If you want to attend a competitive private school, doing well on the SSAT, or the Secondary School Admissions Test, is essential. Almost all schools require that potential students take the SSAT or the ISEE. These tests measure your verbal, reading, math, and writing skills.
The essay portion of the SSAT is not directly scored, it is instead sent to the school you are applying to, where they review it. While schools look at other factors such as GPA and activities, the standardized tests may be the deciding factor for admission. If you are serious about attending private school, you need to prepare for this exam.
This test, particularly the writing portion, is skill-based. You will be writing under time constraints and must write quickly to finish. However, there are some ways you can prepare yourself for doing better on the SSAT essay portion.
When reading your essay, evaluators will be looking for a well-developed writing sample. They want to see that your essay is clearly organized, contains no major errors, and has specific examples that illustrate your points. In many cases, your essay prompt will be a statement about a controversial or popular subject. Your essay must take a stand, and presents arguments for or against this statement.
The best way to get off to a great start with your essay is to spend a few minutes in the planning stage. You have 25 minutes to write your essay, so you’ll need to start writing soon, but having an outline of your main points will make your essay stronger, and also increase the chances that you’ll finish on time. Consider where you stand on the prompt, jot down your reasons, and most importantly, the evidence or examples you plan to use.
The majority of your time should of course be used in writing the essay, with your outline as a guide. In addition, each of your points or arguments should have specific and concrete examples. Connect your example with your points using clear reasoning.
A great way to structure your essay is to start writing your body paragraphs, or your main points. Then, you can craft your introduction and conclusion around the points that you’ve made. That way, your essay is consistent, and the introduction and conclusion supports the points you are making in the main part of the essay.
Once you finish your essay, another easy way to make your essay stronger, is to spend a few minutes reviewing what you’ve written. Add or remove any evidence or reasoning to make your argument as strong as possible. Fine-tuning your essay will take a mediocre attempt to an above-average one in just a few minutes.
As you can see, having a plan as you start writing is important. While you write, new ideas may come to you, or you may expand on the ideas you have outlined. This brief outline will give you the structure you need to keep your essay on track.
The best way to implement these steps is to practice writing timed sample SSAT essays. Once you have a few under your belt, you will be much more confident on the actual exam day. You do not have to leave your private school admission to chance, preparation and practice will help you do better than the average applicants, and increase your chance for mission success.
