Secondary School Admission Test
Encyclopedia
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
or private
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
junior high and high schools.
There are two levels of the test: the Lower level for students in grades 5-7 and the Upper level, designed for students in grades 8-11. The SSAT consists of two parts: a brief essay and multiple choice sections that include Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Verbal. The test, written in English, is primarily administered in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at various test centers, which usually are independent schools. There are also test centers worldwide.
Despite the similarity in name, the SSAT is not related to the SAT Reasoning Test
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
and is not administered by the College Board
College Board
The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...
.
Mathematics
There are two 30 minute math sections with 25 questions each that require basic computations including some basic algebra, this section is called quantitative reasoning. All questions are basic math.They vary from word problems to equations.Verbal
The verbal section is 30 minutes long and consists of 30 synonym and 30 analogy questions.Synonym questions are _________ is the closest to ___________.
Analogy questions are _________ is to __________ as __________ is to ____________.
Reading Comprehension
The 40 minute reading comprehensionReading comprehension
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. ....
section has 40 questions based around seven given reading passages. These questions not only require test takers to comprehend what they are reading but also to read quickly.
Essay
In the essay part of the test, test takers are asked to support or argue against a topic statement by using examples from personal experience, history, literature and current events. The essay section is 25 minutes long and test takers are given one side of a piece of paper to write the essay. The essay is not scored. However it is sent to school admissions offices along with the scores for the other sections.Scoring
All questions on the Secondary School Admissions Test are equal in value and scores are based on the number of questions correctly answered less a one-quarter point for each question answered incorrectly. No points are awarded or deducted for questions left unanswered. The scaled score for the Upper Level is 500- 800 and the Lower Level is 440- 710.The Secondary School Admissions Test score report provides scaled scores for each section as well as percentile
Percentile
In statistics, a percentile is the value of a variable below which a certain percent of observations fall. For example, the 20th percentile is the value below which 20 percent of the observations may be found...
ranks for each category, comparing a student's score to others of the same grade and gender who have taken the test in the past three years. Also in the score report are estimated national percentile ranks for 5-7 grade test takers and projected 12th grade SAT scores for test takers in grades 8-11.
Upon receiving their scores, students can send the results to the independent schools they wish to apply to. Each school then evaluates the scores according to its own standards and requirements.