so good her composite was 19. She sat again in Feb. 2010 13 - 8th grade and did much better, her composite was 23. She will sit for SAT in May again , 14 and 8th grade. Kind of excited about seeing an improvement.</p>
<p>I feel pretty good about her scores after reading some of the others posted here.</p>
<p>
thank you for that table.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t geniuses know how to spell genius?:)</p>
<p>[Urban</a> Dictionary: genious](<a href=“http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=genious]Urban”>Urban Dictionary: Genious)</p>
<p>By the way, test-prep for the talent search is just plain wrong, wrong, wrong.</p>
<p>Loll!!!</p>
<p>tigerlilly:
I know I am going to get blasted for this but here goes,
As a teacher in one of the best high schools in California (according to API scores) I had several students who are seniors this year who took the SAT last year and “bombed it” (the average was about 1800). These students have GPA’s of 4.3 and above. They are Asian (for what it’s worth). I asked them what they wish they had done differently and they said they wish they had started studying sooner, like in 9th grade. They suggested to me that I should have my son not only start studying but have him take the SAT’s as a 6th grader.
I took my son to a place that does SAT prep and the counselor told me that all of the kids in their program go to school during the day and then come to their program after school for 2-3 hours. About 95% of the kids in the program are Asian.
But then again, what do Asians know about school, right?
There is nothing wrong with having your kid take the SAT at 12 years old. In fact there is a whole thread on CC about what people recieved on their 7th grade SAT’s.
You can compare there if you want.
Not one person on that thread has said taking the SAT in 7th grade ruined their life, in fact, most are proud of how they did.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/78732-7th-grade-sat-act-scores.html?highlight=7th+grade+SAT+score[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/78732-7th-grade-sat-act-scores.html?highlight=7th+grade+SAT+score</a></p>
<p>I also wonder about the “let them be a kid” comment. I may be wrong here, but what if a kid is failing in school? Is there anything wrong with making him study for an hour a night to get caught up with the rest of the class, or is it better to “let them be a kid” and go outside and play so we don’t burn them out? On the opposite side, if school is not a challenge for a kid, what is wrong with making them study material that is challenging for them for an hour a night or so?
Either kid in my example is being challenged, yet for the advanced kid we find something wrong with it.
Maybe someone can correct my logic in a nice way.</p>
<p>The SAT is designed so that practice will reach a point of diminishing returns fairly quickly. I’m not sure about your “4.3 GPA, 1800 SAT” comment, because I studied for about 4 hours with the Princeton Review prep book the day before the SAT and got a 2300. So it’s clearly possible to do well without a lot of prep. I don’t consider myself to be a genius by any means, but I do consider myself to be intelligent. I’ve noticed that a lot of, for lack of a better term, “overachievers” get great GPA’s but average SAT scores because the SAT tests reasoning, not memorization and suck up skills (grrrr… high school grading systems are evil). So, starting SAT prep in seventh grade won’t help that much because the SAT is designed so that a ton of prep won’t help that much. I would advise a worried parent to get their children to read a lot, because the vocabulary and grammar knowledge gained from reading respected literature will help someone a lot more on the SAT than memorizing hit lists will. Books also have benefits apart from high SAT scores that I’m sure you’re aware of.</p>
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<p>The best advice. And the earlier the better. It’s the difference between a self-learner and one that needs to be taught everything. To give you a concrete example: Good in math, love to read son 80M-80CR-80W Psat 11th grade. Good in math, read only when forced to son 79M-59CR-70W. It’s not an easy task, as they say you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.</p>
<p>Drought:
That is a pretty impressive SAT story. Great post, btw one of the things these students said to do was to have my son read, read and read some more. If I can ask you a question, what did you read? My son is in 6th grade and wants to read Harry Potter which is below his reading level but I figure it is better than nothing. Did you only read books that were above or equal to your level or did you read anything you found interesting?</p>
<p>From cereal boxes on up anything they enjoy is game for a good reader.</p>
<p>Mysonsdad, here are a few suggestions of authors your son might like: Isaac Asimov (both science fiction and non-fiction), Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Frederick Pohl, Vernor Vinge, Paul Preuss, David Brin, Greg Benford, Greg Bear, and C. J. Cherryh; also Mark Twain and Umberto Eco. In the “good old days,” books did not have reading levels. I think it was better. If your son reads widely without worrying about level, that will be great. Also, look around for magazines he would like–maybe Discover or Popular Mechanics? At his current age, reading the editorial page of the daily newspaper would be fine–later (definitely later) he can move to the New York Times and the Economist.</p>
<p>Re: cereal boxes. At one time, Wheat Chex used to have a “newspaper” of sorts on the back of the cereal box, creating a breakfast’s work of reading material.</p>
<p>It’s hard to know what to say about participating in a prep program regularly for 2-3 hours after school and scoring 1800 on the SAT. If the students were recent immigrants still acclimating to the English language, that could make sense (although it’s hard to know how they would have 4.3 GPAs). </p>
<p>Other skills to develop are problem solving, and the ability to look at ideas from new points of view. Sudoku puzzles (avoiding addiction) and cross-word puzzles of various types are good for a start. The “Sideways School” arithmetic books by Louis Sachar are entertaining–probably below 6th grade reading level, but well worth looking at. Ian Stewart’s books on mathematics would be excellent.</p>
<p>I agree that more time reading would be much more valuable than a test-prep course for a kid this age. I think test prep (except for modest self-prep) is best taken after the first SAT that really counts (i.e. as a junior), and only if the score is disappointing.</p>
<p>As background information, Mysonsdad, most of the students who are taking SAT’s in 7th grade are participating in regional Talent Searches. They may be interested in qualifying for special enrichment programs. They are not taking the SAT to prepare for taking it during junior year in high school.</p>
<p>@Mysonsdad: In sixth grade, if I remember correctly, I was into classical mythology, so I read a lot of Greek and Roman myths (translated into English, of course): Metamorphoses, The Iliad, The Aeneid, etc. I probably didn’t grasp a lot of the more complex thematic and symbolic elements of those stories, but they were good to read and taught me a lot of new words. Ideally, I think your kid should read books that are a little bit above his reading level - but Harry Potter books are certainly a good start.</p>
<p>I think the list of books (topics) by Drought is wonderful! You’re right - it’s much more than what you need for the SAT that you’ll gain through reading. </p>
<p>For some kids it’s not a big deal to try the SAT when they are in middle school. They’re bored at school, want something to challenge them. There’s nothing wrong with it. I know a girl who took the SAT when she was 11 and did reasonably well for her age. She did not sacrifice her fun time and she feels great for what she achieved. As far as I know, for her there was no prep course. She told me she did some prep with her family on one subject, that’s all. She has a great deal of play time and time for sports and music. There is no big deal that should be made out of that. I’d love to do it if I was given chance to. </p>
<p>But, on the other hand, 2-3 hourse after school everyday in 7th grade to study for the SAT? Haha now I know why they do well. Does that mean they’re talented and will be successful in life? That’s sickening. There are people who were overachievers in school later became losers. Now I understand why. </p>
<p>In that sense, I feel lucky that there was no pressure for me to do that when I was in middle school!!!</p>
<p>This is very typical here in my area near Johns Hopkins. Kids need SAT to go CTY camps. My son took it at 12 (7th grade) and scored 2110.</p>
<p>dragonboy: Is there social pressure on the parents to have kids that qualify for the programs?</p>
<p>I don’t know what kind of environment dragonboy is in. In my area, there’s no pressure. Kids want to do it then parents kind of help. but nobody ever do a prep school or anything like that. I know a couple kids in middle school who just took the SAT. They did well. Their parents don’t give them any pressure. They do tons of other things as well. I don’t think they sacrificed much by taking the SAT early. They did well because they are smart. But of course “well” is based on their age. For example, they get 1700 total or something like that, you can imagine a smart 12 yo getting that without much prep. They qualify for CTY and they are very happy. As far as I know, their parents did not spend any money for it except for the books. </p>
<p>But other areas may be different. It is outrageous to know there are kids who spend hours everyday to prep. OMG. What do they get from life!!! I think if I were a parent I would definitely defy that.</p>
<p>Okay let’s not assume that all Asians or all people who do well on the SAT do 3 hours of SAT prep afterschool - I’m Asian, my philosophy/test results were pretty similar to Drought’s, and I know maybe 1 Asian who might possibly have prepared really hardcore. I don’t live in CA (maybe the culture is different there?), but I doubt anyone here takes an SAT course that time-consuming. And we’ve got plenty of 2300-2400s. Not to say anything against overachievers. I’m sure the proportion of overachievers who are successful in life is far greater than the proportion of underachievers who do well.
Personally, I don’t see any value in SAT classes at all, but I guess that depends on what kind of learner you are.</p>
<p>Your son amazes me, dragonboy. Did he prep for it?</p>
<p>My son took it just because many his friends did earlier that year. He did not have any prep except did one full sample test from SAT prep books. His score was high enough to be one of 26 kids nationwide who scored over 700 in both Math and CR. However, he has not participated any of the CTY programs because I don’t think those programs are better than other summer programs. </p>
<p>We don’t feel any pressure at all even though competitions are very high among kids. My son is very relaxed in school and we don’t push him more than reminding him about homework daily.</p>
<p>As for CTY awards, I have not heard about taking summer program free. I think the best is $1000 off the total $3000 for a two-week program. My son was awarded a free course from a local Univ., but sadly we just let it expired.</p>