Hello- my 8th grader has her sights set on attending a boarding school for high school. She is a straight-A student but seems to be struggling with Math this quarter. In your opinion, how will a B in Math this quarter affect her chances? This is the only B in her transcript. She will be taking the SSAT in December; so far she is doing well in the practice tests (using the official SSAT book.). Suppose she does well in the SSAT, will that compensate for the B? Thank you.
A B does not indicate a struggle. (Only on CC does B=Bad.) One B will not hurt her anywhere; no applicant was ever rejected based on a B. It is a myth that all boarding schools, even the most sought-after, are populated by all-A students. Just not true. So, let those concerns go, and help her focus on putting together an application that demonstrates how/where she is shiny to the schools that would be a good fit for her.
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Thank you very much. Much appreciated.
My 8th grader is struggling in two classes this year, but I honestly think this is preparing him more for boarding school than having all As would. He’s learning how to prioritize, how to ask for help, and how to pick up the pieces when things go awry. Hopefully the admission offices see it in the same light. Certainly one B, in your daughter’s case, is not going to be an issue.
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Hello- SSAT test scores are in and not so good- 65 percentile. She did very well in Verbal but not so well in Math and Reading. What to do? I think she should retake it in December. and then we will focus on the schools that are test-optional. If the December scores are also low, we will not submit them. Any ideas? Thanks.
I’d say there are 2 things to think about here. One is application strategy. More important, though, is a finding schools where she’ll thrive.
There are plenty of kids who are excellent students who don’t test well for one reason or another. So less than stellar scores don’t mean a kid won’t be a decent BS student. At the same time, the SSAT does test something that helps students succeed which , imo, is ability to process quickly. The latter is a helpful, sometimes critical, skill at many schools where the workload is immense. So it could be worth your while to figure out what you’ve learned about your D’S strengths and preparation as you look at schools.
From there, you can assess what kind of schools would be best for how your D learns. Maybe it’s not a school with expectations that every student, including fast processing ones, will spend 4 hours a day on homework. Maybe a school with a wider range of learners would be good. Or one with a schedule that has kids taking only 4 classes each day. Or one that’s more hands on. Etc.
Put differently, depending on what you’re learned through SSAT testing and perhaps some math struggles, this could have been the best thing that could have happened at this point. You’ve got a little more information and can choose a school where she’ll thrive. There are lots of excellent BS, and you just need to pick ones that will be a good home for your D.
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She should certainly retake it but you should also be looking at schools where that score isnt a super low score. There are plenty of schools where that math score is perfectly fine.
You must remember that the ssat is testing a huge range of kids, including kids who in 8th grade are taking pre-calculus. It’s hard to wrap your head around the level of math competence of some of the advanced kids when our own kids have always been the “smart ones” in school.
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Ditto, mostly.
Just want to point out that it sounds like 65 is the overall percentile, not just the math.
Oh I read that too fast.
FYI to the op. Schools do look at the individual percentages. I know we talked here about the total but they don’t care about that, they care about the score for each section.
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And they care about the score in context.
For example, if an applicant is coming from an underperforming public school, with high grades and stellar recs, lower SSAT scores are not necessarily a red flag.
One AO at a popular not-so-safety school here commented that they consider it a red flag if an applicant from a more affluent background has low SSAT scores, particularly if the applicant was from an independent school that included SSAT prep in their curriculum.
How a B is viewed is dependent on the course rigor and school reputation, I suspect. I’d be more concerned about the teacher rec - don’t most schools require a rec from the current math teacher? Going to the extra help hours, for example, could help that.
Ultimately, it depends on the type of BS schools that mothermama’s daughter is setting her cap on, and what else is in her application.
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