SSAT

Overview

The SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test) is a standardised admission test used by private and independent schools in the United States and a number of other countries to evaluate applicants for entry into grades 4 through 12. It is owned and administered by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA). The test comes in three levels — Elementary, Middle and Upper — chosen by the student's current grade, and each level has its own question set, timing and score scale.

Who can apply

Any student currently enrolled in the grade range for a level can register, regardless of nationality; there is no separate eligibility approval needed beyond registering and paying the fee.

• Elementary Level: students currently in grades 3 and 4.

• Middle Level: students currently in grades 5, 6 and 7.

• Upper Level: students currently in grades 8 through 11.

Most students take the SSAT because a school they are applying to requires or accepts it; check each target school's own requirement before registering for a level.

Exam pattern

Every level has a Quantitative (Math) section, a Reading section, a Verbal section, an unscored Writing Sample, and an unscored Experimental section used only for future test development. Sections run back-to-back with short breaks; once a section ends, a student cannot return to it.

Elementary Level

A break separates the sections. The full Elementary Level test, including the break, runs a little over two hours.

Middle Level and Upper Level

The two Quantitative parts total 50 questions across the test. Two short breaks separate the sections, and the full Upper Level test runs about 3 hours 10 minutes in total; Middle Level follows the same structure and timing.

The Writing Sample is never scored by SSAT — it is sent to the schools a student designates, unscored, for them to judge directly. The Experimental section does not count toward the reported score at all.

Marking and results

On Middle and Upper Level, each correct answer earns 1 point, each wrong answer loses a quarter point, and an unanswered question earns or loses nothing. On Elementary Level, each correct answer earns 1 point and there is no penalty for a wrong or unanswered question.

Results are reported as a scaled score and a percentile. On Elementary Level, each of the three scored sections (Quantitative, Verbal, Reading) is scaled from 300 to 600, and the total scaled score runs from 900 to 1800. Middle and Upper Level use their own scaled-score ranges, reported the same way per section plus a total. The percentile shows how a student's scaled score compares with other same-grade test takers from the last three years, and is the figure most schools weigh for admission, since it adjusts for how hard a particular test form was.

Important dates

For the 2026–2027 testing year, SSAT Standard paper tests are offered on six Saturdays: 10 October 2026, 14 November 2026, 12 December 2026, 9 January 2027, 30 January 2027 and 13 March 2027. Elementary Level is offered only on the 14 November 2026 and 12 December 2026 dates; Middle and Upper Level are offered on all six.

Students who cannot test on a Standard date can take a Flex test — the same paper SSAT, given at a school or test centre outside the Standard schedule — once per testing year, at any level. SSAT at Home, a computer-based version proctored online, is also offered on its own set of scheduled sessions, and SSAT at Prometric offers computer-based testing at Prometric test centres.

Registration for a Standard date generally closes a few weeks ahead of the test; registering in the following week carries a late fee, and registering after that, until registration closes, carries a rush fee.

Fees

For the 2026–2027 testing year, in the United States and Canada:

International testing (outside the US and Canada) is a flat fee regardless of test type: $229 for Elementary Level,$339 for Middle and Upper Level.

A late registration adds $59 and a rush registration adds$100, for Standard paper testing only. Families who cannot afford the fee may ask a school the student is applying to for a fee waiver; EMA member schools can grant waivers based on income or other hardship criteria, covering the base registration fee and the Official Online Practice, but not late or rush fees.

How to apply

1. Create a free family account on the SSAT portal.

2. Pick the student's level and a test type — Standard, Flex, SSAT at Home, or SSAT at Prometric.

3. For SSAT at Prometric, first find an available test centre and session through the Prometric scheduler before completing registration in the SSAT account.

4. Choose a date, time and location, and pay the registration fee online.

5. Add the schools that should receive the score report; more recipients can be added later from the same account.

After the exam

Paper SSAT scores are typically released within about two weeks of the test date. SSAT at Home scores are released on the Wednesday after the test date. In every case, scores go to the family and to the designated schools at the same time — there is no way to see a score early or pay for faster release.

Preparation tips

Start with the free official Mini-Practice Test online to see which question types need the most work before committing to full practice. Because each section is timed separately and cannot be revisited once it ends, practice full-length timed sections rather than untimed question sets, so pacing on Quantitative, Reading and Verbal becomes automatic. The Official Online Practice and the printed SSAT study guide books both include four full-length practice tests with answer explanations, and are the only practice material written by SSAT's own test developers.