<p>my brother who is in 9th grade got a 2022, 47 percentile on the ssats and he is breaking down lol. he told me he studied alot. he is applying to hotchkiss choate and deerfield he does soccer track squash crew tennis he speaks greek fluently does greek folklore dance and he received a 94 on his final greek regents he also goes to greece every summer is in all honors plays the piano and his gpa is a 3.75. Do u think he has any chances?</p>
<p>welllll
the ssat is kindof an indication to the admission staff of how he stands against other kids his age. does he go to public or private? if he goes to a public school the admissions people might think his grades are due to inflation, like many public systems. if he goes to a really good private school then it wont effect him that much cuz there really isnt too much grade inflation at private schools…</p>
<p>he goes to public</p>
<p>yeah…has he considered taking again? The january 10th test I believe is the last one…</p>
<p>and from a personal standpoint, I had a 3.9 gpa and an 87% on the ssat with some awesome ecs and I got waitlisted at Hotchkiss. Your brother may be different but it is very competitive and I would advise taking again.</p>
<p>I think he should take it again. 47% is very low.
However… SSAT isn’t everything. I wonder if there is any way that he could write an explanation as to why he got such a low score and send it in with his application or something…? Because if he has good grades, they will wonder why he got such a low score on the SSAT, and if there is a reason other than just him not knowing the stuff on the test then I’m sure they’d be interested to know what it is.
The 47% hurts his chances but I mean he’s still in the running I would think… It’s only one facet of the whole application. Tell him not to worry 
Those aren’t THE most competitive schools anyways.</p>
<p>I heard on another thread (I’m not quite sure which one) that somewhere of the Taft website it said that the lowest SSAT score they take into consideration is a 50% (check the site because I only heard this)</p>
<p>retake it, nd im applying to exeter so
yeah, nd they said i can take it in feb. so check wit ur school</p>
<p>i will be really really honest with ya.</p>
<p>the answer is no.</p>
<p>they want to see people above AT LEAST 85. AT LEAST</p>
<p>Re-taking isn’t as easy as it sounds, that’s another $170 and registration has closed.</p>
<p>helpmeoutman, that isn’t true! That’s completely untrue, in fact! Want to tell us where you’re getting this? I know a kid who scored in the 75th percentile and he was admitted to Exeter so don’t post things like that unless you’re absolutely certain!</p>
<p>^ I agree with TomTheCat, he still has a chance. SSAT’s aren’t everything. If is grades in school are good and he has good EC’s he will still have a chance. It is still very possible that he can get in, he will just have to try harder to really show a passion for going to these schools during the interview.</p>
<p>Helpmeoutman… Please don’t post unless you are CERTAIN. First of all 85%ile is not even the “number” all Exeter said was above 80% the importance becomes less and less due to the huge scaling (ie. a few points can get you up a massive percentile).</p>
<p>Think about weighted averages, they can only bring you down what they are weighted. EVEN IF Exeter (they don’t do it that way but it is a good way of thinking about it) says "your scores are not good enough) there is plenty of other ways he can make up for it. 47%ile is in the middle remember that you are beating 50% of the other applicants, you are in the middle. Of the schools that need SSAT Choate, Hotchkiss, etc are higher up there but SSAT generally is the top of the top. I got a 89%ile on the SSAT and I was pretty devastated but remember that you are better than X percentile of the other students applying to the school. If you live in a small city I would recommend taking it over again, because registration has closed you will have to take Standby (thus the small city thing. +$50 also). Why I am saying this is at right in the middle unless you study a LOT getting %ile up is more difficult than at the extremes so even if he gets to 55% the people will see he is diligent. </p>
<p>Anyways GL, remember most CC posters are above average so don’t get discouraged by the swarming above 85%ile numbers. Hope this helped.</p>
<p>im leaning toward helpmeout on this one…you should definitely try to retake it. from my experience, the SSAT is supposed to measure how well you learn and in the top notch competitive schools, you definitely need to show that you are competent. from reading the posts from this year and last year, with a low score like that, the tests should be retaken and try applying to less competitive schools. i know someone that had a 93% score, nationally ranked athlete, overall strong candidate, and was a legacy. how did they do? waitlisted at lawrenceville, exeter, andover, and deerfield. </p>
<p>BUT, the SSAT is not at all the most important part of the application. make sure the recs and essays are good. are you apply for FA? how were the interviews?</p>
<p>best of luck to you! =]</p>
<p>Maybe they just had a crap personality or couldn’t write an essay?</p>
<p>Maybe your younger brother filled in the wrong circles or something.
Your best shot would have been to retake the test;
Last year my reading score was 60%, but I’m pretty sure I filled the scantron wrong, because I got a 96% on my retake.
If he gets good grades unless his school is COMPLETELY illegit, his test was probably just messed up.</p>
<p>Aspirant brings up a good point. It’s plausible that there was something wrong with the way he filled in the bubbles and the scantron didn’t accept his answers, or maybe he skipped a question and started filling in from there so every one after that question was wrong? For someone who gets good grades in school and studied a lot for the SSAT, a 47% is just too low to let pass without questioning… Sounds like something happened.</p>
<p>blind leading the blind…</p>
<p>anyways retake it. 49% is very average in my opinion. these schools want to see above average</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand how it’s possible that blind people are able to detect when other blind people are leading someone around, but…?</p>
<p>Kemmek, probably they just ask who the heck is leading them around and what makes the leader believe he is more qualified than the led.</p>
<p>haha oh no that’s not what I mean, I’m saying what makes Senay think that she can detect me as the “blind leading the blind” when she, too, is blind? AKA, she’s in no place to be using the phrase, hahah.</p>