8th Graders, Get Ready for High School Placement Tests

Welcome back to the school year everyone. I hope your years are off to a great start. We are settling into our new semester as well and scheduling students as you read this. Please let us know once you've settled into your own fall semesters and know when your students will be available for iLearn Academy classes.

Today's post is addressed to a specific group among you, our 8th graders and their parents.  This is a friendly reminder to be sure to prepare yourselves for high school placement tests this year. Whether you're in private school, public school, or any combination of the two, high school placement tests play a significant role in determining your beginning courses in high school and set the possibilities for courses your entire high school career and sometimes even determine which schools you'll be able to attend.  You should spend some time preparing for these tests. They really have a large sway in determining your freshman classes. Your freshman classes do greatly effect the trajectory of your high school career. These tests can be beaten with a little prep so get on it.

No matter whether you are taking the Terra Novas in December in Glenview or the PSAT 8/9 in October in Skokie, or the ISEE/SSAT at a private school, these tests matter. Teacher recommendations, grades and these test results are all an admissions director has to determine where you or your student should begin his/her high school journey. Standardized tests results are the only concrete evidence someone placing a student has over that student's actual capabilities. You'd better believe they will be considered. 

Where you start as a freshman can really lock you into a pathway. Start off your high school career in the best position you can. It is a shame when students don't even have the option of making it into higher level classes. Low placement as a freshman can bar a student for example from reaching honors courses,  AP courses and the free college credits that accompany them. This can hurt their prospects of going to the colleges they wish to attend. If you are placed in classes which you feel are too hard you can always ask to be moved down. However, to ask to be moved up from a class you feel is too easy for you is a long process with less chance of success. Do well on these test and get into the highest classes you can manage to get into.

These test differ in format, and length. However, as far as content, they are not vastly different and cover the same topics. They are testing your capabilities in reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, mathematics, and data interpretation. Strategies and materials made for the test you or your student will specifically be taking may be hard to find, but materials which cover these content areas are everywhere. 

Here are a few helpful places:

Terra Nova

PSAT 8/9

ISEE/SSAT

Go luck prepping, everyone. If you need extra information over test dates, need more materials, or want some help reviewing before your test, stop by iLearn Academy and let us know what you need.

Thank you all,

iLearn Academy