Hi,
I just took a practice test for the SSAT and got a 94%, 34.75/40 including the points for wrong answers on reading, 95% on math, 43.75/50 on math, and a 78% on on vocab which was 42.65/60. I want to know whether the math and reading are good enough to get into Andover because of their really high standards. I also want to know how I can increase my vocab score. I did well until I got to analogies, when I ended up getting 12 wrong out of the 30 analogies that were there because a lot of the words were a lot harder than anything I’ve ever learned in school. I’m in the 7th grade taking 8th grade language arts, and want to know how I can get my score higher. Really worried!
Thanks.
94th percentile is a great score.
When you score in the 90s on the real SSAT that you are submitting to ANY boarding school, you are fine. It’s the rest of your application credentials that you might do more to improve, not any future SSAT scores. This particular point has been discussed on CC for many years, and many knowledgeable observers report the actual AOs of various schools have said as much.
Posters who did not get in to HADES-type schools will often write that they wished they had worked harder to do better on their SSATs. However, those who report getting 91% and 96%, etc., are mistaken. They did not get in for other factors, not because their SSATs weren’t good enough. Over 85% or so, the SSAT ceases to be an issue, even at Andover. It is worth reading up on what makes for an attractive candidate to the highly selective schools other than the SSAT score, for which there are many excellent threads and posters on CC.
My daughter did well on the SSAT verbal section (98%). This score can be attributed to reading a lot growing up
so she had a good foundation from which to work. But, as importantly, she studied vocabulary words in the three months leading up to the test. She used the vocabulary list from the Princeton Review ISEE/SSAT book. She took a column a week and studied the words she didn’t know from that column. The next week, she moved on to the next column. The vocabulary section of the SSAT is a tough one: we found that in some practice exams she knew most of the words, on others there were plenty she did not know. But, as they say, the harder you work, the luckier you get. I would pull words from The New York Times that I thought could appear on the test and would add these to her list. The last word she learned was “domicile” and that appeared on the test the next day. So, read the Times as well - a few articles a day - and pull out any words you don’t know. The vocab in The Times seems right on par with the SSAT and you would work on reading comprehension skills as well. Good luck!
I would just add that there is no perfect application for any one school. Improving your Verbal score certainly won’t hurt, and I recommend that you try, but if you are hoping to get accepted to one school in particular, you are setting yourself up for heartbreak. My daughter was wait listed at Deerfield but accepted at another school some would say is more competitive than DA. It’s hard to know what will happen in the admissions game and you can’t bank on any one school, especially a school like Andover. If you have a strong application and you apply to a range of schools, you will have options come March 10th.