<p>This forum has been so helpful, here I go starting yet another topic. </p>
<p>A little background : straight A, 7th grade student who will be applying in the fall to BS's (freshman 09/10 ).
Does anyone have any particularly strong recommendations - a study program / tools for preparation towards the SSAT. We have the SSAT practice booklet, and D will be continuing with her EC's during the summer.</p>
<p>There are lots of good practice tips in this forum, if you do a search. Don't be too surprised if your child who scores at the 98th-99th percentile on state tests, or national tests used by the public schools, does not do as well on the SSAT. One of my children did, the other two did not. It's a very competitive pool of self selected kids taking the test.</p>
<p>We found the princeton review book to have some great math strategies and review. It's funny, S has begun to realize that many can be solved without doing much actual math at all! Of course, he hasn't taken the actual one, only one of the practise ones from the ssat people. I'll let you know if it helped!</p>
<p>i took the test twice. u almost always score better the second time because you are more familiar with the test and more relaxed. i also used a book.</p>
<p>Also! I found these little books that were meant for SAT vocab-building that I bought for my kids just because I thought it was a great way for them to read literature and test their skills at defining within context. One is called Stories of Edgar Allen Poe and another is Frankenstein. The words from the SAT are in bold face within the text on the right-facing page and they are defined on the left. That way, you don't have to break your train of thought while reading. You just glance to the other page. There are probably other titles available. This might be helpful for the verbal section, which many seem to consider the hardest part. If you did a search on amazon for sat and Edgar Allen Poe, it would probably come up. I think the same words are used in the ssat. Summer reading! </p>
<p>My experience has been that children don't really learn from vocab workbooks, etc; but from having a variety of literature to read from. </p>
<p>The biggest help my kids have had has been their background in Latin and French. They can kind of figure out many words by picking them apart or thinking of words that have the same stem.</p>
<p>If only I could get them to spell them correctly....</p>
<p>The lady at the bookstore said that they also have SAT vocab in graphic novel form. But something makes me think that if you need a comic book to learn vocab, it might be a lost cause. :-> However, I did read a comic book in college title "Einstein for Beginners" that was quite helpful so maybe I'm being to snobby. I don't need to say that my college days far preceeded the XXX for Dummies series!</p>
<p>I realize the question was about SSAT. It was my understanding that the vocabulary was similar.</p>
<p>I saw those SAT vocab books. They seemed like a good idea and you get a little extra out of it.</p>
<p>Have her take an SSAT test as soon as possible. This will give you some idea of how she might score well in advance of school visits and can aid in school selection.</p>
<p>If she scores high on an early test, then you will have an indication that top tier schools are an option if she has an interest in them. By the same token, if she scores low, you will have plenty of time to work on her weaker areas and/or can work on identifying all the other great schools that would love to have your D attend.</p>
<p>Practice !
My son finished two test books during the summer and took the test on October, he got 99% overall.<br>
The test book include SSAT and ISEE. SSAT is more challenge at math and ISEE is challenge at verb. Need to do both.</p>
<p>There is an SSAT on June 14. Your child should take it. Do not send the scores to any schools, just yourselves. This will be a practice test because most schools want the real test from next school year. If she registers as an 8th grader, will take the same level test as in the fall and she will get a good sense of her score range.</p>
<p>Peterson's (Search</a> for Colleges and Universities, Graduate Schools, Online Degree, Private Schools - Peterson's) has a "Word of the Day" feature. You can sign up to receive a daily email, with the word of the day. </p>
<p>I feel that at this point, the best approach is to identify weak spots in your child's capabilities, and remediate that. For example, if she's a math brain, but has never encountered analogies, concentrate on analogies. </p>
<p>Much of the work for preparing for the tests has been completed already, in her years at school. Reading books, and magazine and newspaper articles can only help. I think it would help to ask her to read a newspaper article each day, and to discuss it. Sometimes kids don't understand all you'd think they should. </p>
<p>Also, if she does surprisingly badly on the first test, consider that she may have made a test-taking error, such as losing track of the correspondence between the test booklet and the answer sheet. I feel it's impossible for a kid to score in the 90's by mistake, but it's quite possible to score much lower by mistake.</p>
<p>One more thing: I'd warn against trying to extrapolate a potential SSAT score from practice test results. That is, practice tests from prep books. I've seen too many students post on CC, lamenting their surprisingly low scores, in comparison to practice tests. I think the quality of the practice tests varies wildly.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Neatoburrito -what a great tip - I will look for the Poe/SAT books most definitely! Also, D has been studying French since 4th grade, maybe, if time allows, this summer would be a good time to pick up Latin. </p>
<p>Baseballmom and artsmart - yes, she is taking the test in June ( results not back until July ) and then again in either Oct. or Nov.</p>
<p>I think I will buy the Princeton book, we already have the SSAT book.
Has anyone any experience with any of the online review sites? I saw one last night while googling, it sounded pretty good, and was only $99.</p>
<p>oops we were posting at the same time Perriwinke and Inquiring mind - I will read your posts now!</p>
<p>Back again!
Yes Inquiring mind, she is signed up already for the June test. </p>
<p>Periwinkle - agreed. Good point about false negatives too. Another big reason to take the test twice - to get comfortable with the test booklet!
I'm already thinking she better get a good nights sleep the night before, the test is several hours away from us!</p>
<p>It's the latin roots that are so helpful. There is a book called, English From the Roots Up, or somthing like that, that I've heard was excellent, though I haven't personally used it. It deals with Latin and Greek roots. Just having a working knowledge of Latin Vocabulary is tremendously helpful. You don't need to know the complicated grammar and syntax for your purposes. </p>
<p>Before you buy anything though, I'd just google "Latin Roots List" You'd be amazed at the resources that are out there for free.</p>
<p>Neato- thanks again for another good tip!</p>
<p>There is a great book for math called something like math shortcuts for the sats.</p>
<p>Read, read and read.</p>
<p>SSAT and ISEE website have their own official study guide (also admission advise for parents and students).<br>
I found they are very good test prep book.<br>
You can find some of the books from eBay or Half.com which can save you some money.</p>
<p>Also, remember that some schools do not require the SSAT so, if your child is a good student but a poor test taker, there are still options.</p>