Duke TIP 7th Grade Talent Search?

[MsDinosaur]

Folks here have a TON of experience so I figure someone's bound to know about this!

DD brought home a letter from school saying that she can choose to take the SAT or ACT this year. Duke apparently has some special deal set up with the College Board and they make an offer to a lot of middle schoolers across the country every year to take the tests very early under their auspices. After the testing is complete, they collate the results of the seventh graders and let them know where they stand, both against the other seventh graders and high school students.

DD has been doing the SAT question of the day for fun and is excited at the prospect of taking the SAT test. It seems legit and I'm leaning toward letting her do it. Are there any possible negative ramifications from this that I should take into account?

 

[Atlantabell]

No, there are no negative ramifications in terms of recruiting or college acceptance. As a matter of fact, most colleges will be impressed that she was asked to take the SAT at this age.

I used to work at a school where Johns Hopkins did a similar thing. It's not like they send the scores to schools or anyone else. They use them to get kids qualified for special academic programs.

The one thing I would tell your daughter is to make sure she is calm about taking the test and that she understands that it is unusual for her to take it at this young age. I used to tell our kids that they needed to expect that there would be some questions they would not understand at all and they shouldn't get freaked out.

 

[InsidePitch]

Take the test if you are interested in finding out how your DD stacks up against HS students. Until a kid reaches 9th grade the results do not count. Once in 9th grade they are recorded and will be made available if your DD lists a school to get them. That said, you can take the tests more than once and I'm pretty sure they use your highest scores. My sister has put 3 into college swears that you child should take the test as soon as they have taken geometry because that is the highest math on the test. So figure you take it after your sophomore year and again right before you start applying. They will use your highest math score and your highest Language score regardless of when they occurred.

FWIW, my eldest took the SAT 4 times starting in 8th grade and the ACT once. She said taking it multiple times made her more at ease taking it when it really mattered.

8th grade DD is taking the SAT this year.

 

[chinamigarden]

It seems that the TIP Duke program is aimed at gifted kids, but it also seems to be a way to rope families into sending their kids to costly summer programs. So once the child takes the SAT the parent will get pressured to put the kid into these necessary summer camps to help the kid develop.

Is it good, probably, is it necessary probably not. Are they going to try to take your kid away from softball so she can go to "Duke camp"???

 

[Greenmonsters]

Congrats to your DD! Don't know ACT, but just went through SATs w/ my three. Ultimately, you will have the option of sending high scores, all scores, and, I believe, scores from a specific date to any, all, or no schools. The more comfortable kids get taking the test the less stressed out they will be be and the better they are likely to do. I may have been an exception, I thought the SAT tests were kind of fun and actually had my best score when I got up at 4 AM and traveled to take them at a school 3 hours from home so I could make an afternoon HS BB state playoff game - changed into my uni in the car, got there in middle of BP and was perfect at the plate in a winning team effort. Not the recommended approach, but memorable.

 

[MsDinosaur]

Great! I was worried that this score might be held against her somewhere, somehow. Since that's not the case, I'll let her take a crack at it.

 

[MsDinosaur]

Is it good, probably, is it necessary probably not. Are they going to try to take your kid away from softball so she can go to "Duke camp"???

If their "Duke camp" was a combination of academics and softball, we might consider it. :-D But as far as I know, Duke doesn't have a softball team, so no, not going to happen.

 

[NoGolfTil2017]

Duke TIP has been around for quite some time, as has the Johns Hopkins CTY program. I took the SAT in 7th grade through CTY a long, long time ago, and my older two took the SAT in 7th as well (youngest is only in 3rd grade, but she'll take it in 7th). I just signed them up online as our school no longer notifies parents if their child has a "qualifying" score on a standardized test.

If you are in a grade lower than 9th, the College Board wipes out your scores in June/July unless you let them know you want to keep the score (don't know why you would want to). It is a good idea to take it just to get an idea of the type of questions and the length of the test, as the PSAT is considerably shorter.

My kids did not attend any of the CTY camps, though I suggested to my middle kid that she might want to go. It would interfere with travel ball.

Whether or not to take the SAT right after taking geometry depends upon when you take geometry. My eldest didn't take geometry until 9th, but I still wouldn't want her to take SATs right after freshman year. My middle kid took geometry in 8th grade - she certainly will score higher on the SATs if she waits until at least 10th.

My kids were not thrilled that I signed them up, but if your daughter wants to do it, she certainly should. It is interesting to see the scores compared to college bound high school seniors - though you may question the future of this country when you see your 7th grader score higher than the average HS senior.

 

[InsidePitch]

My kids did not attend any of the CTY camps, though I suggested to my middle kid that she might want to go. It would interfere with travel ball.

Whether or not to take the SAT right after taking geometry depends upon when you take geometry. My eldest didn't take geometry until 9th, but I still wouldn't want her to take SATs right after freshman year. My middle kid took geometry in 8th grade - she certainly will score higher on the SATs if she waits until at least 10th.

DW has wanted DD to take a CTY course for a few years now and DD wouldn't mind taking one but that darn SB takes up those weeks every summer. I do encourage her to take the tests.

I wish our schools offered Geometry in 8th grade but nope we are still on Algebra. Older DD took Alg II in 9th and Geo in 10th which was opposite of when I took them many moons ago.

 

[Momo'sDad]

There is no downside whatsoever here. I never went to Duke's summer program, but did go to others, and those experiences were invaluable. The proof is in the pudding. Most of the students I met during those summers that I still have any contact with are now enjoying very successful careers.