Where do top-performing SSAT practice test takers come from?
This is the first in a series of posts where we explore the data trends from our 2014-15 SSAT practice tests. In this installment, we’ll see which US states’ test takers had the strongest performances.
Performance by SSAT Section
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. Here is a map of the top-performing states by section:
New Jersey and Massachusetts tended to outperform other states on all three sections. Florida came in with a relatively strong performance on Reading, and California’s students were second only to Massachusetts when it came to math. Those are the general trends. We also collected data on performance when it came to specific math question types. Let’s delve deeper into which precise subjects were the strongest for these top-five states.
California SSAT Math Performance
When Californian students aren’t out enjoying the sun and surf, they are dominating the competition in determining combinations of items like coins (12.34% above average), evaluating fraction operations (14.42% above average), and figuring out word problems involving proportions (24.56% above average).
Florida SSAT Math Performance
Florida’s test takers outperformed others in multiplying and dividing with decimals (14.40% above average), determining the nth term when faced with a pattern (15.28% above average), and finding the slope of a line when given a perpendicular slope.
Massachusetts SSAT Math Performance
Massachusetts’ students powered through questions that involved multiplying and dividing integers (13.64% above average), shape construction of 2-D figures (20.26% above average), and solving problems given unit rates and costs (6.98% above average).
New Jersey SSAT Math Performance
Denizens of the Garden State edged out other contenders when it came to metric unit conversions (7.57% above average), predicting the next number when given a pattern (16.46% above average), and solving for missing digits (5.13% above average). Jersey seems to be training some top-notch detectives.
Washington SSAT Math Performance
Test takers from Washington won out on questions involving total costs (7.55% above average), addition and subtraction estimates (5.61% above average), and division problems with no remainder (12.07% above average).
Conclusions
We have a few untested hypotheses about these marked differences between states. They might be due to specific curriculum disparities in certain parts of the country. There is also a chance that more stringent competition affects these numbers: perhaps students applying to prestigious boarding schools in New Jersey are already more prepared for the SSAT than students in Seattle applying to slightly less competitive day schools. And lastly, as statisticians we do need to point out that sample sizes varied between some data sets—there were more Californian test-takers, for example, than Washingtonian ones. In any case, we found these disparities very interesting to look at, and we hope you did too! Data Analyzed by Sam C. Written by Geoff D.
