And let me add - if you are not applying for FA, they may even be excellent scores…
Congratulations to your son and you. You should be well on your way to expecting good things after all your applications are in.
May I ask what strategy you undertook before your child’s retest? Please feel free to PM me if you don’t wish to discuss it here.
Again, I’m glad you have seen an overall evening out, and improvement, attesting to your son’s grasp not only of material but of the testing parameters and construct.
Looking at applying to lakeside and overlake in Seattle for 5th grade. I am sorry, what does FA stand for?
I guess you mean financial aid:) no not applying for financial aid.
I would submit both sets of scores.
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There is a significant difference between 99% and 84% on verbal. If the schools you’re applying to superscore, that will make a difference. In context, too, the early blip on reading is obviously a blip.
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I disagree with panpacific that the 99% in math will help more than a 99% in verbal. If you do a search online, you’ll see that really high verbal scores are much rarer than really high scores on math sections. It takes a long time to amass a great vocabulary.
@Periwinkle In reading your response, I re-thought my advice about not sumbmitting the scores from the earlier test. I agree that since the reading score was so low that the school could easily see it probably was just a bad performance on the test day. However, regarding your second point, some top schools did on different occasionally indicate that they’d look more closely at math and reading than verbal although you might be right that a high verbal score might take longer to achieve. I do believe a school would commode comrtable accepting a reasonable math over verbal lopsided set of scores than the other way around… All in all, I feel that OP’s child’s SSAT scores as they stand now could only help, especially for 5th grade admission.
Hi Folks- so are you suggesting I submit both scores and that would help (not lower) his chances to these schools?
There’s a good chance that it won’t hurt, but personally I still wouldn’t submit it just because you don’t want to risk the perception that he’s not a stable test taker, which potentially could counteract whatever benefit he’d gain by a higher verbal score from that test… Either way, I think he should be fine in the test department.
I think it’s a question of risk/reward and your personal risk tolerance. I agree that the dramatic rise in the reading score strongly suggests your child had a bubbling error or the like, and if your child obtains the benefit of superscoring, I imagine his overall percentile score will rise 3-4 points. On the flip side, as someone else on CC pointed out, even with superscoring, there’s a possibility that the reviewer will not be able to “unsee” the lower score, and there’s some possibility that the reviewer will not give your son the full benefit of doubt.
Assuming the school weighs the subscores equally–a big assumption–most of what I’ve read on these boards suggests that the difference in impact between an overall percentile of 93 and say 97 is de minimus. Also, a 93 keeps you in the game everywhere, and the 84 for verbal seems (again from I’ve read here) to be fine.
On balance, I personally would lean against sending in both. Although I think the risk of a negative interpretation is low, a negative interpretation could potentially weigh against what is already the lowest subscore, and I don’t think the potential of a minor gain outweighs the potential negative efffect, even if the potential is low. I am admittedly somewhat risk averse, however, and I think reasonable minds could easily disagree here.
If I have the scores straight, the scores in sequence are:
V 99 M 86 R 28, overall 83 (?)
V 84 M99 R76, overall 93
Superscoring would produce a score of V 99 M 99 R76. I don’t know what the overall would be with that score for his age, but realize that scoring so highly in both V & M will bump up the overall as well.
Even so, it’s possible to over-emphasize the SSAT scores. In context, when presented with both scores, the admissions people will see the first reading score as most likely a situation in which he had a bubbling accident. It can happen.
However, boarding schools turn down students who have straight 99% iles in all categories all the time. So make a decision, and sleep well. In the large scheme of things, it won’t make a difference.
Best of luck to you! I myself have a daughter entering 9th grade who just finished her applications for Lakeside School and Overlake School. We would love to hear how it turned out for your son!
Mom1976, did your son get in Lakeside?
Hey there - No, we don’t have good outcome out of this. My son didn’t make either to lakeside or overlake. How about yours?
Didn’t work out:( how about you?
Sorry to hear that. Not knowing how his transcript looks like, I can’t judge if it’s a “reasonable” outcome. But it sounds like a comepetive year for lower grades admission. Is 5th or 6th their Year for enrollment expansion?
Does Lakeside have a SSAT score they prefer? Just wondering for the kids who are not good test takers.
Also, does applying for financial aid at Lakeside make you a less qualified candidate?
Hey kids - I was told by a teacher & former AO of a well known day school in NY that he believes the SSAT scores vary widely between test dates. He said that he has seen kids get high 80% Verbal one test, then 60-70% the next time-- scores lower! He says he has seen most variability on the Reading section between tests. Just saying it adds to the “agita”-- somewhere (will try to find it) there was a study @ reading levels on various Upper SSAT tests. :((