DD (an A student) took the SSAT with no prep in 5th grade when applying to private MS (from public) and shockingly scored in the high 30s she did much better with IEEE so we submitted that. Fast forward several years to DD applying to HS … after 2 months with a SSAT prep tutor she scored low 80s.
IMHO SSAT is a strange animal and one needs prep on how to deal with said animal.