HSPT® Exam Review
Are you a student who’s hoping to be admitted to a high quality Catholic high school? If so, you should familiarize yourself with the High School Placement Test, or HSPT. This is an entrance exam that many Catholic high schools use to qualify students for admission, especially the more selective high schools. The HSPT is not the only factor in the admissions decision, of course. Grades, too, will play a part. But because the quality of schools varies so widely these days, even in the same city, the high schools need some objective way of comparing thousands of student applicants. That’s where the HSPT comes in. Not all Catholic high schools require that prospective students take the HSPT, but many do. If a school does require it, they will usually offer the test at the school itself, and you’ll need to check with them for dates and times and fees, if any.
Although the HSPT is not an all day test, with breaks, it will take three to three and a half hours to complete. There are five parts to the HSPT exam, and all of them are multiple choice, with no essay required. The verbal skills portion of the test consists of 60 questions on vocabulary, , synonyms and antonyms, etc., and 16 minutes are allotted for completion. The quantitative skills part takes 30 minutes, and has 52 questions concerning numbers, sets of numbers, and working with numbers, both geometric and arithmetical. The reading portion of the HSPT has 62 questions testing reading comprehension, and the time limit is 25 minutes. The mathematics portion of the exam is the longest part of the HSPT-it has 64 questions with a 45 minute time limit, and the questions will involve solving advanced math and basic geometry problems. Finally, the language portion of the HSPT test consists of 60 questions on grammar, word usage, sentence structure, etc., and it will take 25 minutes to complete. The HSPT is scored from a low of 200 to a high of 800, and naturally, the higher a student scores on the HSPT, the better their chances will be of being accepted at a selective Catholic high school, everything else being equal. It’s highly recommended that students use an HSPT prep course or other study materials before taking the test, as the results are too important to be left to chance.
High School Placement Tests is a trademarked product registered by Scholastic Testing Service, Inc.
For additional information, we recommend you check out these free HSPT resources:
HSPT® Study Guide
HSPT Test Information
HSPT Practice Questions
Commercial Resources for HSPT Test Preparation (provided for information only, no endorsement implied)
HSPT Test Study Guide from Mometrix Media
HSPT Test Flashcards from Mometrix Media
