<p>I’ll chime in here too and agree that he should take the SAT, re-take the SSAT, or apply next year. The schools that people have suggested to you on this post won’t consider him with a 20%. I have seen schools in the category of Blair, Hill, Mercesrburg send the application fee back to the family in cases like this, saying the score shows that the student woiuld not be able to succeed there.</p>
<p>The next tier of schools, Gunnery, Cushing, New Hampton, Tilton, would also have a tough time with that score, but there is a long shot that they might take him. Another option is another tier down, such as Winchendon or a school which doesn’t require the SSAT at all.</p>
<p>And of course, the suggestion of getting a consultant involved is a good one!</p>
<p>Yes, I was wrong to suggest the schools that I did. The parent of someone I knew took the SSAT 3 years ago called me up to say “The good news is that he scored low 600s – the bad news is that it is in the 20% percentiles.” Then Jonathan said that he scored around 43% and it was around 2000 (later he said that he might not have remembered it correctly, and above he said 1800 was the high range). So I was confused about what projected SAT scores were, especially because of the great variability in posted SSAT averages and SAT averages on boarding school review. Even for Asiakid above, if the projected SAT score is an 1850, then there are many schools with average SATs of 1850. AsiaKid – Could it be that you might have written down the wrong numbers?</p>
<p>So, should I conclude that the SSAT is not a good predictor of SAT scores? That’s what I’m thinking now. Maybe it’s a good predictor for mid 50% only. The SSAT scale goes from 500-800.</p>
<p>No, they give you a number score for the SSAT, and a percentile. I said my NUMBER score for the SSAT was a 2004. My projected SAT score was an 1800 on the highest end. The predicted SAT and the SSAT number score are SEPARATE. The SSAT score is almost always higher.</p>
<p>OK. When my son took it 3 years ago, he was lucky enough to score on the high end. As a result the projected SAT scores were in line with the 3 test scores. I thought they were comparable for everyone. Also, when we met with the Admissions Director of one school in Oct., we had a discussion about SSAT scores. The Admissions Director was curious about the scores because it was the first year they were trying to project SAT scores, and we had early test results because most don’t take it in Oct. At that time he said that the SSAT test scores were projecting SAT scores, so I’ve believed that ever since. </p>
<p>Sorry Asiakid, but I think newyorker22, ceebrown and icy are correct. </p>
<p>Just curious – I pulled out the old report. In 10/05, the average score for a grade 8 male was Verbal 662, Math 686 and Reading 644. Is it very different from that now?</p>
<p>Burb Parent, according to 12/07 report, the average 8th grade male scores were Verbal 663, Math 686 and Reading 649. I guess the averages haven’t changed much since '05.</p>
<p>I think these days, the SSAT raw score aligns more with the upper end of the Predicted SAT range. By the way, they only give Predicated Ranges for Verbal and Math.</p>