<p>About a week or so ago, I got the Princeton Review SSAT Prep book. It's helped a lot, but I don't know if I'm ready to take the real thing.</p>
<p>I usually get about three or four wrong (out of 20) on some of the math drills. (UL) Is this really bad?</p>
<p>Also, THE ANALOGIES ARE SO HARD. (UL) I can't believe they expect 13 year olds to know this stuff. It's ridiculous! Are there any special tips on how to narrow them down? They're really tough. Usually I only get about half of them right, if that. Is this bad?</p>
<p>Reading (UL) is pretty easy, though, which is good.</p>
<p>I think Verbal is going to be my biggest problem. (I thought it was going to be really easy for me). </p>
<p>Math and reading are going to be the easiest I think. </p>
<p>Prep school is going to be tough, but I know I can catch up.</p>
<p>If I get a low SSAT score, like.. 63% or something.. would they take my school being a crappy, public school into consideration? Are most kids applying from elite private schools? I'm also a really good swimmer, will this help me a lot or should I not be counting on it?</p>
<p>If you are planning to swim on the school team and you are good, it can help you a LOT. Second on Peddie- great facility, team, campus and school.</p>
<p>Do not use PR Verbal. Its a lot harder than the real thing. The same thing happened with me; I kept getting like half right on the PR practice, but on the actual SSAT, I did pretty well. Get the official ssat prep book advertised on ssat.org.</p>
<p>JK that would be difficult to answer. Remember your school record, recommendations,and interview will be more important than your SSAT.
Just like colleges, athletics is a "hook". If I'm not mistaken, Peddie has had at least two or maybe three olympic swimmers. Are you potentially that good? if so, a sound record, recs, and interview will over shadow any low SSAT. Something tells me you will do just fine on the SSAT.</p>
<p>If that's the case I would have your swim coach write one of your reccomendations. And include times and events etc. </p>
<p>But don't worry about that now. You're a lot like me SSAT wise when I was taking the practice tests. My verbal was atrocious, to say the least. Reading was sort of average. But I usually got all the math ones right. If I was you, I would just focus on the math. If you get a perfect math score (which is really the only one practice can influence) then the schools are much more likely to overlook a low verbal score or something like that.</p>
<p>Look into Baylor. I've heard they have one of the best aquatic centers in the world, bettering most colleges. They also produce elite swimmers. It's in the south (which is the main reason it's largely ignored), but very good academically, with many HYPSM matrics and great courses (22 APs).</p>
<p>Im sure you wont do that bad on the test. I thought the analogies were hard too..but it's percentiles that matter..and a lot of other people will think they're hard also. I got a 82 percentile in verbal (92 overall) and I got quite a few wrong/omitted. Just beef up on the vocabulary and that will help a lot.</p>
<p>Also-
[quote]
I usually get about three or four wrong (out of 20) on some of the math drills. (UL) Is this really bad?</p>
<p>Also, THE ANALOGIES ARE SO HARD. (UL) I can't believe they expect 13 year olds to know this stuff. It's ridiculous! Are there any special tips on how to narrow them down? They're really tough. Usually I only get about half of them right, if that. Is this bad?</p>
<p>Reading (UL) is pretty easy, though, which is good.
<p>mikep3- Baylor School looks awesome. I have to admit that I had never heard of it. Thank you for pointing it out. Do you know what the ratio of day to boarding is?</p>
<p>I'm going to be in lowest grade for UL, so hopefully that will give me an advantage. Lower Level is for grades 5 - 7 I think. Upper Level is for 8 - 11.</p>
<p>of course they're hard some of the people taking the ssat are juniors. and again, you cant really tell if your grade is good or not because its a percentile. just take it. you'll have no problems and the schools dont care about the ssat as much as other factors/</p>
<p>Yes, but worrying wont help you do good. Like its been said, the test is probably the least important aspect of your application. And you'll probably be pleasantly surprised with the results..you're competing only against people in your grade for the percentiles...you'll do fine. And even if you dont do spectacular, you can still get into some of the less competitive schools you're applying to i'm sure.</p>
<p>I'm not applying to less competitive schools lol. Just Andover, SPS, Deerfield, Exeter, and maybe Lawrenceville, Hill, Taft, Hotchkiss, Groton, and/or Milton. I'm not really sure yet.</p>