<p>I was worrying for several weeks about my ssat scores, and I found the envelope in the mail today. I was sweating and shaking and nervous, but I opened it. I was expecting about 95% Verbal, 70% math and 80% R.C. The first thing I saw was one 99% and I FREAKED OUT!!!! I started jumping around and screaming!! When I calmed down enough to read the thing here's what it said...</p>
<p>YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! :D
I don't know if this is a mistake (praying it isn't) but please send in your own scores to compare scores to percentile! And if you haven't got the back, GOOD LUCK!! ;)</p>
<p>quick question: how do you guys manage to do SO well on the reading comprehension? the stories take so long to reading and the questions are confusing! please help!</p>
<p>Well, I did pretty well on the reading comp, so maybe I can help. First, make sure to actually read the passages, not skim. It’s not like the SAT where the passages are sooo long and you have to skim a bit. On the SSAT, they’re short enough so you should try to read and understand them. That’s the key. Make sure you understand the passage before you attempt the questions. By forcing yourself to understand it, you automatically answer some of the questions and when you see them all you have to do is make a quick mark.
Another thing you might want to try is to look over the questions before you read it, just briefly so you know what you should be paying attention to while you read. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>beccapdot- You do have to do a little skimming. What you want to do first is find out what the main point of the passage is. Write it down. Next, find the main point of each paragraph. Write that down as well. Then when you come to the questions, you go back to the passage and find where the information is (it will be easier now that you have labeled where all the information is). You should not answer the questions from memory, if you can, then you have read the passage too thoroughly ;)</p>
<p>Just a note to everyone out there, if you just do some really thorough studying before hand it can really help. I only took this test once, but I really studied hard for the vocabulary, focused more on reading the classics, and well, to tell you the truth, I don’t know how I did well in the math section- since I hate it, but I just did a lot of practice sections. English is my strong suit.</p>
<p>Also, as an answer to beccapdot’s question, I agree with helloel: don’t skim, read it thoroughly. In my opinion, reading comprehension strategies vary with every test takers, some find it helpful to read through the questions first to figure out what they need to look for in the passage, while others first read and then answer the questions. For me, the latter works the best, just remember to underline main and important ideas. Make sure that you understand what the question is asking and refer back to the passage. Also, another major tip: always stay engaged! No matter how boring they may seem, always stay attentive. That was my major weakness when taking the SSAT practice test. What SSAT usually does is that they throw a very boring, dry, or uninteresting passage at the very end of the section, when the test taker is becoming more and more drained. They do this to test your reading stamina, so just push yourself to absorb the material. Also, one last thing: none of these questions require background information. They are not testing you on what you already know. Just keep that in mind, while answering the questions. For instance, you know a little bit about the lifestyle of the giant panda and that they eat say two tons of bamboo per month (just making this up) and the passage is about the lifestyle of the giant panda The SSAT board really doesn’t care that you already know this fact, they want to know how you respond to new information and how you perceive it. So, basically the bottom line is that, really, I think that any one can ace this test if they are in the right frame of mind and are willing to study and prepare for it. Hope this helps!:)</p>
<p>@beccapdot; I scored 794 on the RC portion of the SSAT this year, so I’ll try to give a little advice? You’ve received wonderful advice from both above posts, but I’ll try to add a bit more. Well for one thing, it would maybe be in your best interests to do some speed reading practice, if you have time. I did speed reading at SuperCamp this summer, and went from reading 687 words a minute to reading 857 words a minute. This will DEFINITELY help, since you will be able to read the passages much faster while still comprehending the material. As for actually taking the test, definitely take a look at the questions before you start reading the passages, since as helloel said, you now know what to look for. Also, you should probably use the process of elimination with the questions, like you should with all parts of the SSAT. First eliminate all answers you KNOW for sure are wrong, then go back to the passage and see which one is most likely correct. You can also try what azpandaman suggested about writing down the main points, but I found that non-helpful for me personally, since I write slower and I just remember the main points in my head.</p>
<p>Really, you have to figure out what works best for YOU. It’s different for everyone. Taking practice tests and reading often, no matter what you read, will be helpful. GOOD LUCK! :)</p>
<p>I got a 2360, so my tip is to you: study, study, study. Practice reading comp by reading difficult books and quizzing yourself on passages within a time limit.</p>
<p>I did pretty well on Reading and Verbal(96th and 97th percentile), but i got in the 40’s for Math. I’m taking it again in January, and tpis on how to raise my score substantially?</p>
<p>Thank you ALL for the tips! I’m currently looking through some reading passages in my Princeton SSAT prep book and all your tips are working enormously well! Thank you all again and I’ll be sure to update my current R.C scores! ;)</p>
<p>@beccapdot; glad to have been of help! best of luck to you :)</p>
<p>@americannigerian; most of the math is really just basic math and requires a bit of logical thinking, but if you’re doing well in algebra right now it shouldn’t be hard. i would suggest first going through and finishing all the problems you KNOW for SURE that you can do and will get correct, then going back and working on the harder problems. at least this way you will have some sort of guarantee. i also second 98beebee’s suggestion of taking practice tests. those definitely help. GOOD LUCK! :)</p>