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.

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?

Do many states have SAT's in middle school?

"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)

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.

Hopefully things have improved since then.