With 10 days left, I would focus on doing some practice questions. We did Test innovators online prep, and it helped some. Unfortunately, the verbal part of the test is the hardest to study for, because it really is dependent on your vocabulary. My daughter was an avid reader and also did great on every verbal test without studying at all. My son, who reads a lot less, has not performed nearly as well and had to cram the verbal part. Doing practice sections daily will likely bring the score up and you may luck out with an easier version, though I would not expect miracles. I do not think the scores are end all be all and if your daughter nailed the interviews she still has a very good chance to land somewhere she’ll be happy.
Agree with the replies above. Do quizlet and practice questions together. My son only had less than two weeks to prep too, we also took it too lightly at first. He crammed with quizlet everyday, and tried to do as many practice analogy questions as possible. He did much better in the real test than the first practice test. I know it would not be very pleasant, but with just about 1 week, your daughter definitely could do it. And the most importantly, like other fellow parents said, SSAT score is just a reference. Good luck!
@one1ofeach , glad to see that the math situation got resolved.
@one1ofeach Yes, if the 99% kids don’t work they won’t be able to stay in the top classes. It’s less about ability than application each day and every day. Good to hear your son will land where you thought he should have started.
I’m a bit late to the party as tomorrow is dday…however the advice of quizlet in the car is great. DD did it religiously everyday during our daily 3hr commute and her verbal score increased by 13 points… however a word of caution her other scores dropped slightly so her overall percentile remained the same.
We reached out to the schools and all said they would super score. One even said that the increase in a score shows that a child can improve, be having a bad day etc.
Lastly they also said that they take into consideration skipped scores and whether all the attempted questions correct.
I say all this to say that the scores are evaluated thoroughly.
DD did Oct & Nov and we felt two times was enough. One admissions officer even told us not to take it more than twice.
Good luck to DD tomorrow… and all others.
Thanks! Tomorrow is indeed Dday! We are considering it a “practice test” mentally for several reasons — mostly because she only had ten days to study, and other family stuff going on. Regarding taking more than twice — I think they can only see that it was taken more than once but not exactly how many unless you send many scores of course. So I’m thinking take three times (So again January 4) and pull the best of the bunch and super score only if really advantageous. Then let chips fall where they may.
She skipped 17 questions in November so she is not going to do that this time.
Sadly, I’m out of town for work now so my husband will take her but I’m really the family cheerleader so not a perfect scenario. But it will be fine. Maybe less stress and more experience will translate into better score.
January test — she is doing computer — Curious to see if that makes her feel more confident. Also wondering if skipping questions led to a bubble in problem. And, a second or two saved in bubbling could give her an extra minute or two per section so we’ll see.
Best of luck! When my son took it the first time he said he was calculating his score as he answered/skipped questions. I told him that was so dumb (nicely) since scores are based on what everyone did and not simply a percentage that you get right/wrong. Anyway, I think it’s very possible that something funky happened and that the retake will be better. Kids are weird! Hopefully she is more relaxed since she knows what to expect and that helps her do better.
“Kids are weird.”
Truth.
DD is taking her SSATs right now. I’m in an airport on a layover wishing I could be there. We took a very different strategy and said NO studying for 24 hours before and my husband took the girls out for a really fun night last night so she wouldn’t stress and she would be tuckered out enough to fall asleep without thinking about the exam at all. We shall see how that plays out! I texted her from my first flight when she woke up this morning and reminded her that we decided to make this a practice test. Sometimes I wonder if we get in our own way with our nervous energy so I’m hoping our super low-stress approach is helpful not harmful.
(Side note: at the November test, we were standing around waiting for the kids to be called back to the testing room and there was this one mom who was hurriedly explaining things to her daughter with a graphing calculator in hand and they were both so stressed. Yikes! (Although who’s laughing now since she probably got a 95 and we are freaking out having to deal with a 68, so jokes on us I suppose…)
Good luck!
@Calliemomofgirls I hope it all works out and your daughter felt good about yesterday. My NMH daughter had a horrible verbal score on her first test. She took the test again with no time to study, and her score went up about 50 percentile points ! Her 2nd SAT test was much higher than her first as well. For her, I think becoming familiar with the format of the questions was more important than studying vocab etc. and yes CC tends to over hype the importance of scores in my opinion. You are not your scores and your scores are not the most important part of your application.