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 for the written component of the test, students crafted personal essays, with most commonly used words including “people”, “learn”, “world” and “help”.

For the first time, Test Innovators started to measure grit and provide students with a grit score. This metric indicates student tenacity in goal pursuit, an attribute that schools are increasingly looking for in their admissions evaluations.

Most importantly, the effort expended by students throughout their practice resulted in measurably improved SSAT and ISEE scores.