Secret #1: Even “underage” you don’t have to sign up for the SAT through a Talent Search. Your daughter is 13 so you should be able to do this online at the College Board site (the College Board’s online system won’t allow you to create a record for a student under 13.) Or do if it’s more comfortable (or your child is underage, see below), do it the old-fashioned way and go to your local high school, pick up a paper registration form and send it in. The difference is that scores won’t go to CTY/Duke etc. to qualify for their camps etc. and they won’t be reported to her current school (if she’s in school…you haven’t said). Also, the child most likely will be considered a “normal” test taker and take the test in a room with high school age students, not a separate room. Which depending on the child could be unnerving. But you’ll have the scores, and that can be important to you if you need them for advocacy purposes. If she should apply for one of the Talent Search programs, you can always present the scores later, I imagine.

Secret#2: You don’t have to be in 7th grade to take the SAT for the first time. That’s the age that the Talent Searches have established. But there is no lower age limit–you just have to register outside the Talent Search system. Now admittedly there are very very few children who are willing and able, and for whom one might want to consider testing at even more unusually young ages. But this blog is about those very very few, right? And I would say emphatically that if one does go this route, these children should NOT be pushed into it, coached, prepped etc. This is not about grooming, prestige, keeping up with the Jones, “gaming the system” etc. It’s for those very very few exceptional children who are up to a challenge and for whom one would like an out of level estimate of ability. And it’s just one measure, albeit a well understood one. It’s not a substitute for a full-on psycho-educational assessment, but If you don’t have access to, or the ability to pay for a full assessment, SAT scores can still be useful for advocacy. Again, the child has to be on board and up to it, not be freaked out. None of this is “necessary.” It’s just a little known option to consider and which might apply in some select situations.

Whew…a lot more than you expected!

Good luck!