

 Future career path of gifted youth can be predicted by age 13 - whacked_new
http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/newspub/bjfTyg?id=37167&mode=print
Cut to the chase: "Overall, the creative potential of these participants was extraordinary. They earned a total of 817 patents and published 93 books. Of the 18 participants who later earned tenure-track positions in math/science fields at top-50 U.S. universities, their average age 13 SAT-M score was 697, and the lowest score among them was 580, a score greater than over 60 percent of all students who take the SAT."<p>Controversy time.
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henning
"...which is a focus of the new $43 billion America Competes Act recently
passed by Congress to enhance the United States' ability to compete globally."

I know a simpler way to do that for the same amount of money: pay a million
kids $43,000 not to watch TV and spending 5-20 hours a week reading books that
interest them.

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pg
I'd trust the SAT scores of 13 year olds more than the SAT scores of college
applicants. Few if any in this sample would have been taking classes in how to
beat the test.

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nostrademons
Trust for what? For entrepreneurship, I'd almost think that the kid who took
classes to boost his score has an advantage. He took pro-active steps to
improve how he did, rather than just winning the genetic lottery.

When I took the SATs in 7th grade, I blitzed through the math section, having
enough time for a full double-check and a spot triple-check. Elsewhere in this
thread, Vlad mentions that he did very poorly until he learned how to pace
himself and answer all the questions. Am I at an advantage because I have a
knack for this stuff, or is Vlad because he actually learned techniques that
work consistently?

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vlad
What makes you believe you didn't take enough steps?

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chaostheory
What I don't like about this article is that it doesn't describe the study's
definition of success - a part from stupid sound bites that are almost
useless.

"Individuals showing more ability in math had greater accomplishments in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics, while those showing greatest
ability on the verbal portion of the test went on to excel in the humanities"

who was the lead researcher - captain obvious?

"They earned a total of 817 patents and published 93 books."

Quantity does not equal quality.

"Of the 18 participants who later earned tenure-track positions in
math/science fields at top-50 U.S. universities"

It's been pretty well known for years that academic tests are good predictors
of future academic success (but it's not great for anything else)

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Alex3917
I don't buy it. My SATs were in the top 1% at age 13, but they were only a
couple hundred points higher when I took them again to apply to college.
According to this I should be more likely to succeed than someone who would be
able to trounce me if we both took the test again today. What sense does that
make?

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vlad
"Individuals showing more ability in math had greater accomplishments in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics, while those showing greatest
ability on the verbal portion of the test went on to excel in the humanities,
art, history, literature, languages, drama and related fields."

If someone's gifted at X at 13, they will likely continue in X after high
school. This finding is obvious, and may or may not apply to kids in general.

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portLAN
My school experience indicates that the career path that can be predicted for
gifted youth at age 13 is: _burnout_.

Hopefully things have improved since then.

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brlewis
Does this study have a control group? I followed the link at the bottom of the
article, but I couldn't find anything about a control group.

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motoko
So... people who tend to be smart tend to achieve more? How is this news?

