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Funny you should say that. The reality is that there are 9 years old totally capable of studying for MCATs. When my husband was taking Organic Chemistry in undergrad, the professor brought his 9 year old son to class to review a formulation that he and his son had been working on.
At the time, my husband thought "how arrogant". Now that we have kids, his perspective has changed and he's bought into giving kids the right launch pad to be successful. Our culture thinks kids need play. Learning can be play, if you engage them the right way.
Children have no limits. Let them have the freedom to fly.
The college board is revamping the vocab section of the SATs. As I understand it, it will no longer contain obscure words but meanings in sentences. Latin will not be so helpful with the planned changes but a varied reading background would be good.
If the student is interested in getting involved with the CTY program, or attending one of the academic summer camps in middle school, SAT tests are required for 7th and 8th graders. The Johns Hopkins CTY program is a well known, long established, large, international organization that offers academic programs for gifted students.
Give the kid a break! Let him have fun and enjoy his childhood.
He has plenty of time to acquire the knowledge and skills that will enable him to do well on the SATs or ACT. Preparation for the college boards is a gradual and continuous process. He will learn over time as you and his teachers encourage, guide and monitor his natural interests. Things take time; stop pressuring him.
Give the kid a break! Let him have fun and enjoy his childhood.
He has plenty of time to acquire the knowledge and skills that will enable him to do well on the SATs or ACT. Preparation for the college boards is a gradual and continuous process. He will learn over time as you and his teachers encourage, guide and monitor his natural interests. Things take time; stop pressuring him.
Keep in mind that children's minds can only absorb so much. Also, pressuring a child can backfire in the long run.
I personally think it is way too early, but as the parents you are obviously free to do what you believe is best for your child. I'm in college and only took the SATs around 5 years ago, and prep in middle school wouldn't have helped me at all.
I'm close to retiring. I've worked in high tech, have an MBA, and run my own business for the last 25 years and I have never once thought back to my summers as a kid and thought - gee I wish I spent more time in school.
Instead I have thought about how much fun we had going out on the boat and just hanging around with friends playing ball and appreciating the day.
I think the parents would prefer the kids be in school because it would be easier on them.
maybe the kid shouldn't be going to school at all, right? being a child is a time to play ball and roll in the mud.
people are such dopes with their silly idealism. if their school isn't sufficiently educating them, then whats the better option? supplementing their education or give up on education and tell them to play ball.
The single best way to prep for the SAT is to read. Vocabulary is such a huge part of the testing process that most prep is going to include vocabulary words anyway, so you might as well just make them read to get things in context and understand sentence structure.
The math bit is the only part you can actually study for because math has such well-defined rules. A general set of classic books is going to be a lot more fun anyway.
My suggestion is to ask the kid what outdoor activity he/she likes to do and do your best to help encourage and promote that. Then, for the times they are not outdoors, find out what they like to read and help encourage and promote that. Push them slightly to help them achieve larger goals than they might be able to without assistance but otherwise let them have fun and enjoy their young lives.
You are only young once and while college IS important, it is not the be-all end-all of life and the ability to function in the world.
OP hasn't even logged in since 10 hours after posting this question.
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