Tutoring For All Ages

Every year, we take on plenty of students who are about to take a particular standardized test for the first time. In our first lesson with a new Testing student, the “guessing question” usually comes up within the first 20 minutes. Most people have talked through the issue with their friends and/or teachers, but they still want to hear it from us.

So, for all our honorary students who just don’t happen to be in the same zip code as we are, we will try to answer the general question with a few tips: (more…)

We recently got a panicked e-mail from a parent:

Mary [name changed] is really upset by her scores. She always gets grades at the top of her class, but she got a 68% overall on the SSAT. How bad is this?

It’s such a common question that we thought we’d print it here. We’ve covered it before: for a detailed description, check our post entitled “What’s a good SSAT/ISEE score?”

Don’t worry, Mary: you didn’t fail the test. Of course there’s room to improve, but you’re well above the average score among other students like you. So you’re above average even for the good students!

The results are in, and this year’s SSAT students have done exceptionally well. We’ve seen score increases across the board. Some of our students succeeded in nudging their scores up into the 90’s, and others have improved their scores by double-digit percentiles. One student’s overall percentile went up by over 40 points, and we had two perfect verbal scores! I guess we must be doing something right, but most of the credit is certainly due to those students’ diligent work preparing for the test. Congratulations to all of you, and best of luck with this year’s admissions!

Scores on the SSAT and ISEE are coming in, and our most frequently-asked question at this time of year is: how do I know if my score is good enough?

Unfortunately, there’s no straight answer (yes, you knew that one was coming). Score expectations vary almost as much as scores themselves, and every school has a different way of factoring test scores into their applications. Some applications are little more than “Name, date of birth, test scores,” while others strongly resemble college applications in their depth and breadth.

One thing’s pretty certain: (more…)