Does retaking the SSAT hurt your chances?

SevenDad
Wed, 27 Aug 2014 20:39:05 +0000

@Newbdad: Pick, pick, pick… ;-P

I don’t advise against taking the SSAT to get a higher score in my post #3. I advise against chasing a meaningless improvement in your score. I think we do differ on whether a 99% is meaningless (vs. a 95%) or not…and that’s fine.

It is my opinion that an applicant is no likelier to get into one of the super selective schools with a 99% than a 95% (or possibly even a 89%).

You will probably be quick to point out that the following anecdote is from the college process, but I’ll share it regardless (from the MIT Admissions Blogs):

‘The GC makes a big deal of the student’s “scoring the magic 1600 on the SAT.” Now, when I started the case, I mentally noted to myself, “Okay, this student has scores that are fine, let’s move on,” but it didn’t really make an impact on me that the student had “the magic 1600.” Yes, scoring a 1600 is something that you, your school, your parents, and your guidance counselor can be very proud of. But it’s not something I’m going to bust out my highlighter for, circle in big red pen, make it the focus of your case. In fact, I don’t think I have ever in my summary of a student used high standardized scores as an argument to admit that student.’

The last sentence is all the argument I need to advise folks to not chase a 99%.