Is English not your third- or fourth-grade student’s favorite class, or does he or she not enjoy learning new words? Are you or your student worried about the prospect of him or her not doing well on the Elementary Level SSAT’s Verbal section? This guide will help you assuage those fears by presenting an overview of the Elementary Level SSAT’s Verbal section, including the topics it tests and the way it is organized. This guide will direct you to excellent free online resources, which you can use to help your student study for the SSAT’s Verbal section by doing practice problems that mimic those found on the actual Elementary Level SSAT. By making full use of this knowledge and these resources, you can help prepare your student to achieve his or her personal best when taking the Elementary Level SSAT’s Verbal section.

The Secondary School Admission Test, or SSAT, is given at three levels: Elementary, Middle, and Upper. Students in the third and fourth grades are given the Elementary Level exam, which is comprised a graded Quantitative section, a graded Verbal section, and a graded Reading section, as well as a Writing Sample. The Verbal section is given after the Quantitative section and is followed by a fifteen-minute break. The Elementary Level SSAT’s Verbal section is composed of thirty questions that students are given twenty minutes to answer. Unlike English sections on other standardized tests, the SSAT’s Verbal section does not test a student’s knowledge of English grammar or sentence structure, or their reading comprehension skills. On the contrary, the SSAT’s Verbal section consists solely of two types of multiple-choice questions: Synonym questions and Analogy questions. Synonym questions present a student with a word and ask them to select from the available answer choices the word that is closest in meaning to the given word. Analogy questions present a student with two words that are somehow related, asking them to select either the fourth word, if a third word is given, or a pair of words, that replicates the relationship between the first two words. For instance, if “fire is to hot” is the first part of an analogy, the correct answer might be “ice is to cold,” since fire is a thing that is hot, and ice is a thing that is cold.

One of the best ways to help your student feel more at ease about having to take the Elementary Level SSAT is to provide him or her with resources that they can use to practice problems like those found on the exam. Varsity Tutors happens to offer free online SSAT resources, including free Elementary Level SSAT Verbal Practice Tests. Each Practice Test contains about a dozen problems and asks both Synonym and Analogy questions. You can also choose to focus on just Synonym questions or just Analogy questions if your student has a hard time with one particular kind. After completing a Practice Test, you will receive detailed statistics about how your student did in relation to other test-takers, as well as how long they took to answer each question. Full answers are also provided for each problem, so if your student missed a question, you can help them to figure out where they made their mistake.

You can help increase the efficacy of your child’s study sessions by having them take a Full-Length Elementary Level SSAT Verbal Practice Test. The free online test will ask your child a range of questions that span all of the ideas they’ll need to know when they take the real exam. The full-length format offers you the chance to check your child’s test-taking pace as they practice using their skills under pressure. Like the results pages for the concept-specific practice tests, the results pages for the complete practice tests give you a great deal of helpful feedback, including links to in-depth concept review and thorough explanations that accompany each answer. These free online SSAT practice tests can also guide you and your child in creating a study plan that focuses on the topics in which your child needs more review. After your child has brushed up on their skills, you can have them take another free Full-Length Elementary Level SSAT Verbal Practice Test to measure their academic growth.

By familiarizing your student with the format and content of the Elementary Level SSAT and helping them work through some practice problems to address any gaps in their knowledge, you can help your student feel prepared to do his or her best on test day.