Some may argue that gifted children have many education options, but these options do not always help gifted students learn science. Unfortunately, gifted students often do not reach their full academic potential--they are frequently less motivated to succeed because they are not being academically challenged in regular classrooms (McCoach and Siegle 2003). To counter these problems, a strong option for educating gifted students is acceleration. This article describes the challenges that more and more gifted students face when accelerating, particularly when skipping an entire academic year. Strategies to lessen their intensity and duration and, ultimately, help gifted students to succeed are also included.