SSAT Exam Review

For students hoping to gain admittance to private schools with high academic standards, it may be required by the school that you take the Secondary School Admission Test, or SSAT for short. This is a test that many private schools use as a more objective standard when it comes to deciding which students to admit and which students to pass on. Schools need a tool like the SSAT because the academic quality of different schools varies, by huge margins, and an A at one school may be no better than a C at another school. Plus, grade inflation in recent years has gotten out of hand, and it’s now far too easy to get an A or B without earning it. The SSAT solves this problem, and if your child is hoping to attend an elite private school you should be familiar with the SSAT. It’s given eight times a year, and the school your child is interested in will have the dates and locations and times. There’s a fee of $96 to take the SSAT.

There are two versions of the test, so be sure to sign up for either the one for students in grades 5 through 7, or the one for students in grades 8 through 11. The scores on the test for lower grades range from 1320-2130, and on the higher grades test scores range from 1500 to 2400. There’s no minimum “passing grade”, but the higher the level of academics at a school, the higher the score a student will need to be admitted. There are several parts of the SSAT exam. An essay is required, but is not counted toward the score. The reading comprehension portion of the SSAT has 40 questions on seven reading passages. There are 50 questions on the math portion of the test, and on the verbal section, there are 60 questions on synonyms and analogies. All questions are multiple choice. One very important facet of the SSAT all students should know about is that a wrong answer lowers their score more than one left blank, and so there’s a risk to guessing. Many experts suggest that students planning on taking the SSAT get a good prep guide and study it before taking the test.

For additional information, we recommend you check out these free SSAT test resources: