SSAT – Secondary School Admission Test
The SSAT, which measures reading, writing, math, and verbal skills, is the most popular standardized test used by the top independent US boarding schools. IST tutors have helped many Hong Kong students score above 95 percentile, who received offers from Andover, Deerfield, St. Paul’s, Taft, Groton, Cate, Lawrenceville, and Exeter. Other students who scored above 85 percentile received offers from Concord, Middlesex, Peddie, Hill, Mercersburg, Stevenson, and Hotchkiss. Two of these students achieved the top score of 99 percentile and went on to study at Choate Rosemary Hall and Milton Academy.
Some SSAT students prefer to have one tutor who can teach the reading, verbal, essay, and math sections, while other students prefer to have one tutor for each section. For Hong Kong students, the key is to begin studying as soon as possible because learning and mastering the vocabulary in the verbal and reading sections requires a significant amount of time and energy. Generally speaking, students who do well on the verbal and reading sections will also do well on the essay section because of the overlap in the skill set. Most Hong Kong students find the math section easy and usually do very well on this section.
The Elementary Level SSAT is for grades 3-4, the Middle Level SSAT is for grades 5-7, and the Upper Level SSAT is for grades 8-11. The SSAT may be taken at the HKEAA in San Po Kong throughout the year. Students should take the test when they feel they can achieve the required scores of their target schools. Most students keep taking the SSAT until they achieve their desired score.
SSAT English and Math Principal Tutor
Mr Don Ho is the Principal of IST and has been tutoring SSAT students since 2005. He is the most popular because he has had an extremely high success rate in helping his students achieve their maximum potential. In addition to being able to tutor verbal and non-verbal sections of the test, Don is also able to provide useful boarding school application and interview advice.
SSAT English and Math Senior Tutor
Since 2009, Mr Daniel Chan has been tutoring with IST. In addition to SSAT and ISEE mathematics sections, Daniel tutors Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Mathematics, BMAT, UKCAT, and non-verbal reasoning. Daniel is currently completing his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. He also scored a perfect 800 on the Mathematics section of the SAT and the SAT Chemistry Subject Test. His comprehensive approach to teaching has helped many of his students attain excellent results, which have led to offers from the best universities and boarding schools in the USA.
SSAT English and Math Standard Tutor
Miss Yenga Yan, who recently joined IST in 2018, graduated from the University of Cambridge, and is able to tutor the SSAT and the ISEE. As a student, she was awarded the Gold Senior UKMT Maths Challenge. Yenga also tutors Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and the UKiset.
SSAT Math Senior Tutor
Mr Calvin Chan has a Masters of Science in Mathematics from the CUHK and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics (Hons) from Imperial, and has tutored Mathematics at IST since 2009. Calvin tutors the Mathematics sections of SSAT, ISEE, SAT, and ACT.