You’ve done it! You’ve made it through 5 sections, 150 questions, one essay, and over two and a half hours of SSAT testing. You may feel ready to go home and take a well-deserved nap (or run around after sitting for so long), but before you breathe a deep sigh of relief, there’s one final section to complete.
The Experimental Section is the shortest section of the SSAT–only 15 minutes long with 16 questions total. Unlike the other SSAT sections, this one includes a mix of question types: six verbal, five reading, and five quantitative. While you should still answer every question and try your best, don’t let this section stress you out: it is not scored and will not be sent to schools.
So, if it’s not scored, why does the Experimental Section exist? Writing a test like the SSAT is complex, and test writers use this final section to try out new questions. The developers evaluate the results to determine whether each question is appropriate, fair, and reliable enough to appear on future versions of the test.
Once you finish these last 15 minutes, you can feel proud of both conquering a long and challenging exam and also contributing to the future of the SSAT.
Since the January 7th test last weekend, we've been hearing this question a lot: where are my SSAT scores? Although we do not have access to your scores, we can definitely help answer a few questions.
Throughout Pam’s 18 years as an admission professional, she has observed that standardized test scores do not always correlate to the actual talents of a student. Testing anxiety is one big reason for this – many students find it difficult to focus under the pressure of test day and don’t...
As you can see, 2017 was a year of student perseverance and pushing boundaries. 25,315 students from over 100 different countries answered over three million practice questions. Impressively, they spent 118,029 hours taking practice tests, studying vocabulary, watching instructional videos, and working through question banks. To prepare...
You've just finished a practice test. Now what?
At Test Innovators, we talk about test prep in three steps: (1) take a practice test, (2) review your results, and (3) do targeted practice. This post is about step two.
Going through a completed practice test carefully is one of the most valuable...
Scott Duddy is the Director of Admissions & Enrollment Management at Dexter Southfield School in Brookline, Massachusetts, and brings with him 14 years of professional experience in the world of independent schools.
If your child will be taking the ISEE or SSAT this year, you’re probably busy researching the best way to help them prepare. There is a lot of information out there and it can be very overwhelming, so we want to help by offering our top 5 tips for parents....
The SSAT has three sections: Verbal, Reading, and Quantitative. When we looked at our practice test data from this past year, we noticed that five states—Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Florida, and Washington—attained the highest scores on these sections, but there were variations between each state's particular strengths.
We are excited to introduce Iyad, one of our 2021 scholars. Through hard work and determination, Iyad increased his SSAT score by 66 percentile points!
Cardigan Mountain School is one of many schools across the country that uses Test Innovators to help their students prepare for their next step. They recently shared the story of why they chose Test Innovators as the best partner to help their students achieve success on the SSAT.
