Applying for 5th grade to Lakeside. My son took the SSAT - he scored 98% verbal, 99% quantitative (got all answers correct), but only 56% on reading. He clearly made an error filling in the bubbles - the score report indicates he didn’t answer a question, and he thought he had completed all questions. He did two practice tests, and scored above 98% for reading both times. His ERB in 3rd grade he got 99% for independent schools in reading comprehension. STAR reading assessments are consistently at the top of the range (they go until they can’t test him anymore). I’m an alum, but I’m not sure that will help much. He’s an exceptionally smart, non-diverse candidate, from a school that sends a few kids to Lakeside every year. Thoughts on whether this will really hurt his chances?
A few thoughts:
- Contact SSAT org and see if they will hand score his reading section. I know in the past (many years ago) this was an option when a bubble error seemed obvious.
- Call or email Lakeside admissions and ask them for advice - as an alumni, you may have a contact. I am not sure if that is how Lakeside works.
- Ask your son’s current school for advice and if they will address in the rec letter
Guessing this will be solved with a retest - so you may want to only do #1 and wait for the 2nd set of scores.
This seems like the pretty clear answer here, assuming you haven’t sent the scores to Lakeside already. There are test dates in December and January - I would plan for him to take it again. (Lakeside even says February 1 is allowed, though why not just get it done.) If you have sent them to Lakeside, though, there is no value in retesting.
If you did already send the scores, or if your son can’t retest for some other reason, I expect a counselor letter would help Lakeside see this as an aberration. Your son won’t be the first fifth grader they’ve seen in this situation. I don’t believe they look at ERBs (though a counselor could mention them) and they certainly don’t look at STAR assessments. Being an alumnus will not carry any meaningful weight, in my experience.
It does look like they will still do hand scoring for specifically this situation, but I wouldn’t count on it.
It’s definitely one of those things where if your son isn’t admitted, you’ll never know exactly why - so many applicants for limited spaces, including (I imagine) several others from your home school - but Lakeside generally discusses using the standardized tests directionally (will this student be able to succeed here), not as a ranking mechanism. I would do what you can in those two choices and then let it be - certainly I wouldn’t call a ton of attention to it, because that may reflect more poorly on the family than you might like.
And if he isn’t admitted this year, there are other entry points to Lakeside, and a number of other excellent independent schools in the Seattle area. Really, I promise, it works out. 
Best of luck!
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