What is Duke TIP?

What is Duke TIP?

Duke TIP is a program started in the 1980s to identify talented young students, to recognize them and to offer them access to amazing opportunities.

The program consists of two rounds—a qualifying round and the competition. Students qualify for Duke TIP by performing well on a standardized or IQ test.  If they score high (>95% on a standardized test or >125 on IQ test), then they are eligible for the competition.   The competition consists of taking a real SAT or ACT and scoring high enough for State Recognition or Grand Recognition.  State recognition equates to scoring at about the 50th percentile rank for college-bound high school seniors, while grand recognition equates to approximately the 90 percentile.  See chart on this page for qualifying scores.  

How to Prep

Many parents are very proud to hear that their student has qualified for Duke TIP, but then do not know what to do next.

After all, how do you train a student who hasn’t had trigonometry to do well on a test that contains it? Luckily, our program is designed for 7th graders and up.  We teach them how to BEAT the tests!  Most of these kids have not had high school courses, so we teach them how to reason and use logic to figure out the correct answers.  For example, by using the answers and process of elimination, we teach students to eliminate the wrong answers. We have specific tactics for each section of the test.  For English/Writing, we use a Brain Technique.  For math, we teach about 15 rules that they can apply to any question on the test.

So if you have a talented rising 7th grader who has qualified for Duke TIP, let us know.  We would love to help train him or her how to BEAT the test!

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