<p>My child thought the math was easy, reading was “crazy hard” and vocab was just right. He scored 94%, 76% and 84% on the three sections on an official practice run last year (we signed up but had no intentions of sending to any schools). He says he did way worse on the reading this time.</p>
<p>@Sevendad-did your daughter mention which guide she thought was the most useful</p>
<p>@polodolly: A few things…I bought the books really so she could have access to practice tests, not for any of the instruction content. She had already taken the SAT and did well, so we were not too worried about how she’d do on the SSAT. If they sold just practice tests and answer guides, I would have just bought that. I think she did read bits and parts of both books, but would consider neither all that useful beyond the practice tests.</p>
<p>If you had to choose between the PR and MG-H, I would actually recommend the McGraw-Hill — because it offers full explanations of why each correct answer of the samples tests is the most appropriate. However, the Princeton Review one does have score percentile charts, which I don’t think the MG-H book does. If you can swing it, get both.</p>
<p>The book that she found most interesting (ie the one I saw her reading and bringing along on car rides) was that “Up Your Score” one. While it is targeted towards SAT test takers, many of the tips are applicable to other “fill in the oval” standardized tests. She appreciated the humorous tone peppered throughout that book.</p>
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<p>All of the critical reading sections that were on this past November 2010 test were on the January 2010 test from previously this year. It wasn’t a practice test, it was the actual SSAT officially administered in January.</p>
<p>Thank you for the input sevendad</p>
<p>@Dodgersmom: My essay was “Being alone is the same as being lonely”, or something like that :P.</p>
<p>Thanks, markalex1!</p>
<p>@Dodgersmom: My essay topic was “It is simpler to get into trouble than to get out of it.” Not verbatim, but something along those lines.
I thought the whole test was pretty easy. The math was laughable, the vocab was almost as easy, and reading comprehension was only slightly harder than the vocab.</p>
<p>“The road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.”</p>
<p>Dadfrog, that’s exactly what my son said as well. This was his first attempt, and he did not study at all; didn’t even take a practice test in reading. But, he thinks he did v. well on math and the essay, but no chance for a good score on the reading comprehension.</p>
<p>Mine was “A person’s greatest limitation is a bad attitude” or something like that.
I thought it was really good, except for me misquoting someone. Oh well.</p>
<p>Oh, haha, I guess I’m the only person who found the math section difficult. I’m not good with numbers, but reading comp, vocab, and essay were all easy. Reading comp was somewhat hard though. I felt rather rushed since I spent a lot of time on some questions, not my best idea, but oh well. Expecting ok grades, somewhere in the 80’s are what I’m expecting.</p>
<p>@2010,
I had the same exact essay. What did you write about?</p>
<p>I wrote about the decision to apply to boarding schools and how its a less traveled path. I don’t think it was really good but it wasn’t horrible. I kind of got confused by the topic at the beginning for some reason and I don’t think my answer exactly supported the statement. I also ran out of room so I kind of had to write a 1 sentence conclusion paragraph. haha.</p>
<p>Does anyone know when we are getting the scores back?</p>
<p>@2010,
I think we’re getting them back around the 27th. And nice, I think my essay was pretty good. The first time I took the SSAT I did a horrible job on the essay.</p>
<p>I don’t think they take the SSAT essays too seriously, so I’m not worrying too much. I actually did pretty good on my essay the first time I took it (October 09).</p>
<p>How do you think you did on the other sections?</p>
<p>@2010,
I think I did much better on the math than I did last time. (I got a 59%) In fact I think math was the easiest section for me this time. I don’t think I did as well on the reading or verbal, but AOs I talked to said that they look at your highest score in every section. So even if I bomb the reading/verbal it wouldn’t be a problem. How did you do?</p>
<p>Yea I thought math was really easy! I would be surprised if I DIDN’T get a 99%.</p>
<p>Like yourself, I thought that the critical reading and vocab sections were pretty hard. But the scores are typically really forgiving especially verbal. I just went and grabbed my SSAT scores from last year and I received a 76% in verbal - this was with getting a total of 16* wrong and omitting 2.</p>
<p>@2010 hopeful: Based on my read of the score report that came for my daughter, both the Math and Verbal are moderately forgiving. The Reading not so much.</p>
<p>I could have sworn the reading section was forgiving but after looking at my old reports I agree with the above. </p>
<p>There are only 40 reading questions compared to 50 math and 60 verbal. So it makes sense. The sections with the least number of questions will be the least forgiving because of the smaller amount of questions and a greater chance of getting more right, I guess.</p>