Every single AO I spoke to during admissions season underlined that SSAT scores are important to establish whether a kid is able to handle the work and pace, but that once a score was at or above a certain threshold, improving the percentile by 10 points didn’t matter.
Kids have a finite number of hours to focus on schoolwork, essays, athletics, and ECs. There is an opportunity cost to shifting hours away from those other efforts to eek out a few extra points. There is also the risk of exacerbating anxiety by applying even more pressure. (I’ve also seen kids’ scores DECREASE over time because of the pressure to improve an already decent score!)
But y’all keep pushing your kids to score higher and keep assuming AOs are being misleading …
There can be a real real cost to that strategy (and I’m not talking tutors)…