This is the third of four (4) videos focused on helping young students and their parents understand the basics of the SSAT test. What is the SSAT you ask? See the first SSAT video focused on 5th & 6th graders for the answer.

Students in the 8th and 9th grades will take the “Upper Level” SSAT test, which is geared toward students in grades 8 all the way up to grade 11 (Junior Year). Thus, you can expect the test to be challenging. Join me in this video as I discuss what you can expect on the SSAT.

SSAT Test Prep for 8th and 9th Graders (transcript)

Parents of 8th and 9th graders, welcome!

First bit of advice is this – do not stress out about the test. If you get anxious and stressed about the test, your child is going to pick up on that and they are going to get anxious and stressed out. It is definitely not going to help them. Downplay the importance of the test. It is not going to make or break them in the admissions process. Just let them know they should go in, try the best you can and you are going to love them regardless of how they do on the test.

Now you should understand that your child is going to be taking the upper level test. Now the upper level test has been designed to challenge 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. What that means is your child is going to have a relatively easy time with the problems at the beginning of any given section. It may get challenging towards the middle but when they get to the end of a section they will be confronted with the problems that were designed to challenge the older kids (the 10th and 11th graders). So it is important to make it clear to an 8th and 9th grader that when they take the they are going to be taking a test that ha been designed for kids in a four year range.

So when they get to the end of a section and it starts getting too difficult for them – they should not stress out and they should not start guessing. The problems that they do not understand should be left blank. They should just let it go and not stress out about it. When they get they get back the scores and they get a percentile rank; they are going to be ranked relative to other kids in their grade. If you are the parent of an 8th grade boy for example: When he gets his percentile score back it is only going to give you an idea of how he did relative other 8th grade boys on the day he took the test and the prior two year period. So they break it down by grade and they break it down by gender. So as long as he is at the top of the 8th grade boy category, he is going to do fine regardless of how questions many he leaves blank at the end. So if you want to help your child maximize his/her score, make sure they understand that they are going to get a lot of problems at the end they may not be able to do. Importantly, instead of guessing they should leave them blank. That is the way they maximize their score.

Karl Schellscheidt
ePrep
www.eprep.com

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