HSPT prep for public school student

[Anonymous]

We are coming from FCPS and found out about the HSPT tests required for Catholic high school. Do you have suggestions on how to best prepare for this test? It seems like Catholic middle schools do practice tests in 7th and 8th grade, how does a public school student get similar access to do this too? Tutors seem to be pricey and people have hits and misses with some of them. Would love to hear from public school parents how your child did and how they prepared themselves to score just as well as the Catholic school students.

[Anonymous]

Was in that situation this past year. If you aren't going to pay for a tutoring class then at a minimum, pick up the Barron's HSPT book and do it cover to cover. Each section of the test has its own peculiarities that the student needs to become familiar with, but the biggest issue is getting comfortable with the time allotted. My kid struggled hard with this at first. Too slow thinking through quantitative, not familiar with a lot of vocabulary. Math wasn't bad (it's his strongest subject in school) but was proceeding too slow and would routinely fail to get to 7-10 questions before the time would run out.

We'd go through each section w/out a timer to get used to the types of questions. We created a huge stack of vocab words on index cards and pop out a bunch at random times to reinforce them. Then we tried each section again, at least twice with a timer.

Eventually, it all clicked. Kid did shockingly well on the verbal, reading, and language. Scored below-expected on math b/c he was so overly confident he rushed through the section. In the end, scored in the low 80s which was good enough, but I suspect had he not did this with math, he'd have been in the 90s. Doesn't matter. Got into the schools he wanted.

You need to make time to do this. It can't be done well in a couple of weeks if they have no familiarity with the format.

[Anonymous]

Ireton and O’Connell usually offer a “pre-HSPT” test in the summer (June?). Recommend you call them and find out how to register. This will give your student an opportunity to test under actual testing conditions and give you a baseline score to see which areas they need to work on most.

[Anonymous]

There are also online study platforms. DC’s k-8 gives access to TestInnovators to every rising 8th grader, for both the SSAT and HSPT modules.

[Anonymous]

Also, spend some time on the essays. Many Catholic k-8s help with their students’ essays, either after school or actually during English class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are also online study platforms. DC’s k-8 gives access to TestInnovators to every rising 8th grader, for both the SSAT and HSPT modules.

We used Test Innovators for both SSAT and HSPT. We found the SSAT section to be much better with many more practice tests and practice modules. I would look into what they provide for HSPT before I paid for it. Our school provided it for free.

[Anonymous]

Doing a couple of practice tests was sufficient for my public school kids - it was helpful to them to get an idea of the pacing and types of questions / structure of the test.

It also showed a couple of gaps for each that we could work on - IIRC, one was grammar and the other was math/unit conversion (cups to gallons and inches to yards kind and maybe roman numeral).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ireton and O’Connell usually offer a “pre-HSPT” test in the summer (June?). Recommend you call them and find out how to register. This will give your student an opportunity to test under actual testing conditions and give you a baseline score to see which areas they need to work on most.

They’ll have a link on their websites for sign up

[Anonymous]

Had 2 DCPS kids go through this. One is a good test taker, one is not. The not good test taker did tutoring and was in the high 70th percentile. Good test taker read a test prep book and did one practice test, got a high 90th percentile (enough to get scholarships).

Based on my experience it depends on what kind of kid you have. I'd start with a book and practice test and go from there.

[Anonymous]

You can use the book or if you know your kid will never do it without you nagging them daily then sign them up for a course where there is weekly prep and homework. Also take the practice test and see how your kid scores. This will tell you how much prep your kid needs. We raised our score by 10 points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was in that situation this past year. If you aren't going to pay for a tutoring class then at a minimum, pick up the Barron's HSPT book and do it cover to cover. Each section of the test has its own peculiarities that the student needs to become familiar with, but the biggest issue is getting comfortable with the time allotted. My kid struggled hard with this at first. Too slow thinking through quantitative, not familiar with a lot of vocabulary. Math wasn't bad (it's his strongest subject in school) but was proceeding too slow and would routinely fail to get to 7-10 questions before the time would run out.

We'd go through each section w/out a timer to get used to the types of questions. We created a huge stack of vocab words on index cards and pop out a bunch at random times to reinforce them. Then we tried each section again, at least twice with a timer.

Eventually, it all clicked. Kid did shockingly well on the verbal, reading, and language. Scored below-expected on math b/c he was so overly confident he rushed through the section. In the end, scored in the low 80s which was good enough, but I suspect had he not did this with math, he'd have been in the 90s. Doesn't matter. Got into the schools he wanted.

You need to make time to do this. It can't be done well in a couple of weeks if they have no familiarity with the format.

This is incredibly helpful on how you prepped. I liked the use of index cards for vocabulary words as FCPS does not seem to do enough with language arts to sharped vocabulary and reading skills.

It’s good to hear your DC did well and what an amazing result they go too.

[Anonymous]

Take lots of practice tests -- getting the timing down for the HSPT is a critical piece.

[Anonymous]

Thank you parents for all the helpful information.

[Anonymous]

I echo the advice to at least get a test prep book and do some practice.

There are some courses out there to help. We did Mr. Duggan over the summer, which turned out to be one of the most expensive options but my son said it was good. And then we did an afterschool test prep through his school, which also carried a more modest cost. I was mostly worried about test pacing and filling out those little bubbles, since most of the regular MAP and other tests are online.

With accommodations (kid has ADHD and dysgraphia) my son scored in the 97 percentile overall, helped by a high math and qualitative score (his strength).

He got accepted into both Catholic schools he applied to and receive one merit scholarship offer. So, I do think the prep was worth it, but of course each kid will be different.

[Anonymous]

Barron’s book and spent the time to learn the vocabulary. Math was never a problem so breezed through that piece. Got a 98.