<p>(Pardon me if this is posted twice, got an error message first time…)</p>
<p>My son’s SSAT score just arrived. His scores in Verbal/Math/Reading/Total are 93%/95%/94%/96%, respectively. These scores are good for him to get in a good school, although we expected he could have done better. </p>
<p>In particular, I am puzzled at his verbal test. In Synonyms, he got 20 right and 10 wrong, and in Analogies he got 26 right and 4 wrong. This means out of the total 60 questions he got 46 or about 77% right, but his percentile ranks at 93%, which means a lot of kids got much less than 77% questions right. Is this a normal case for SSAT, or it is just because this specific test (Nov. 10) is too hard? Admitted I am a bit disappointed at the 77% correctness but need to be fair to my son.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see some data about SSAT scores statistics, mean/deviation/skew, etc.</p>
<p>I had similar problems. I had my test rescored. I’m still waiting for the results. The verbal part was correct. The math seemed incorrect for me because I never got 7 wrong on any practice test I took. Most of the time, I got zero wrong. The reading section bummed me because i got a 42 percentile, i always got above 90% on practice tests. However, I was sick during the day of the test so that could have been a reason for the dismal scores. But then, my verbal should have been bad too if my illness had an effect on my scores.my best section was verbal, my worst section on all the practice tests.</p>
<p>The percentiles are based on the past three years.</p>
<p>77% correctness are great. I got lower than that. Vocab is a hard part because you have to memorized hundreds of words. Most 8th graders can’t do that.</p>
<p>The same test is given to 8th, 9th & 10th graders. I think an 8th grader can be in the 99th percentile and not have everything correct. The percents are not based on the % right or wrong. They are how the test taker scored relative to other test takers over the last 3 years of the same sex and in the same grade. So in Verbal, your child scored in the top 7% of boy ssat test takers over the last 3 years who are in the same grade as your son. He received high scores, and you should feel proud. Congratulations!</p>
<p>The difference between your sons 96% and a 99% is minimal. Once in the high 90’s or even low 90’s it really doesn’t matter. It will come down to EC’s, grades recomendations and the interview. I really wouldn’t stress over it. </p>
<p>What schools are you looking at?</p>
<p>Your son’s scores are great for any school. He’s through that hoop. The rest is as hockeykid841 says.</p>
<p>Vocab isn’t really meant to be for you to ‘memorize hundreds of words’, it’s there to see how much vocab you’ve accumulated throughout your whole life. Memorizing the words is only a cramming studying technique.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. we plan to send him to eiher Stevenson or York school at Monterey as day student because both are within comfort commute distance to us. Stevenson is a boarding school with 50-50 split between boarding and day students, York is a day school about half the size of Stevenson. We really don’t know which one to go at this point.</p>
<p>From what we have studied Stevenson is strong in sports/music/social whereas York is stronger in academic but just so so in other things. I would rate my son as A in academic, A- in music (he plays Clarinet in Youth Honor Orchestra), B- in sports (he plays Tennis weekly but not very good), he used to have difficult social but he has improved significantly in boy scout. His current teachers(Math/English) suggests that York may fit him more. However, we are debating on whether we should provide him an environment like Stevenson so as for him to improve his weakness, rather than goto York which the kids joked it as Nerds’ school where students/teachers emphasize more on academic (not to mean they don’t do sport/music, just more on academic when compared with Stevenson). Given his current situation, my son may feel less comfortable at Stevenson, and may feel a bit lonely if he could not actively participate in the sports team (like he is at his current school). We really cann’t decide what to do: chanllenge him at Stevenson, or make him less stressed from making social/friend point of view.</p>
<p>Where are these schools?</p>
<p>hockeykid - it’s in Cali.</p>
<p>Are grammar questions on the SSAT? Or is the verbal pure vocab and analogies?</p>
<p>It’s all synonyms and analogies.</p>