My kids did not study for the SAT beyond reading the practice materials that they send you so that you are familiar with the format. They thought it was fun to intimidate the high schoolers by being in the same room with them. They had enough friends who took the test that they also had friends in the room. I think it does help with an anxiety later down the line. My younger son BTW qualified as well, but was happy going to his regular summer camp. He thought CTY sounded too much like more school. We didn’t go to the recognition ceremonies. That wasn’t the point for us.
D2 (7th grader) took SAT cold last month, and was notified that she qualifies for the SET (Study of Exceptional Talent, part of JHU-CTY). It is a free counseling service, unlike typical CTY programs.
Anyway, D2 has no intention to enroll in any of the CTY programs since she prefers travel in the summer. She did it to make sure that she is as good her older sister 
Possible benefits (in no particular order):
(1) Ammunition for acceleration, should you end up wanting to ask for it.
(2) Benchmark for your son. Various parents will mention that they it took them aback to see a kid’s score and realize just how likely it was that their kid needed something “extra” as a result.
(3) Establish eligibility for summer or online-learning programs (or even early college entrance programs). Your kid may or may not end up interested in attending (and you may or may not want to pay), but having the option is good. As others have mentioned above, kids mostly REALLY like the CTY summer programs. But CTY and similar summer programs are expensive; if you can either afford it without too much pain yourself, or can get financial aid, they’re a solid yes, but if you’re in the middle where in theory you could pay but it would be painful it becomes a tougher question of how much it’s worth it to your family, and that’s a whole separate discussion. But note that in addition to the CTY/TIP/NUMATS programs, there are other “pre-college” summer programs where especially at the high school level, the more selective they are for admission, the more a good standardized test score may help (or even be required) for admission. So even if you’re doubtful that your kid would do CTY/TIP/NUMATS, a good standardized test score may come in useful for other programs.
(4) Later, when your kid ends up having to take other standardized tests (maybe the PSAT, maybe not until the ACT or SAT), your kid will have a leg up on comfort and familiarity with such a test. Anything to lower the pressure of standardized testing in high school is not a bad idea.
(5) Taking a test NOW rather than later has benefits of: (a) time may be more available, and the pressure of needing a good score may be less, now rather than waiting until, say, high school to realize your kid NEEDS some enrichment or a summer program and now there’s pressure to “get that score”, (b) the required score to be eligible is likely lower now than it will be for an older kid, but eligibility once established may last, so try now and if it works great, and if not but your kid is “close” then maybe your kid can try again later to catch that moving target of rising score, after a bit more schooling or test prep, © I believe that a middle school kid can approach a test such as the SAT or ACT in a less pressured way by looking at it as a test where they aren’t expected to know everything, and instead approach it as a game of “how much can I figure out or make a reasonable guess at”; being able to approach it as a game rather than a test (whereas high school students know that for them it’s a test) takes some pressure off.
Cons:
(1) Test cost.
(2) Your kid loses a morning of their life taking a test. Okay, not a good thing – but it’s an example of where hard as it may be to believe now, time is going to be in even shorter supply come high school.
(3) Disappointment if scores are unexciting. Try to be sure your kid knows to approach the test as a “fun challenge” and a learning experience, and that you’re proud of him for trying regardless of how it comes out.
My son took the early SAT test and qualified for the Northwestern program. But that is the last thing he wanted to do in summers. Summers for him were the time to focus on non-academic hobbies, and get away from intense academics for a couple of months. I think he did the right thing for him. He’s driven enough in an intellectual direction without being in school 11 months of the year.
My son did the Midwest Talent Search (sponsored by Northwestern) back when. Definitely do at least the ACT or SAT (son did both-in different years). Before that he did the preACT test in 5th grade which proved he belonged there (instead of 4th grade) plus there was a wealth of information about what the results for all scores meant and what parents could do to for their kids. This alone was worthwhile. The SAT/ACT results meant eligibility for gifted summer programs (including WCATY-Wis- in his era). He did not choose the summer programs initially but the test results were good for later in his HS years. Participating in the summer program gave him peer group experiences, although he came home thinking parents were stupid (who does he think gave him the genes and environment???).
In his teens son was obsessed with running (finally) admitted such in his mid twenties- he dropped out of a 3 week AP course because he wasn’t doing as much distance running that year (had done courses 2 other years) and got a 5 on the AP exam the following spring. The socialization can mean a lot to gifted kids who are far above their classmates. It can also put to rest any wondering about how gifted et al one’s kid is compared to others. Just being in the gifted program at one’s school does not show just where one fits- grade level tests have a too low ceiling.
Spending a Saturday morning taking a test is certainly not a burden for a gifted kid. Although falling in an icy parking lot on a winter test date might have been a problem one year.
My kid took the SAT in 7th & 8th grade through the Midwest Academic Talent search. Her scores were pretty high (just missed CTY SET by one month of age). She was invited to participate in the Cogito forum run by CTY, which was a huge social boon to her in middle school. She still has friends from that group almost 10 years later.
She used her scores to apply to Davidson THINK for two summers, which she loved. Helped give her some direction in her college search, too – she wanted the smartest people she could find and a place where students worked hard.
She did not study at all for 7th grade. 8th grade she spent about 30 minutes with the Blue Book looking at the math section.
Not a parent but I took the SAT twice for CTY, once in seventh grade and once freshman year.
Pros:
-scores were an ego boost
-no prep or pressure, so it was more exciting than stressful
-junior year SAT was much less scary because I was familiar with the format
-CTY was an incredible experience, and I still wish I were young enough to be eligible (to be fair, academic summer programs have always been my idea of a good time.)
Cons:
-???
-I probably would have been stressed if I’d been asked to prep or expected to do incredibly
Honestly, I think it comes down to whether or not the kid wants to do it (provided the test isn’t ridiculously expensive.) If he thinks it’ll be beneficial and it’s not stressing him out, why not do it?
Kid took the SAT for Duke Tip in 7th grade. qualified but no way could we afford to send her to a camp.
But I do think taking the SAT with absolutely no pressure at all was a good way to feel the SAT and the experience out.
I’ll add that for my D, being able take the ACT in 7th grade and the SAT in 8th grade also gave us additional information about which test she preferred (and did better on).
- There's a high correlation between 7th/8th grade scores and high school scores. If you want to be able to predict their high school scores, having them take a real test may be the best tool you have. Then, you can decide if you need to make adjustments in areas where they're weak.
- Ammo for getting a kid into advanced/gifted classes or acceleration.
- There's summer camps for gifted kids. I think they're great, but they can be costly and your kids may already have other plans.
- I think PSATs might be used for BS admissions?
I see only positive feedback here, so I’m going to sign him up for the test. This is a win-win situation: he wants to do it and I may see where his strengths and weaknesses lie. Summer academics however isn’t his thing unless it’s on some fun topics. So I wonder if he can go to CTY even though we are close to Northwestern. Unlike many of your kids, he’s unlikely to score very high. But neither he nor I care much about test scores. So we’ll see.
The courses at CTY are very fun- one of my kids took astronomy, the aforementioned archaeology (on a real dig), Renaissance history, all of the sciences (extremely hands on doing cool projects while learning stuff you won’t get in a typical middle school or HS curriculum).
I see no downside.
D15 took Duke TIPS SAT in 7th. She scored well and was a national medal winner, even went to the Duke ceremony because her grandparents took her. She did not take any of the summer courses but just doing well on it gave her confidence. S18 also took the SAT and scored relatively poorly, which was one of the first signs that he had some ADD issues which we were able to address that year. So for both kids it was a valuable benchmark. They also felt more comfortable taking the SAT and other tests in HS. My third child is about to take the Duke TIPS SAT as well. We always chose the SAT over the ACT because we figured the ACT would have more unfamiliar content and be more stressful.
My kids also went to CTY several times, and loved it. I also see no downsides, except that CTY may spoil them for their regular school.
I will tell you why we didn’t do it. You had to pay for SAT test, talent search fee, and program fee.
At the time we couldn’t afford it.
They had nothing available locally as far as summer programs, and I was not going to send my 13 old across the country alone (if I could have afforded the fee).
I am not surprised that the math scores were low. At that time they didn’t have geometry yet, and just started Algebra (8th grade), the old SAT had a lot more geometry than it does now.
@eiholi - CTY has summer courses at locations around the country; not just in Baltimore.
It makes no difference what region you take the test in or which Talent search you take the test for. Each program has qualifying scores, and you can attend any program so long as you qualify( and can afford it). My son attended Northwestern one summer through the Midwest talent search,and CTY at Loyola Marymount for 2 summers through CTY. I knew in 7th grade, that the ACT was the better test for him. He loved his experiences, although he liked CTY better, since the classes he took were more fun, and the CTY program has lots of “interesting” traditions.
I’m currently a college freshman and I participated in CTY in my eight grade year. I went to after school sessions for the year and wound up taking the SAT. While I never took any CTY classes or participated in any more programs, the experience of taking the test was a huge confidence boost. The results said that I wasn’t some child super genius, but I was incredibly proud when I figured out that my score was good enough to get into both of my parents’ alma maters. While I could have attended the majority of the offered summer programs, I never did for financial reasons and personal choice.
So, for me:
Pros - gained confidence that helped my self confidence in general and when taking the SAT officially my Junior year. Validated my belief that I was smart and above average for my age.
Cons - perhaps my participation can be seen as a waste of time and money since I didn’t reap any ‘official’ benefits (didn’t build my resume up at all or participate in any programs I qualified for).
My kids both did CTY and LOVED the summer camps. One is a big science nerd and the other a social butterfly, but they both enjoyed the classes and the social experience equally, I’d say. They both took the SAT, no prep.
Cons: cost.
My kids attended a private school for gifted kids and the school encouraged all students to take NUMATS or TIPS. Gifted kids have their own set of issues, often have asynchronous development, are perfectionists, have social skill issues (e.g don’t relate well to kids of their own age) and have high levels of anxiety. They usually do not develop emotionally any faster than other children but their heightened intellectual capacity lets them process more. That does not mean that they understand more, and their ability to interpret adult content can have unusual manifestations. They also can have trouble coping with difficult (for them) material because they are so rarely challenged with standard material. In addition, it is much more difficult to find advanced and appropriate content.
The tests will help identify the areas where your child is gifted (or not) and you can make adjustments to their curriculum as needed. It will also reduce anxiety a lot for future tests when at the HS age. We did not send our kids to the summer camps, but we did use the tests for placement in more advanced classes at middle school age. Public schools are usually require tests to break from their tracking system
Many of the gifted kids end up at elite universities, and it is never to early to help them learn navigation skills.