Deb - Well, I'll take a stab at it, I've got three scary-smart kids myself. S18 did take that test when he was 12, but we never availed ourself of any of the programs because he was already (thankfully) in a special program for highly gifted kids in our school district (his classmates were world chess champions and concert pianists and the like). Still, the programs would have been great if he hadn't had that. And I wonder - do they base qualification on total score only, or would they make an exception for a kid who got a really high score in the verbal? You might ask the Johns Hopkins folks about that.
As for the math issue - do you have a handle on why he doesn't do well? Does he simply not understand the concepts? Or does he get poor grades because he won't show his work ? (Sometimes bright kids "intuit" the answers and can't, or won't, write down a bunch of steps that seem irrelevant to them). Is he missing some fundamental, like knowing his times tables? (They don't make them chant them the way the nuns did when I was in school).
Sometimes, too, I think we don't teach math in enough different ways - that is, all the teaching involves visual, 2D, book and chalkboard stuff. Really kinesthetic learners need manipulatives and real-world problems to solve. Computer games like Math Blaster can engage fidgety kids with attention problems.
As for whether he would have a problem emotionally with getting a low score - you know him best. I think it helps for them to know that this is a test for high-schoolers, and that he hasn't even had some of the math in school yet, so not to sweat it. Again, try to find out if a high verbal score alone would qualify him.
