Does the SSAT official practice book from their website have questions that are really similar to the exam? Would you buy it over Princeton Review and Kaplan and Baron? And I’m talking Upper Level here?
Also, how do you tackle the Reading and Verbal on exam day to make it doable and for you to be able to finish the exam?
I reccomend Peterson’s. I took the SSAT twice. The first time, I got 77% in verbal. Then, I studied with Peterson’s and got a 97%. It has very good info for the verbal section!!!
Peterson’s book I mean
Books didn’t really help me this year >.< (I used Princeton) but I’m sure it did for a lot of other applicants. Instead, I studied for Verbal by using an app called Vocabulary Builder by Magoosh and also Vocabulary.com for Verbal
I’m in advanced math so I didn’t practice too much since all the practice problems were easy for me. That said, you should always review parts of the SSAT you feel superior on!! DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR ABILITY LIKE I DID!!
For reading you have to practice reading and comprehending difficult text QUICKLY. Unfortunately I don’t have any advice for you on this part since I didn’t study that much here (mistake!).
Good Luck!
If you can, get all four. Personally, I used Khan Academy to study for the quantative section and a dictionary/thesaurus to study for the verbal section. (I got a 99th percentile score on it.) As for test day, just calm down and look at the roots of words for the verbal section.
It’s really hard to get a good score on without using books. To raise my score from a 75 (overall) to a 95 (overall), I used the Kaplan SSAT & ISEE book, and supplemented with Khan Academy algebra videos. It is INCREDIBLY hard to get analogies right w/o preparation. The Kaplan book will teach you how to do analogies. Reading was really helpful in that book, but I would recommend reading something like the news very critically to supplement it. Unless you go to a really advanced school, you’ll need to teach yourself the math. Don’t let it deter you, though. Just make sure that you practice. Khan Academy is so helpful.
I found the the official SSAT book skimped on the math section.
The online practice tests are helpful. I used the Princeton Review and Kaplan and I scored in the 99th percentile. Kaplan works really well with math, PR does well with reading, and I’d recommend online resources to brush up on vocabulary for verbal.
Oh, thank you so much guys. This is really helpful information. I really love this site. We have the Princeton Review, Baron, Test prep Works, and The Official SSAT Book.
@bumblebee2012 Which one is the Peterson’s Book. Just looked on Amazon and the only book coming up is from as far back as '08.
SSAT Official was really skimpy on verbal… which was the one thing I really needed/wanted to prep. Get Word Smart to study Verbal.
Thanks @liveskdream
If I had to be 100% honest the SSAT book taught me nothing… The only thing useful was the prefix and suffix charts, which could easily be found online. Just use Khan Academy for Math and Quizlet for Verbal
That does make sense @swimmer0521. Thanks
I have to agree with @swimmer0521, the books really didn’t help me at all. I ended up using the SSAT online practice, and that raised my verbal about 15 points. Also, Quizlet is great for memorizing vocabulary words.