Also wanted to give a little bit of my experience, to kinda show you how things can possibly go, and some insights.
First three tests which I took in November ,December and start of January. I got extremely low numbers, which seemed to only get worse with each test. I thought I was truly done for.
However, I turned to the worst case scenario, and crammed last minute for a final fourth test I scheduled last minute. I mainly focused on reading, which I had done worst on previously, gaining only ~50 percentile. I crammed 1-2 hours a day for a week, and when test scores came out for that one I managed to score a 90 percentile on reading and math. Verbal stated the same at 70 however. Sadly I was not able to submit these scores, as they came out Feb 1st after I took it late January .
I wanted to share my experience to assure you that there is not much to fret. As long as you put in the effort it will pay off. Now I’m not saying leave it till last moment to cram as I did, as it was a desperate measure, but to push yourself constantly and work on a consistent schedule to not lose knowledge. Efforts do pay off. There may have been a series of other factors out of my control that influenced this score, such as easier test as tests are different. Possibly the fact I took it in person contrary to the fact the previous tests were online. Whatever the case, keep up your hard efforts and push yourself a bit, and you’ll be confident in your scores.
I went from a 31 R to a 75 R without studying. Just time and learning test taking habits. Went from 55 V to 65 V by just looking at quizlets. 67 Q to 88 by just sitting in math classes and learning new things. This was in a time span from Oct 31 to Dec 20. You can do it!
I was waitlisted from HADES + friends, but rejected at AE. Got into some amazing schools, like NMH, Mburg, and Hill.
i think my biggest mistake is taking too long on certain questions? for example i remember spending almost 5 minutes on one question during the actual test (quant section)
The official test prep available at sign up is useful. So is the print work book. Understand how the scoring works. Understand where you are making errors. Practice makes all the difference. Focus on number right not percentiles right now. In our experience, test prep carries over between tests so skills you learn now will help you later
Let me tell you my experience: There was one question I spent 5 minutes and there was one question I spent 0 minute (I left it a blank). For the former, I earned zero, got penalty-deduction for being wrong, and lost time to solve a few questions. Ouch. You see, it is like a triple damage. So you need to change your mindset: don’t be a perfectionist!
Get used to (even rejoice) leaving blank answers. (Blank is your friend!)
On each blank, spend less than 10 seconds. (Decide to leave blank fast.)
Come back to them later only if you have time.
If not, simply submit them blank.
SSAT math has quite a margin of forgiveness: you can get like 5 “wrongs” and still obtain 96 Quant. That means you can leave about 7 blanks and get a similar score. And 96 is all you need math-wise even for a tippy-top school.
Tip: Study very basic data science, such as statistics, probability etc. A number of questions on this would almost always show up, and it is an either-or proposition: if you have the slightest knowledge, they are virtual freebies; if you don’t, you simply lose the whole pack. A useful strategy is attacking freebies from advanced chapters, rather than the reverse. SSAT might give you either AMC questions out of grade 7 math, or freebies from grade 9 math (but rarely AMC questions from grade 9 math!). Forget the former and focus on picking up the latter, which are far easier if only you understand a few new concepts from our good old Khan Academy.
I can second the Test Innovators recommendation. The verbal practice questions on there were particularly helpful (my weakest area), and I thought actually more difficult than the real test. The ‘testing strategies’ for the quantitive section were helpful as well. One area for quant that didn’t show up much on Test Innovators but did on the real exam is graphing, so make sure to review that! I think there were a few questions involving parabolas/hyperbolas that I probably got wrong.
Honestly, many of the resources you get through Test Innovators can probably be found or supplemented for free online, but I thought it was a good investment nonetheless. You can take online or print out practice tests from there and receive a breakdown of what you got wrong and how you can improve for each section. I decided to take the ssat very late (got my scores back a day before application deadlines), so I was only able to study for 2-3 weeks before the exam, and Test Innovators helped me use that time efficiency and kept track of everything nicely.
Although it worked for @reknihtrevo , I would like to offer my POV. I used Test Innovators. We payed for the small package. The percentiles were COMPELTELY OFF. I took the practice test, like a real test, and received scores that looked like this:
Math: 61
Reading: 82
Verbal: 30
My actual scores varied way too much to say it’s remotely accurate.
I took the SSAT 3 times. 2 of those times, reading was my worst, below the 40th percentile on 2 of those tests. Then again, I got 75 on one test which isn’t far from the 82.
Math: Wasn’t too off, but off.
Verbal: I don’t know. It was very off
I just don’t think Test Innovators helped me. Official SSAT was much better.
Interesting. They got the verbal percentage fairly off for me too, and there were some minor differences I picked up on between the Test Innovators quant section and the official ssat one. Still, in terms of test strategies, practice questions, and tracking preparation I think it’s helpful. To each their own!
