Does retaking the SSAT hurt your chances?

SevenDad
Tue, 09 Sep 2014 20:36:07 +0000

You can’t “lose interest” in a discussion that you were partially responsible for stirring up! ;-P

When I read those posts from my older daughter’s process, I only see one sentence that echoes what you’ve been saying. One among many. And that’s the final one you cite: “I’m not saying that you have to get a 99th percentile score to get into very selective schools, but it can’t hurt”.

The entire first paragraph is just me explaining WHY she took it twice. SEE the last sentence of that block? “Note that we were told by a few AOs that anything in the high 80s and above “would not adversely affect her candidacy”.”

This statement, which was made in some form to me by AOs at SPS and Choate, has really stuck with me over the years. I don’t want to see kids chew themselves up with test prep to go from an 89% to some higher number they think will increase their chances at the uberselectives. And I offer my older daughter’s 2350+ leading to a Choate rejection as cautionary tale not to put too much faith in having near perfect scores as a “shoe in” for admission.

To assure you that we do in fact “practice what we preach”, my younger daughter got a mid-80s score on her first and only sitting for the SSAT. We did not push her to try to take it again to try and score higher. We saw no point, considering her standardized test taking history, and especially because her scores were in line for the schools she was considering…and she had a hook that her sister did not have.