<p>Estimated National Percentile is the approximated percentile in comparison with all Americans as opposed to all SSAT takers. The SSAT percentile counts.</p>
<p>How comes that the National ranks in the Verbal and Reading Section are higher than the SSAT rank? Shouldn´t Americans be doing better in a test of their native language than most people, whose first language is not English?
Are there so many people from English speaking countries other than the USA taking the SSAT?
And do scores like 30% in the Verbal and 60% in the Reading Section hurt the chances of an applicant, to whom Enlish is a foreign language, a lot if he proves a good oral English in the Interviews and has good writing skills? For such schools as HADES? For “2nd/3rd tier schools”?</p>
This has nothing to do with Americans being better at English (which, anecdotally, they are not). The fact of the matter remains that the SSAT taking population is far superior to the national standards and averages. In turn, a score better than the majority of the American population may only be better than half of the SSAT populations. </p>
<p>That being said, the above poster is most likely not as “foreign” to English as he claims (maybe he is, I am just guessing). He was most likely brought up in an English medium school which taught him, and taught him in, proper English. While his accent may sound foreign to many, his speaking and writing ability is most likely as good as most Americans–as can be seen in the discrepancy between Verbal and Reading.</p>
<p>National percentiles will always be higher, sometimes drastically so, because only kids who are applying to selective schools actually take the ssat. The national percentile is theoretical. It is only a guess. If every 8th grade American male took the test, the national percentile shows how you would rank. (I don’t know where they get the data from to figure this.) It is meaningless in that you are not competing for entry into prep schools with the average American kid, you are in a group of highly motivated and generally well educated kids of all nationalities.</p>
<p>I think the national percentiles are only there to give kids a better understanding of how competitive the pool is. You could get a 50th percentile in math when compared to ssat takers and still be in the top 10% nationally. What does that mean? You are an average high achieving math student! Still high achieving, but about average when it comes to other high achieving kids.</p>
<p>You can think of it this way: the ssat redistributes that top 20% or so of students into a new group.</p>
I agree with most of what you have said, but I am not sure about this. Traversing the cluster of students in the middle may drastically improve your SSAT performance while not touching your national by nearly as much (the national percentile will move far more consistently). I guess your point remains intact: SSAT redistributes the top. </p>
<p>As an aside, I believe they calculate national percentiles through the predicted SAT–though I am not sure.</p>
<p>Hello i just got my scores back and i am very dissappointed in them
Verbal-614 24%
Math-719 65%
Reading-638 41%
Total-1971 42%</p>
<p>I know my scores arent the best, but i play hockey, basbeall, and lacrosse. I am an A and B student never lower than a B. I am applying to Exeter, Governors, and New Hampton. Do you think i still have a chance i have essays and last year i got the Johns Hopkins award for high MCAS scores. So tell me what you think. I really appreciate it thx.</p>
<p>O yeah My National Percentiles are
Verbal- 74%
Math- 98%
Reading-89%</p>