Does he know how good he's got it?

Phillip asked to participate in a summer academic program at Sac State where students in grades 6 - 9 can take classes for a few weeks at a time in subjects such as computer programing, Japanese, cooking or robotics engineering. We, of course, said, "sure!"

In order to determine if the students are qualified to participate in the classes the program has them take a "College Ability Test." It's a shorter SAT-type test with verbal and math sections. Phillip didn't feel like he did very well on the verbal -- word analogies -- he could use some extra work in the vocabulary department. Well, compared to the other students that took the test he scored in the 81st percentile for verbal and 91st percentile for math. In other words, he did better than 81% and 91% of the other 65,000 6-9th grade students in the greater Sacramento area.

Ok, so I'm bragging about the boy a little. We've always know he's had a good head on his shoulders. But he's also been known to do some stupid stuff too. For example, when attempting to make a pizza a few weeks ago he got frustrated at the instructions to "pat the dough into the pan." "Sharon," he asks, "what's a pan?" Ugh. We also had an epic fail on a science project last quarter due to systemic procrastination disorder.

Test results do not necessarily predict future outcomes. In the next 5 years Phillip will have a demanding academic program, search and apply to colleges, decided how to support himself, and, with God's grace, become a man.

So, this test is a good encouragement to us as parents and to Phillip as a student. He's got the brains, now comes the real test...