I’ve seen another thread like this, but I need even more help!
I got 73% on my last (and only other) SSAT, I’m taking it again in February, since a certain school accepts the February SSAT.
I felt like I knew the material pretty (not extremely) well, but the test bamboozled me, especially with the 1/4 guessing penalty.
I need some tips!
SOS!
What kinds of issues or “bamboozling” occurred during your test. As for the 1/4 guessing penalty, the way I did it was if I was between three or two answers I would guess, but if I still had four or five I would skip the question. Feel free to PM me with any questions. Good Luck!
How where the scores for each section? Knowing that helps folks give you more specific advise.
I’d stay relaxed. Don’t study the night before. Think through the answers and have a methodology as Altras mentions. Also, if you cannot answer a question skip it and circle it so you can come back. Make sure you have enough time to come back on the difficult questions.
Do practice tests and quizzes. We found the online SSAT prep materials very helpful (from the SSAT site) but I know others have used books. Also think about getting a tutoring session to help you with strategy. I don’t think you are going to go from a 73% to a top score without doing some serious prep. (although whatever you consider a top score probably varies - since you are aiming for exeter or andover, I can’t remember which, you probably are aiming for an 85 or 90.
My quantitive was 76%, verbal was 75% and my reading was 68%
I bought the ssat prep from the ssat website, but I think I need more help than that. The reading section is definitely my waterloo, although I did pretty mediocre in the others. I understand that I need A LOT of prep but I think I have enough time.
The verbal section is just memorization. Quizlet is your friend - you could easily jump into the 90s on that section. The reading section is best improved by learning and implementing specific strategies. The internet and YouTube are your friend - Google “SSAT reading strategies”, learn them and practice them as much as you can. I can’t help w the math section - that’s my son’s thing, so it never came up. Recognize that even improving only 2 sections will substantially improve your overall score. Study until a couple days before, get good sleep, eat a good breakfast, relax and do your best.
There are strategies for the analogies. I couldn’t get them all correct and I know what all the words mean. It’s that they use the third (obscure) meaning of the word for the analogies.
Thanks! Do you know what quizlet it is? I’ve come across different ones.
Any decent 500 word upper level SSAT list
So, a tip that I was given by @Altras here was to read the questions then look in the passages for the answers.
I found that this works best with science and social studies passages. I recommend first finding the answers to specific questions like “The author lists which of the following reasons for the growing popularity of fish eating?” You can easily find the answer by skimming through the passage. More general questions like “What is the main idea of this text?” Could only be done after I got a general sense of what the passage is about (and the skimming usually gave me an idea).
It worked well and I was able to finish all 40 questions with seconds to spare.
Practice this method at least 3 times to get used to it. It’ll be uncomfortable at first.
To add on to what @YoungThriver said:
I did a very similar method. While my reading score could definitely be improved, it went from a 60 in practice tests to 83 which I was very happy with. So yeah, make sure to answer the direct answers first like “What features make the blah blah island unique?” and leave the inference questions last like “What can you infer about Jeff’s reaction to the mailman?” because the inference questions are the most open-ended. Also, I would say that you should read the question, then come up with your own answer to the question, then read the answers that are provided.Doing this I was able to finish all the questions with 1 minute or so to spare
The timing really got me. I didn’t finish my math section and I rushed my reading. My classroom didn’t have a clock when I did the test so I had no idea what time it was or how much time I had left.
Bring a basic digital watch to the test, but turn all alarms and sounds off.
No watches are allowed according to my understanding of the rules. However, I’ve heard that enforcement of the rule varies.
Bring a watch. Worst they can do (and usually dont) is ask you to put it away.