Award-Winning SSAT Courses & Classes in Sacramento, CA

If you have an interest in having your student attend school at an independent or private school, it may be useful to contact Varsity Tutors so that they can help your student enroll in a Sacramento SSAT class. The SSAT is a standardized test used by admissions offices at many independent and private schools. It measures several skills that are considered indicators of success in independent or private schools, such as their reading, math, and verbal skills. The test is designed to make the admissions process more equitable in terms of determining which students get admitted to a school.

The SSAT is divided into three different levels, including an Upper Level, Middle Level, and Elementary Level. The Upper Level test is given to students between 8th and 11th grades and is taken by students who are interested in attending an independent or private high school. The Middle Level test is taken by students in 5th through 7th grades and is given to students who are interested in attending an independent or private middle school. Finally, the Elementary Level test is taken by 3rd and 4th-grade students who want to attend 5th grade at a private or independent school.

All of the tests are similar in the sense that they do not permit students to use a calculator on the Quantitative section of the test. Additionally, none of the three tests grade the Writing Sample or the Experimental sections. However, the Writing Sample will be submitted to any school your student may be applying to. One major difference between the tests is that students who take the Elementary Level test can feel free to guess on any question they don't know the answer to because they won't receive any kind of penalty for answering a question incorrectly. This is not a good strategy for students taking the Middle or Upper Level tests because they will be penalized one-quarter of a point for every question they answer incorrectly. They will not receive a deduction for leaving a question blank, so they're better off just not answering a question if they're not sure about the correct answer.

What can a Sacramento SSAT class help my student review?

There are numerous areas in which a Sacramento SSAT class can help your student review. Each of the three levels of the SSAT are divided into four sections, which include the Quantitative section, Reading section, Verbal section, and Writing Sample. The Elementary Level test contains 89 questions in total while the Middle and Upper Level tests contain 167 questions.

The Writing Sample within the Upper Level test requires students to choose between a creative prompt or a traditional essay prompt. Once they make this choose, they must base their essay on the chosen prompt, which they'll have 25 minutes to complete. This section is designed to test if a student is able to support a statement with examples, how well they can spell and use grammar, and whether they can organize a story or essay.

The Quantitative section on the Upper Level test consists of two sections that contain 25 questions each. Your student will have 30 minutes to complete each section for a total of 60 minutes.

This section focuses on math related subjects, such as geometry, algebra, and arithmetic. In terms of specific topics, this section covers number operations, plane and coordinate geometry, and probability. In order to perform well on this section, it may be helpful for your student to understand the properties of triangles, word problems, and arithmetic sequences, to name a few.

The Reading section of the Upper Level test contains 40 questions and your student will have 40 minutes to finish it. This section focuses on English related topics, such as being able to interpret the meaning of information provided in both argumentative and narrative passages. The information provided can come from science, humanities, social studies, and literary fiction.

Finally, the Verbal section on the Upper Level test contains 60 questions and your student will have 30 minutes to finish it. This section covers both synonyms and analogies. It may be useful for your student to be able to determine parts of speech, have an understanding of antonyms, and be familiar with different suffixes and prefixes.

The Middle Level test is very similar to the Upper Level test when it comes to the topics covered and the number of questions on the test. The main difference is the difficulty of the material, which is designed to be age appropriate.

However, the Elementary Level test is quite a bit different. The Quantitative section of the Elementary Level test has 30 questions and your student will have 30 minutes to finish it. It looks at math-related topics, such as spatial sense, number sense, and measurement, to name a few. In terms of skills, your student should be comfortable with multiplication, subtraction, division, and addition, among other skills.

The Verbal section also has 30 questions and your student will also have 30 minutes to finish it. This section is geared towards English and requires your student to understand vocabulary words in a range of subjects, such as science, technology, and social studies.

The Reading section of the Elementary Level has 28 questions and your student will have 30 minutes to finish it. This section focuses on reading comprehension and requires your student to identify both the non-literal and literal meanings of words and to be able to identify the main idea of a passage.

Finally, the Writing Sample of the Elementary level requires students to write a short story based on a picture. The story must have a beginning, middle, and end.

How can a Sacramento SSAT course help my student prepare?

There are numerous ways in which a Sacramento SSAT course can help your student prepare. For example, their SSAT course will be designed like a regular classroom. They will be working with an instructor and other students. The instructor can help them review material that could be on the test while the other students can help with group activities and discussions.

How can I enroll my student in a Sacramento SSAT prep course?

Enrolling your student in a Sacramento SSAT prep course can be as easy as contacting Varsity Tutors either over the phone or online.