<p>Hey guys, been a lurker for about 6 months here and just got my ssat back.
Scores were as follows:
Verbal:99%
Math:70%
Reading:91%
Overall:95%</p>
<p>I'm applying to Andover and Exeter (if i can't go to the best it isn't worth leaving my current school)</p>
<p>My question is: will the 99% outweigh the 70% in the eye's of admissions?</p>
<p>P.S Thanks for any responses, they're much appreciated</p>
<p>every student is different and i think that you did really good</p>
<p>As far as your math score, I have no first hand knowledge of prep schools but I do interviews for an accelerated Masters Degree program as part of my job. I think if you have As in your math classes and you are in advanced math at your school they would worry less about a 70% in math. However, if you had struggled in some math classes they would worry more about a 70%. At our college we look at test scores in relation to the applicant's transcripts. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Thanks!
I was fairly sure my math score would be far lower than my vocab. score so I have been working extraordinarily hard in it (Think my quarter average was a 99).
That makes me feel wurm and fuuzzy =)
Thanks</p>
<p>You will get different opinions on this, but if you are looking at those schools, I would take it again. You did great on 2 sections, but I am sure a 70 on the math is well below the average at both of those schools. Most schools will look at your best score in each section, so you don't have to risk losing those higher scores in the other sections.</p>
<p>We have a similar situation,
I got a 99 on my verbal,
but an 81 and 85 for math and reading,
so I got a 96% overall score.
I think I'm going to retake the January test.
:]</p>
<p>I took the November SSAT test, too, and am appling for Andover =] I got a 99 percent in Verbal too, xD and 77 in Math and 93 in Reading.... 95 percent total. =[ I can't take another test, either, because I'm applying for financial aid, and it needs to be in by... January? Plus, each test is like a hundred dollars, and I don't want to make my parents pay for it again, if I couldn't get all good scores the first time. Andover's average SSAT score is 93 percent though.</p>
<p>YOU'LL ALL BE FINE.
Tests are only ONE part of the admissions! I'm applying, too, and though I did well on my test, it really comes down to:
interviews
essays
and
YOURSELF!</p>
<p>Not some standardized test!!</p>
<p>I think that Andover would probably think better of a higher ssat score, since it's much more academic-focused than other schools, say, Lawrenceville or Choate. But I think they would care less about math than vocab/reading, since those can apply to a variety of classes, but math applies to only a select few.</p>
<p>Seikuu: You CAN get into Andover with the original poster's scores. We know from experience on that one. As for Lawrenceville or Choate, I think they are also very rigorous and not less "academic" than Andover.</p>
<p>And I don't think scores of 93 or 95 are that different.</p>
<p>You can 100% x1,000,000,000,000,000 get into Andover AND Exeter with those scores. You can get into ANY school with those scores. My interviewer at Exeter who is also the "Senior Director of Admissions", said that anything over 80th percentile will not harm an applicant in any way, shape, or form.</p>
<p>Basically, if you're over the 90's, it's irrelevant. Unless of course you get like a 99th percentile, than that's different. But if we're talking 93-98, I don't think one will out weigh the other - they're all fantastic scores.</p>
<p>(Take this with a grain of salt though, I'm just as clueless as the rest (most) of the people on here. :o])</p>
<p>I would urge you all to think of your SSAT scores as something the admission officers use to confirm other parts of your application, not just something admission officers consider in and of themselves. The application file is like a puzzle, with pieces that sometimes fit together well, and sometimes don't. </p>
<p>For instance, if you go to a middle school with an honors math class (usually Honors Algebra I or Honors Geometry in 8th grade), and you're taking the "honors" class (as opposed to the "regular" class), receiving an A in it, and you have a positive math teacher recommendation, one might expect you to score well (80s/90s) on the math portion of the SSAT. If you do not score well on the math portion of the SSAT, it makes the admission officer dig a little deeper, ask a few more questions. Perhaps you are not good at standardized tests. Perhaps you were sick the day you took the SSAT. Perhaps the math program at your particular school isn't very strong, and you just haven't been exposed to the type of math that is on the SSAT. There are lots of possible explanations.</p>
<p>Similarly, let's say you have an A in your English/Language Arts class. And your personal essay is extremely well-written: featuring varied sentence structure and using advanced vocabulary for your grade level. Then your English teacher writes in his/her recommendation that you write "some of the best essays in the class." The admission officer would then look to the SSAT, in part, to confirm that information. If you score low on the vocabulary section of the SSAT, one explanation for your personal essay which used lots of big words could be that you relied heavily on a thesaurus. But, if you actually <em>do</em> have a better-than-average working vocabulary, you might score in the 90s on the SSAT-verbal section. </p>
<p>Then the admission officer would read the 20-minute writing sample that is part of the SSAT. One would expect--with an A in English and high praise from your current English teacher--that your writing sample would be well-written. Let's just say that it's not--full of spelling and grammatical errors, lacking a coherent thought, etc., etc. Then the admission officer might start to wonder about your well-written personal essay and who might've helped you write it (i.e. your parents).</p>
<p>I agree with what Gemma said. The SSAT's CAN act as a common denominator--a common language--but there are, of course, many exceptions. It's really made to confirm one's abilities for the admissions officers.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input everyone!
Gave my recommendation letters out yesterday. It went very well. As far as "it doesn't matter as long as your above 80". I think this might be true if every other aspect of your application is impeccable, but if it's not admission might start to look at how you scored compared to others (why accept a student who has 86 when you can get one with 96?).
To the person who said I should retake the test (sorry can't remember your name), I think I will stay with my current scores as I can't see myself making much improvement on them. </p>
<p>Keep the ideas coming! It's fun to see so many different perspectives.</p>
<p>Right... well, maybe she was only referring to me. She said that as long as my score was over 80, it would not matter. (I'm hoping this means I am an otherwise strong applicant?)</p>
<p>Schools don't fill themselves with high scoring students because where would they get their star quarterback? What about their prodigious pianist? Schools want all forms of intelligence, not just those who test well.</p>
<p>Mmoyan,
Would you mind giving the name of the school your referring to? Could you PM it to me if not?
As to the ssat scores, I made a post on Scuba's thread, I'll copy and paste that onto here. one sec</p>
<p>"In my opinion, and this applies to all aspects of the application, each part only matters more than another if you do particularly bad or good on it.
So if you do average on the ssat for a school, then they will look at the next thing and the next thing till they find something that sets you apart from the rest of the applicants, good or bad."-me</p>