There’s certainly tons of truth to what you say; thank you for bringing this up. Aspects of geometry are on the test, right? If so, and your student hasn’t had geometry yet, this would certainly impact things. But I do think it’s difficult to go to an Exeter, for example, and not have had geometry beforehand. Most kids who apply to the tippy tops from our local school for gifted kids take Algebra 1 (honors) in 6th grade, and geometry/Algebra II honors in 7/8.
The same can be true at the other end, however, in that very advanced kids can suffer on the SSAT if they haven’t covered certain topics recently. I recall from what my kid said that the test included a lot of Algebra 1 type questions; my kid learned from practice tests that he had better refresh on that material before taking the real thing!
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