<p>Hi! I was just wondering whether it is worth it to take courses for SSAT? I live in Singapore so I will probably be taking the course in Singapore. Do you guys have any recommendations on which kind of course I should take (in the USA or in Singapore) or maybe I can just practice it myself? Thanks for helping!</p>
<p>My son just used the book from SSAT. There are several books you can use. I would suggest trying a practice test or two - timed, taking them in one sitting, etc. and see how you do. Some people I know have taken a class or used a tutor, but many just use books, study vocabulary and do it on their own. </p>
<p>You can take the SSAT in October/November and have time to retake it in Dec/Jan if you don’t do well, if it is offered near you several times.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I will probably take up a course after my end of year exams in Singapore, and take the test in November. But I might also be able to take it in the USA but I am not so sure whether I should because I will be going there for holidays for the whole of December 
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<p>Just asking, if I score badly for my first SSAT, will the schools receive my scores? Or will SSAT send us our scores first before sending our scores to the schools that we applied? Thanks!</p>
<p>There’s an option for you to choose whether you want the scores sent to the schools or not. If you are taking the tedt in november, have the score send to you and you can send the scores to the school yourself if you like the score. Otherwise, take the ssat again in december or january. I found the ssat barron book really helpful for me. Courses are good but these ssat prep book can help. Good luck:D</p>
<p>Go ahead and take the test several times. Assuming that you do not elect to have the scores sent automatically to schools, SSAT results from a specific date – and only that date – may be shared with the schools. You pick the test you scored the best on and just send that score. The school will not see your other scores from other test dates, but they will be told that you took the test multiple times. No school cares if you took the test several times.</p>
<p>Here is where I will be flamed for sure, but…my view is that studying hard for the SSAT is extremely helpful IF YOUR GOAL IS TO GET THE HIGHEST SCORE POSSIBLE. While a dirty secret, a quality review class or private coach will substantially help your score. Let’s start with vocabularly. The coaching firm my daughter used gave her flashcards with the 1,000 most common difficult vocabulary words used in the analogies section. She learned all the words and also did hundreds of practice analogies. When she came out of the test, she told me that almost all the hard words on the test were in the 1,000. For the math, the SSAT uses a lot of tricks and distractors. Even if you are a very good math student who is taking Alegbra I, you still might not ace the test because of the tricky way they ask the question. A quality coaching firm wil show you what these tricks are – there were 9 categories of “tricks” categorized and explained by our coach. Once you get past the trick, it’s usally just an easy math problem. Bottom line, in my view is that if you just show up for the SSAT with minimal prep, most kids will underperform their potential relative to if they were well coached. Of course there are a few exceptional kids who get in the 98th percentile taking the test cold (just as there are a few basketball players that make it to the NBA). In my daughter’s case, she scored 73rd percentile when she look the lower level SSAT in June the summer before 8th grade. After 50 hours of private coaching, much practice on her own, and a separate (unrelated) 1 week SSAT camp run at a local private school, she scored in the 94th percentile – good enough for two HADES admissions.</p>
<p>Wow that’s a huge jump in scores! I have already started to learn some vocabulary words from the SAT vocabulary list which is probably harder because it is meant for the college application. But I am still worried for the essay and the English component cause my English isn’t that good. Got any tips? 
however, I am not so worried for my math because I have quite a strong foundation in math especially since my country aces in math in international tests. But I agree with you that there will be lots of tricks that I will have to be extra careful of! Thanks for the advice @devolution</p>
<p>@cafe23 thanks for the SSAT book suggestion!</p>
<p>Hello synchro155, I am also from Singapore. May I know how old you are and what school you are in? pm me if necessary. Thanks :)</p>
<p>Hey GMTplus8, we’re neighbors :D</p>
<p>Hello synchro?</p>
<p>i pm u already lol</p>