Anonymous wrote:Talk to the principal, find out how many kids generally go to your school of choice and how many kids are blocking you.

If your kid gates 99.9 % but your school sends 5 kids generally to your school of choice... I am assuming this is Prep or Gonzaga, and 6 legacies block you you are sol no matter your test score.

But if your kids grade has 1 legacy and you are a top student... You are good to go.

It's a political numbers game not a test score game.

If you are full pay Prep is desperate for full pay students, Gonzaga is a legacy/athlete issue.

GZ and SJC each had 1000+ applicants for abt 250 spots each, everything matters in competition like that.

Talk to the principal, find out how many kids generally go to your school of choice and how many kids are blocking you.

If your kid gates 99.9 % but your school sends 5 kids generally to your school of choice... I am assuming this is Prep or Gonzaga, and 6 legacies block you you are sol no matter your test score.

But if your kids grade has 1 legacy and you are a top student... You are good to go.

It's a political numbers game not a test score game.

If you are full pay Prep is desperate for full pay students, Gonzaga is a legacy/athlete issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Yes coming from a Catholic elementary. Great grades, great extra curriculars. Just debating on whether I want to bother with hspt prep or just let it fly. Not a legacy. We don't need FA but we certainly aren't buying new gyms. Trying to keep my kid's hopes in check while giving them a good shot at what they want...

Your competition is prepping, so you know. We prepped both DC's - wasn't cheap, probably 2K each. Brought both test scores up by 20 percentile points. Best prep will combine both prep and remedial work on whatever you kid is weak in. It was well worth it and probably why both are in our school of choice now.

Thanks for being honest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Yes coming from a Catholic elementary. Great grades, great extra curriculars. Just debating on whether I want to bother with hspt prep or just let it fly. Not a legacy. We don't need FA but we certainly aren't buying new gyms. Trying to keep my kid's hopes in check while giving them a good shot at what they want...

Your competition is prepping, so you know. We prepped both DC's - wasn't cheap, probably 2K each. Brought both test scores up by 20 percentile points. Best prep will combine both prep and remedial work on whatever you kid is weak in. It was well worth it and probably why both are in our school of choice now.

There's a prep class at AHC this summer as well.

Don't pay $ for HSPT prep. The score matters but not as much as SAT / ACT for college admissions.

Can't go up by 20. Local was 89 and national was just shy of 98. Concern is actually over the one subscore that was markedly lower (72 national/55 local) even when that doesn't match with any other test ever taken. Overall I think the score was great. That's why I asked what the schools actually focus on. If the one subscore was higher obviously that raises the composite. But doubt that that's worth it for 2k.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Yes coming from a Catholic elementary. Great grades, great extra curriculars. Just debating on whether I want to bother with hspt prep or just let it fly. Not a legacy. We don't need FA but we certainly aren't buying new gyms. Trying to keep my kid's hopes in check while giving them a good shot at what they want...

Your competition is prepping, so you know. We prepped both DC's - wasn't cheap, probably 2K each. Brought both test scores up by 20 percentile points. Best prep will combine both prep and remedial work on whatever you kid is weak in. It was well worth it and probably why both are in our school of choice now.

OP here. Yes coming from a Catholic elementary. Great grades, great extra curriculars. Just debating on whether I want to bother with hspt prep or just let it fly. Not a legacy. We don't need FA but we certainly aren't buying new gyms. Trying to keep my kid's hopes in check while giving them a good shot at what they want...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They get both scores... national and local.

Ok, so when people on here say 98%ile then, is that local or national? Because from what I know, 97-9 national is only 89 something local. Trying to see which most people are talking about.

On this board they say whatever makes them look the best.

I assume since this is HSPT, not SSAT, you are going to a Catholic school. Are you in a Catholic elementary school?

You are over thinking this ... obviously higher scores are great, but they are not everything. Catholic schools may get slammed for that on this board but in reality that is how education should work. Some smart kids are not in the 99%, and some kids with real issues are in the 99%.

Anonymous wrote:They get both scores... national and local.

Ok, so when people on here say 98%ile then, is that local or national? Because from what I know, 97-9 national is only 89 something local. Trying to see which most people are talking about.

They get both scores... national and local.

O'Connell did two sessions in May. Not sure if the others (PVI or Ireton) do something similar.

Are there places in NoVA that administer pre or practice HSPT's?

Our rising 8th grader is applying this fall and it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for them to do a practice run.

Thank you.

My 7th grader (rising 8th for the fall) took the pre-hspt. Just got back the scores. When people report on here the Composites, are they generally reporting the Local Pct or the National? There seems to be a big difference between the two. I know there is the CSQ as well. Wondering if anyone knows which one is actually the one I should be looking at. My DC shows one area that is noticeably weaker, but possibly not so much so that I should care depending on which number actually matters. Anyone have any idea? And yes, I know this is a different test than the actual HSPT, but I'm trying to get a idea of where we are right now...