Which SSAT section is most important?
We get a lot of questions about the particular knowledge requirements on the SSAT, but this one is the most common: which SSAT section is the most crucial to a successful application? And as with any other question, we’ve turned to our extensive data to find the answer. We’ve heard a variety of hypotheses about section difficulties. Some parents and tutors believe that the Reading section is the most important, because reading is necessary for most other testable knowledge. If a student can read well, then they have the fundamentals in place. Others opine that—especially for kids applying to really competitive schools—the Quantitative section is the most important because it best reflects the student’s innate ability for high-level reasoning. While these guesses are nice—and make a bit of sense—the truth is much more Jedi than that. Here is the fact of the matter: The most important section is the one that is most challenging to you. Yes, this sounds like a Yoda quotation, but our data supports it. Ultimately, students must take the SSAT to gain admission into their schools of choice, so it makes sense to take the perspective of admissions department. Suppose you’re an admissions director and you’re looking at the following two students’ SSAT scores:
Scores tell a story, and they give a glimpse into a child’s relative strengths and weaknesses. In the table above, Student 1 is much more middle of the pack, and received solid—but not dominant—percentiles on each section. This student is above the mean in every single category. As an admissions director, we see a student who can land and be ready on day one in all subjects that the SSAT measures. Whereas for Student 2, we see a very different story. The student is clearly excellent in Verbal subjects and received nearly the highest score possible on the Quantitative section, but there is something deeply and fundamentally wrong. On day one of class, this student will be significantly behind in reading, which likely means that a lot of remedial help will necessary. Very competitive schools simply don’t allocate resources for students who are far behind, and therefore rarely accept students who will need to play serious catch-up. Our practice test and admissions data supports this tale of two students. Kids with one or two areas of significant weakness—even with exceptional results in other sections—often struggle to be admitted to very competitive schools. At the same time, students with solid scores across the board tend to see a higher rate of admissions success. So what can you do? The critical first step in any SSAT prep strategy is to diagnose those areas that need the most work. Students don’t have an infinite amount of time to study for the test, so it’s especially important to determine the subjects that would benefit the most from improvement. We often find that a low score may simply reflect a student’s lack of familiarity with a section or question type, rather than a lack of ability. It’s important to take a full-length diagnostic practice test to discover your initial performance at the beginning of the prep process. Once you have done that, you can craft an informed preparation strategy based on your personal areas of weakness. Remember, the key to test success is to diagnose, review, learn, and practice.
