<p>I am not trying to give the boy or his family advice, and I wish him well. The Study of Exceptional Talent is a group for students who earn a 700 on the SAT math or verbal at age 12 or younger. I’d guess that many students with a 700 math at age 12 are scoring in the 500s on the other sections, giving a total in the 1700s. Few of the SET students appear to attending college several years early. Presumably they and their involved parents (uninvolved ones don’t have their kids take the SAT early) have considered early college and decided against it.</p>
<p>Apparently this is a boy who could read around age 1.
Regardless of test score, that alone indicates he’s profoundly gifted. </p>
<p>He’s already taken all the possible classes to graduate from his online high school.
(And he’s already taken calculus, based on the video interview. He finds it fun and relaxing, teasing out a problem until he finds the solution, if I remember the quote. I suppose it was decided he should “retake” the course in a classroom setting if he’s only taken it online.)
Relating to average elementary school or middle school students would be as difficult as relating to high school students. (Not to mention part of the high school social scene isn’t what I’d want for my 11 year old, gifted or not.)
Attending high school with high school students doesn’t seem to make sense in that context - to take what classes since he’s already graduated? to find peers, something high school students are not? Plus, can you imagine an 11 year having to navigate the corridors of a high school at bell time? He’d get slammed by backpacks all day long…
If you’ve had teenagers, you can draw this general conclusion: College students will be more respectful of his difference and personality, they’ll be more mindful that he’s a child.
If you’ve attended a high school and a small college, you can draw this general conclusion: His classes are likely to be smaller and livelier.
Even without information about the child, I’d think those are positive. I’m not seeing any positive in making him enroll with high school students. (With middle school students I can imagine he could gain some socializing skills within his age group, but I also don’t think they’d have much in common and middle schoolers aren’t the kindest, most discerning souls.)
Finally, we don’t know whether he’ll be taking the classes he wants, learning as his interests take him, or whether he’ll be preparing for a degree with prereqs etc. He may “transfer” to another college at age 17, or enroll at Simon Rock’s when he’s 15, or find another solution that is age-appropriate at a more challenging university later on.
(As an aside, EmeraldKity4’s link indicates that such radical acceleration is actually the most appropriate for profundly gifted students even though not many parents make that choice. Note that “enrollment in CC” is not included in the “not many”, so in fact a much larger number than the sample studied are enrolled in college as children.)</p>
<p>Also SAT scores are not the only or necessarily best measure of college readiness. Scores are often determined by how many times the student has taken the test, how much prep went into studying for the test and how well the student manages the pacing of the time constraints.</p>
<p>As to having an advanced child wait for college entrance in order to gain admission to a more selective college, that is not necessarily everyone’s goal, advanced or not. Not everyone can afford a more selective college, whether they be 11 or 18. Or perhaps they want somewhere local. Or they got a lot of merit aid from a less selective. Or the less selective has a good program in their major. Etc, etc.</p>
<p>His math SAT was 620, suggesting that there are gaps in his ability to solve algebra and geometry problems. My son has a higher math SAT, and I’m not trying to get him into calculus at school or teach it to him at home but am working with him on pre-calculus/trigonometry. I want him to score in the 700s on the SAT subject test math level 2. Then it will be time for calculus.</p>
<p>The extremely gifted are just as different from the average child as the extremely ■■■■■■■■ are. This child can’t have the typical childhood experiences because of his intellectual abilities. It sounds like his parents let him progress at his speed, not the slower one the majority of children need. The majority of kids are not his peer group- he would be extremely frustrated being held back by their lack of understanding and interest in things he does easily. This would hurt him socially. </p>
<p>His parents have special needs kids just as much as those with ■■■■■■■■ kids do. They seem to be meeting his needs. He still lives at home and has time to be a kid. Regarding the verbal area- he likely mimics his parents in the attention paid to reading literature and for fun. He hasn’t had time to get as much life experience. No parents do a perfect job- and hindsight would have all of us tweaking our decisions.</p>
<p>There are parents who emphasize one or more sports, those who are into fashion and many, many other choices parents make to influence the paths their children follow. We can criticize any path- too much/not enough of xyz from academics to sports to religion to music to…</p>
<p>I scored a 770 in Math when I was 12 (only took SAT once)… and even then I was not prepared for Calculus. Apparently he has “completed” his calculus course already. I’m a bit confused on how well someone can complete a calculus course with only an average score (not for his age - I mean in general). </p>
<p>Beliavsky I like your approach for preparing your son for calc. Seems much more logical. </p>
<p>Obviously we don’t have enough information to judge whether or not the student is prepared. I’m just a bit skeptical. I agree that a couple years in a gifted prep high school may be more ideal.</p>
<p>“The extremely gifted are just as different from the average child as the extremely ■■■■■■■■ are.”</p>
<p>I know we’ve had this discussion on another thread, but I find that an astonishingly offensive comment. </p>
<p>Of course I don’t know this child. I don’t doubt he is a genius. But I also don’t think the SATs are quite as meaningless as many others seem to. They may not be perfect, but it isn’t a coincidence that, as far as I am aware, everyone in my graduating class who had taken BC Calc scored at least a 700 on the math section. And this is clearly a kid from a savvy family who has had educational opportunities, so we aren’t talking here about the untrained diamond in the rough. To me, his scores across the board indicate someone who could have benefited from a slightly less accelerated pace, and who could still learn a heck of a lot in a good high school English class. Given that from what little I could gather from the articles, the school seems to be a tiny private school with a particularly motivated and independent student body, I doubt bullying and the dangers of large high school culture were a huge factor here.</p>
<p>Lots of students around the country score 620 or thereabouts on the SAT-R math section and take calculus in college (and evidently do fine). Note that it is not mentioned when he took the SAT-R test in relation to what level of school course work he was in at the time.</p>
<p>620 is also an above median score, since the target median on the SAT sections is 500.</p>
<p>Sosomenza, after the parents put down their whip and allow this child out of the dungeon to “be a kid”, what kid activities would you have him do?</p>
<p>And then please tell how you know, from one article, that he isn’t already doing all of those kid things now?</p>
<p>So an SAT test score (which doesn’t test calculus knowledge) is a better predictor of how this kid will do in calculus than the “A” that he already received for the class?</p>
<p>He’s already been to high school though, and had a 4.0 GPA. Maybe he would have benefited from a more rigorous high school, but there may have not been any good high schools in his area.</p>
<p>Note that there are also other constraints in selecting a high school for such a student, like commuting logistics and the high school social environment. Reassignment to a desired public school or paying the tuition for a desired private school may also be an impediment.</p>
<p>If the social environment of his home district had been a factor, then the choice of TCU would be a real puzzle. TCU is a great school, but very reflective of the geographic area.<br>
Ha!
He could have enrolled in extensive AP classes in his top rated home district. He could have taken dual enrollment classes in conjunction with the local CC for free.
Parents chose another path.</p>
<p>I wish this kid the best. I sure hope his parents are doing what they think is best for him. Sending an eleven year old to TCU after finishing a dodgy sounding high school…it wouldn’t be my choice. Let’s hope we hear about him in four years and he is doing well, whether or noT he is graduating from college.</p>