About the SSAT

The SSAT is the gold standard of admission testing – a highly effective and useful tool for schools and families. Given in Upper (grades 8-11) and Lower (grades 5-7) formats, with an Elementary (grades 3 & 4) test currently in development, the SSAT provides a valid, norm-referenced, reliable measure of student verbal and quantitative ability and reading comprehension.

The diverse nature of the academic programs and standards that exist within school programs limits the opportunities to compare basic academic ability of applicants to other schools or programs. The SSAT is intended to provide a common measure for evaluating the abilities of students seeking admission to private schools, from whatever background or experience, and to assess the possible success of these students.

Use of the SSAT promotes standardization in a school’s admission process, while long-term, exclusive use of the SSAT ensures a more reliable admission process keyed to a student’s academic success in school.

Download SSAT Information for Families.
Download a sample score report.

Upper/Lower

Unlike less sophisticated admission tests, the SSAT presents the student with 5 answer choices, not four, and the SSAT subtracts one-fourth of a point for each wrong answer, discouraging blind guessing and thereby increasing the test’s validity.

The SSAT reports the number of correct, incorrect, and omitted questions in each category and provides a section score. These section scores help educators place students in an academic program appropriate to the student’s abilities. A supervised, timed, and unscored sample of student writing is also provided. Use of the SSAT promotes standardization in a school’s admission process, while long-term, exclusive use of the SSAT ensures a more reliable admission process keyed to a student’s academic success in school.

SSAT Features

• Special Accommodations
• Online Student Account Management
• Flexible Testing
• Full Length Practice Tests
• Preparing & Applying Guide
• Student Registration Guide(s)
• Fee Waivers

Flexible Testing Options

We believe that the family, consultant, or current school is in the best position to determine that a test score may not be reflective of the student’s ability – for whatever reason. Therefore, there is no limit on the number of National tests a child can take, though we have found that typically only about 25% of test takers sit for the exam twice, and only 2.5% take it three or more times.

In addition to the scheduled national test administrations, SSATB offers the SSAT Flex Test. The Flex Test allows approved SSATB member schools and organizations to administer a complete form of the SSAT onsite at their convenience any time during the year. A child may take the Flex Test only once per year, in addition to the National administrations, and will not receive a duplicate version of the test.

Read more about SSAT Flex tests here.

Expanded Score Reports

As part of the SSAT school score report, SSATB provides data that place applicants within a richer context. These contextual data enable admission officers to communicate more easily with parents, to differentiate better between applicants, and to provide other school departments with data to assist in supporting students once enrolled. Collected and used over time, these data offer schools a powerful tool for admission and enrollment planning.

Elementary (grades 3-4): Currently in development

Designed to evaluate basic skills that are important to learning in the academic context, the SSAT 3-4 will consist of three multiple-choice sections. The Verbal section will have a testing time of 15 minutes, the Quantitative section 30 minutes, and 20 minutes for the Reading section. The total testing time for a standard SSAT 3-4 administration will be 65 minutes. These three sections will yield one scaled score.