Your academic future
starts here.

As you take the next step in your education, proper test preparation and skills assessment are key to building confidence and readiness for the school of your dreams.   

Welcome To Your Tutoring Community

Making the transition to a private school is an exciting opportunity. Testing success is best achieved through a structured and supportive learning environment. Whether you’re connecting with us online or in person, our highly credentialed private tutors and dedicated staff work in tandem to help you navigate the SSAT prep and independent school admissions process. 

Test Prep

Our SSAT Approach

Preparing for the SSAT goes beyond simple test prep. Through our SSAT program, students will receive exposure to the test-taking experience, as well as develop academic skills vital to their secondary education and beyond. This process also provides an opportunity for professional evaluation of a student’s strengths and areas where they may benefit from future support.

Collectively, our 1-on-1 tutors have worked with hundreds of students and can help contextualize an individual’s abilities relative to their peer group. Our holistic approach to pedagogy is centered on three fundamental components:

  1. Mastery of Content

  2. Test-Taking Strategies

  3. Applied Psychology

Our proven methodology ensures every student develops a firm foundation for test success and beyond.

Learn more about our approach and values.

What is the HSPT?

The HSPT is both an entrance exam and a placement test used by parochial high schools. The test is administered to 8th grade students, and the results may help determine math and language arts coursework tracks (e.g., regular or honors levels). For students aiming for AP courses or to reach Calculus by 11th grade, success on the HSPT may be of particular importance.

In some cases, students will take the SSAT and the HSPT if they are applying to both independent and parochial schools.

SSAT Test Sections & Scoring

The SSAT consists of four multiple-choice sections, plus a writing sample. These sections always appear in the same order: Writing Sample, Quantitative (first section), Reading, Verbal, Quantitative (second section).

Writing Sample

  1. Students are asked to write a response to one of two prompts, either both creative (Middle Level) or one creative, one persuasive (Upper Level)

  2. 25 minutes / 1 prompt

  3. Unscored, but a copy is sent to schools along with student score reports

Quantitative

  1. Measures a student’s ability to solve problems involving arithmetic, elementary algebra, geometry, and other concepts

  2. 60 minutes / 50 questions / 2 sections

  3. No calculator is permitted

Reading

  1. Measures a student’s reading comprehension skills

  2. 40 minutes / 40 questions

  3. Passages consist of a variety of genres: Literary fiction, Humanities (biography, art, poetry), Science (anthropology, astronomy, medicine), and Social studies (history, sociology, economics)

Verbal

  1. Measures a student’s vocabulary, verbal reasoning skills, and ability to relate ideas logically

  2. 30 minutes / 60 questions

  3. Problems consist of identifying synonyms and interpreting analogies

Scoring

  1. The Middle and Upper Levels of the SSAT have different scoring scales. Score reports will include both section scores and a total score (the sum of the section scores).

  2. For the Middle Level, the scoring scale ranges from 440–710 for each section, and 1320–2130 for the total score. For the Upper Level, the scoring scale ranges from 500–800 for each section, and 1500–2400 for the total score. Scaled scores are calculated by equating raw scores to a scoring scale unique to each test form. Raw scores for each section of the test are calculated by adding 1 point for each question a student answers correctly and subtracting ¼ point for each incorrect answer.

  3. Score reports also include percentiles, which compares a student’s performance on the SSAT to that of other students of the same age or grade.

“I am so very happy to have worked with Scott and his wonderful colleagues at North Avenue. I truly admire their expertise and the place they have created - it gives confidence and trust!”
— Tanja P.
 

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 Frequently Asked Questions

  • Your SSAT score report will include percentile rankings within the SSAT test-taking population over the past three years, by gender and grade level. It’s important to keep in mind that SSAT test takers are a highly motivated, self-selecting group. As a result, students who achieve strong grades in school often rank lower than expected, especially in Verbal.

    Independent schools set their own admissions standards. They rarely require minimum scores, but they do disclose score trends.

  • Unlike other standardized tests, the SSAT uses a scoring procedure that subtracts ¼ of a point for incorrect answers. (Correct answers are awarded one point, and omitted answers are awarded no points.) This “guessing penalty” is intended to counteract any points a student might earn by indiscriminately answering. For instance, if a student guessed on five problems, they’d likely get one right but four wrong, receiving zero points.

    However, the statistics behind this procedure break down, when the student is able to eliminate an answer choice – thereby increasing their odds of guessing correctly. The more they can eliminate, the better.

  • Each student’s SSAT prep path will look different. But due to the nature of language acquisition and the variety of math curricula used in lower grades, we’ve found that students who start studying 3-6 months before the SSAT see the best results.

  • The SSAT at Home is simply a digital version of the paper-based SSAT. It will involve the same format and material, but students should familiarize themselves with the online platform and be prepared to perform reading annotations, elimination processes, and math operations on allowable scratch paper.

  • Hourly 1:1 SSAT & HSPT prep starts at $180/session. Read more about pricing and packages.

Practice Tests
Practice makes perfect.

Practice and exposure to test-taking conditions are integral to each student’s tutoring process. Our SSAT and HSPT practice tests both establish baseline scores and provide an opportunity for in-depth analysis of results, helping your tutor develop test-taking strategies tailored to your specific needs.

We strongly recommend practice tests to every student. If you don’t see your test in the format you prefer, contact us to discuss options.

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