<p>My son took the new SAT in June (to try to qualify for the Johns Hopkins summer program next year). He’ll be getting his scores in a few weeks, but I don’t know what is considered a good score (& an average score) on the new test. </p>
<p>It will be considered in light of his age (8th grader) but just wondered what the ball park parameters were.</p>
<p>Thanks for any thoughts! Appreciate it!</p>
<p>PS He had no graphing calculator, so guess the scores will reflect that in part, oh well!</p>
<p>I think that the Johns Hopkins CTY program has different cutoff scores for different classes, depending on age or grade. I guess a good score would be one which qualified your son for the courses he wants to take. My son got 540 V, 570 M on the old SAT in 7th grade (he hadn’t had algebra yet) and ended up with 1590 in his junior year, so I don’t know what you can really say about the meaning of the middle school scores.</p>
<p>There’s a table/“calculator” on the CTY website from 2004 showing which programs a student qualifies for based on their test scores, but this is using the old SAT-I: I couldn’t find one on the site yet for the new SAT-I, but poke around the site and you’ll find something. For the previous years, eligibility for the [url=<a href=“http://www.cty.jhu.edu/ctysummer/caaelig.html]CAA[/url”>www.cty.jhu.edu/ctysummer/caaelig.html]CAA[/url</a>] and [url=<a href=“http://www.cty.jhu.edu/ctysummer/oselig.html]CTY[/url”>www.cty.jhu.edu/ctysummer/oselig.html]CTY[/url</a>] programs are listed on the website also.</p>
<p>Thank you MotherofTwo and mootmom! I’ll definitely give J. Hopkins a call and see what the qualifying scores are, good thoughts.</p>
<p>Definitely don’t want to read too much into these early scores, either, but did want to at least have a sense of what the numbers mean, generally.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Actually, a good score on a SAT taken in 7th or 8th grade tells you little to nothing. While scoring around 500-600 on each section is very good -and more than enough to qualify for programs such as CTY, it will NOT predict later scores. Scores of 600 can be obtained by answering ONLY the questions that are at the 7th or 8th level. Younger students are very good at skipping questions that they do not understand and do not give up points from wild guessing. FWIW, in my 7th grade class, there was not a SINGLE student who failed to qualify for the Duke TIP. </p>
<p>Not having a graphing calculator on the SAT was probably a blessing in disguise! You hardly need a calculator on the SAT.</p>
<p>Thanks, xiggi! That’s encouraging (that the scores might not mean much at this stage, lol). Especially since he hasn’t received them yet and who knows how it will go! We’ll keep it in perspective and not be overly pessimistic nor optimistic!</p>
<p><a href=“https://ctyjhu.org/eligibility/2004/eligibility2004.cfm[/url]”>https://ctyjhu.org/eligibility/2004/eligibility2004.cfm</a></p>
<p>I agree with the advice of not obsessing too much about the score and its predictivity. My son scored somewhere around the upper quartile or so of the kids taking the test in 7th or 8th grade, but by the time senior year rolled around he was able to hit the low 1500s.</p>
<p>In any case, it depends on what your standards and his abilities are, but I think anyone who is in that group who scores above the median of the group is a fairly competent person for his age. The testing group is not a random selection.</p>
<p>Thanks, citygirlsmom, for that link! Very informative, and explained everything! Now…just to get the results from the test! lol.</p>
<p>Dadx, yes, I hadn’t looked at an SAT taken in 8th grade as predictive (that would be depressing, I’m sure, lol). Just trying to get a sense of what the categories were, since I’m unfamiliar w/the new scoring. </p>
<p>I was actually reluctant to have son take the test, thinking that a mediocre score would inhibit his confidence for later testing. But he needed it to qualify for a summer program next year, so there we were!</p>
<p>He’s pretty well-balanced, so I think he’ll be fine however things go.
:-)</p>
<p>My Ds took the test, first did in on a computerin 8th grade (lucky girl) second took it in7th grade for a scholarship. I told her I did not care what she got. She did not prep. She showed up at 8am with a bunch of high schoolers, took the test, did well enough to get scholarship, and now, we don’t even think about the old score.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the score. My Ds could have cared less. They just wanted it over with!!! And a bribe of shopping never hurt either.</p>
<p>My daughter took this test in the 7th and 8th grade. I think the only thing we got out of it were bragging rights. We didn’t take advantage of any of the Johns Hopkins programs, because they seemed rather pricey. My younger son also qualified for the test, but we decided to skip it.</p>
<p>Both of my sons participated in the JHU CTY summer programs for years, and their summer programs were among the best experiences I could have imagined. They are pricey, but they are worth every penny: I have never experienced programs as well designed, well run, and well taught. Or as much fun and satisfaction for the kids. CTY has made a very positive difference in my sons’ lives; the youngest will do his final stint this summer in LA and then we say farewell to CTY.</p>
<p>Except, I hope, to offer some scholarship money for others in the future for whom CTY is too pricey.</p>
<p>Thanks for the added insights! Glad to hear some 7th/8th graders did not care to much about the score, citygirlsmom! </p>
<p>I hear you on the pricey aspect of JH CTY, Mommy Dearest. Son’s grandparents have generously offered to help some w/that, though, since they’ve heard good things about it. </p>
<p>mootmom—yours is one of many exceptionally positive reactions to CTY I’ve been hearing lately. It’s helping me put it back on the priority list, fundingwise (was thinking another program might be just as good, but maybe not…!).</p>
<p>I second Mootmom’s endorsement of CTY. It definitely opened up a whole new world to my son, who is now going into his senior year of college. I cannot speak highly enough of the experience my son had in the program.</p>
<p>Good to know, MotherOfTwo! Thanks! :-)</p>
<p>But, then again, you never know – I scored the same on the ACT when I took it in eighth grade as I did when I took it as a high school junior! :)</p>
<p>I’ll put in an enthusiastic nod for CTY. Our son, who will be a freshman in college in the fall, went for four years and loved it from the first minute. Not the programs, necessarily, though they were of excellent quality, but the wonderful kids and counselors. He was a gifted, quirky misfit in middle school and to find that he belonged at CTY and didn’t need to hide his intelligence or interests was a wonderful blessing during what could have been a pretty hard time. For a couple years, his only true friends were from CTY (he maintained friendships online after camp). Those relationships eventually gave him the confidence to be himself and the desire to make real-time friends in high school, which he now has in spades. (The accelerated geometry, geopolitics, psychology and astronomy that he took during those summers were icing on the cake). Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about CTY!</p>
<p>A graphing calculator doesn’t really matter. I got 1770 as a 12 year old, but I think you only need around a 1500 to qualify for John Hopkins. A great score would be between 1800 and 2000. But the only people who score around there are the ones who spend months preparing for the test. Average scores would be around 500.</p>
<p>Let me chime in to the good reviews of CTY. Both my sons went for 4 years and had great experiences. In addition to the positives mentioned by others, it was reassuring to them (and to me) when they left for college that they knew how to live in dorms, how to deal with a college cafeteria, how to do laundry, etc. </p>
<p>One of my sons in particular has kept in touch with many of the kids he met at CTY, and he’s 21 now! CTY was such a positive experience in so many ways. </p>
<p>I agree that the cost is high, but there are scholarships available, so be sure to apply for them if cost is the only thing holding you back.</p>
<p>Hopefully the Johns Hopkins program does things like the Northwestern one (geographical spheres of influence for gifted kids)- they sent a booklet months later with score percentiles for the program and the individual state for each grade, plus information about what to make of the scores. btw- a 2400 on the SAT senior year of HS is NO guarantee of any college admission.</p>