Take a look at SSAT, a standardized test jointly established by ten top private schools known as “little Ivy League”, which has been adopted by thousands of private middle schools in North America, which is the first threshold for young children to study abroad. Because of its flexible examination time, high gold content and high global acceptance, it is recognized by Chinese parents as an international examination to test their children’s academic level. So what should Chinese students pay attention to when taking SSAT? How to deal with it? Waitan Jun interviewed Dr. Liu Jinghua, chief testing and research officer of SSAT, and Zhang Xu, general manager of SSAT China, to hear what advice they would give to students’ parents?
In recent years, with the younger age of studying abroad, more and more “American Gaodang” apply to read American private middle schools. In 2017, the proportion of primary and secondary school students studying abroad in the overall international students increased from 25% in 2016 to 30%. The SSAT (secondary school admission) test, commonly known as the “American high school entrance examination”, has an increasingly large group of candidates in China.
This test, which is widely used by thousands of famous private schools in North America, has its own elite education temperament. It has not only become the first “threshold” for Chinese children to apply for private schools in the United States, but also has been recognized by parents more and more because of its flexible test time, international source of candidates, high difficulty and gold content. Even if there is no plan to study abroad, many parents also choose to let their children take the SSAT test to test their daily learning results, which seems to be one of the trends in cultivating international talents.
About SSAT test:
Compulsory entrance examination for private schools in North America
SSAT, jointly founded by the ten school alliance of American private middle schools, namely ten top private schools known as “little Ivy”, selects excellent students for private schools. Now it has become the entrance examination of many high-quality private middle schools in the United States and Canada.
It is divided into three grades: junior, middle and senior
According to the stage of American education system, SSAT is divided into the following three levels: primary examination (for students in grades 3-4); Intermediate examination (for grade 5-7 students, i.e. domestic grade 5 to grade 1), advanced examination (for grade 8-11 students, i.e. domestic grade 2 to grade 2). At present, the most domestic students participate in the advanced examination.
The exam has four modules
This is divided into four modules: reading and writing. Among them, writing is not included in the total score, but submitted to the applied school for admission reference. As a selection examination established by a famous private school, SSAT pays particular attention to the examination of students’ innovative thinking ability and solving ability, which is internationally recognized in terms of difficulty and gold content.
With the SSAT Shanghai test center, Shanghai Hongqiao International School, an old international school, has become one of the first board members of SSAT China. In the future, EMA (the Enrollment Management Association American Private School Council) will join hands with more Chinese high-quality schools to form SSAT China school alliance to facilitate Chinese students to receive application information, enrollment policies and educational resources from American private schools.
This means that more Chinese children, especially those who intend to study abroad, will take the SSAT test, even from the third and fourth grades to the primary test.
In October, Dr. Liu Jinghua, chief testing and research officer of SSAT, as a representative, visited Shanghai Hongqiao International School to participate in the official awarding ceremony, and held international education discussions with colleagues in the education sector and students’ parents. Taking this opportunity, Waitan Jun interviewed Dr. Liu Jinghua and Zhang Xu, general manager of SSAT China, respectively, to discuss the changes and changes of SSAT test in the future and the abilities that elite students need to possess.
Interview with Dr. Liu Jinghua
Change and invariance of SSAT
The first threshold for entering a higher school, and the status will not change
This summer, the University of Chicago announced that undergraduate applications will not require students to provide SAT scores. Similarly, Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Yale and Columbia University, have also made decisions to weaken standardized scores such as sat or act.
Does this phenomenon indicate that applying for SSAT standardized scores in American private middle schools will also become “dispensable”? With this question, the Bund gentleman asked Ms. Zhang Xu.
“There is no doubt that SSAT is still the standardized test scores that must be provided when applying for private schools in the United States, which is a threshold that must be crossed. Perhaps, some American undergraduate schools do not have a mandatory sat in the application conditions; but for American private middle schools, SSAT is still the main academic level reference when they admit students,” Zhang Xu replied.
The test content will not be adjusted according to the scores of Chinese students
At present, Chinese students often get 2300 + high scores or even full scores in SSAT. Many people predict that SSAT may curb Chinese high score candidates by increasing the difficulty of the exam or reforming the content of the exam in the future.
Dr. Liu Jinghua, as the chief testing and research officer, directly denied this claim. “SSAT is a test for students all over the world. It will only be fine tuned according to the overall performance of global candidates, and will not be reformed and adjusted especially for Chinese students.”
However, SSAT has a very important feature, that is, it focuses on testing students’ creative thinking ability and problem-solving ability. These abilities are the characteristics of students valued by the top private schools in the United States, and are also related to students’ achievements after entering college or even working in the future. Therefore, the innovation and speculation of examination content will still be the main trend of SSAT.
3 may increase the difficulty of mathematics
Dr. Liu Jinghua revealed that the difficulty trend of SSAT in the future “may slightly improve the difficulty of mathematics and reduce the difficulty of vocabulary. After all, SSAT is different from TOEFL. It is not a special language test.”
Mathematics module, as one of the three scoring modules of SSAT, not only investigates some specific knowledge points, but also emphasizes whether students’ thinking is divergent and innovative. This requires students to pay more attention to thinking methods rather than mechanical memory formulas and concepts; We should not only understand the basic knowledge and theories clearly, but also apply them flexibly.
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