Preparing for the SSAT can be overwhelming, right?
Maybe you’ve been hunting for solid SSAT practice questions and resources online, but you haven’t found materials that teach you anything new. Maybe you’ve been trying SSAT practice tests, but your score hasn’t improved. Maybe you’re not sure where to start preparing for the SSAT at all!
Well, there’s a solution - we’re here to help you simplify your SSAT prep in a brand new way.
In our online, self-paced SSAT course, we’ve broken down each type of question you’ll see on the reading, verbal, and writing sections of the official SSAT test. The course materials center on strategies to answer every one of those questions.
How can you find evidence in a text more efficiently? How is it possible to answer analogy questions if you don’t know all of the words? What are you supposed to include in an essay answer, anyway? We’ll discuss techniques to answer these questions, plus a whole lot more.
Once we’ve introduced our simple, easy-to-use strategies in video lessons, we’ll do guided SSAT practice together to help you commit them to memory and apply them on sample SSAT test questions. As you proceed through the lessons, you’ll take quizzes to track your progress. When you’re ready, you can complete practice sections that mimic the official SSAT test.
We’ve even included some bonus resources, like SSAT vocab lists, writing assessment checklists, and our recommendations if you need further SSAT practice after you’ve completed the course. Plus, you can complete these lessons on your schedule. Lessons and materials are available on demand.
Does this sound like the type of SSAT prep you’ve been searching for? Check out the full curriculum here to learn more.
If you’re a fan of Disney movies or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ve likely heard of Easter eggs.
Nope, not the plastic kind filled with jelly beans.
Easter eggs in movies are crafty details and inside jokes that aren’t apparent to a casual film watcher. Think R2-D2 and C-3PO hiding in hieroglyphics behind Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or Rapunzel and Eugene from Tangled attending Princess Elsa’s coronation in Frozen.
Searching out these obscure references is fun in its own right. But Easter egg hunting has another benefit: practicing finding these hidden clues will give you a leg up on SSAT inference questions.
Making an inference requires you to build off clues in a text (be it an SSAT passage or a movie) to make a logical conclusion that’s not explicitly stated.
And hunting for Easter eggs is a great example of inference-making in real life.
To find Easter eggs, film buffs watch a movie carefully, slowing clips down and rewatching them to search for details that might be significant. Once they’ve found something notable, they match up what they know about the movie, the director’s background, or the production company’s other works with the clues they find.
You make an inference on the SSAT in roughly the same way. To reach accurate conclusions, you need to follow these steps:
Understand what the text is about (i.e. identify the main idea)
Return to the text and reread to catch small details - even the tiny ones that seem insignificant
Brainstorm why those details might matter. Do they connect to another idea? Or reveal important insights?
For an example of this process in action, let’s use the Lightyear movie’s teaser trailer. Like many Pixar movies, it is riddled with potential inferences to be made.
The trailer shows us that the plot of the movie centers on Buzz Lightyear. But Buzz is no longer a toy – he’s an actual astronaut doing some kind of experimental flight. He has astronaut coworkers, a cute robot cat, and the same catch phrase from the Toy Story movies.
But we can glean even more than that if we pay attention to some revealing details.
I found these details thanks to Youtuber Eric Voss of the New Rockstars channel. In the following video, he breaks down the trailer, making inferences about the Pixar universe and the movie’s themes. (You can watch the whole video or just get the highlights below!)
First, note how Voss’s explanation follows the steps we listed above.
In the very beginning of the video, he makes sure we understand what the trailer is about, clarifying that this is the movie the Buzz Lightyear toy is based on in the Toy Story universe. As the video plays, he frequently returns to clips from the trailer, pausing and replaying frames to draw our attention to tiny details. Then he makes inferences and speculates why those details matter.
For example, Voss observes around 1:15 in the video that as Buzz and the rest of the astronauts walk around their planet, they don’t wear space suits or helmets. Why is that significant? This shows the astronauts can breathe the planet’s air, leading Voss to infer that this planet was perhaps chosen as the home of Star Command because it seems to have an Earth-like atmosphere.
At 2:03, Voss also notes that the robots scuttling around the planet look familiar – somewhat like Wall-E. Since Wall-E is also a Pixar movie in which humans head to outer space, he infers that Buzz’s mission might be part of Operation Recolonize, the reason all the humans fled Earth in the Wall-E film.
Voss even uses clues from the trailer’s soundtrack. At 7:40, he breaks down “Starman” by David Bowie, the song playing in the background. He catches that the chorus has a similar pattern of notes as “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. He knows that Dorothy is a lonely traveler who has to find her way in a brand new world, and he infers that Buzz may have similar experiences in Lightyear. Without watching the film, we might already have an idea about some of its themes.
Ready to make some of your own inferences to prep for the SSAT? Let’s warm up with a Lightyear-themed inference question.
What can be reasonably inferred from the 01 on Buzz’s helmet (visible at 0:20 and 0:30 in the trailer)?
a. Buzz will be first to die in the movie.
b. Buzz is the first toy of his kind.
c. Buzz works alone.
d. Buzz is the first astronaut to attempt this kind of flight.
e. Buzz is the sole astronaut capable of flight.
The first thing you’d need to do to answer this question is watch the trailer and generally understand what it’s about. It’s significantly less likely you’ll get the correct answer if you don’t have any comprehension of the plot.
Then, after reading the question, return to the text where you spot the 01. For this example, you’ve been given the timestamp of the clip. For some SSAT questions, you may be given a line number. What do you think this detail might be showing? What is the number 01 often used to signify in other contexts? Why could it be important here?
As you think about it, hopefully answer choice D is becoming more and more obvious. It’s unlikely that Buzz’s commanders would know for sure he would die when his suit was being created, Buzz is no longer a toy in this movie, we hear and see Buzz being helped by multiple people, and we don’t have enough information to assume that Buzz is the only astronaut capable of flight (especially since we see his friend in a similar space suit at the end of the trailer).
Now let’s give this same process a try on a sample SSAT passage and question. Read the passage below and make sure you understand the main idea. Then check out the question and return to the passage to hunt for the details that could prove the correct answer choice.
On January 1, 1834, a young man named William escaped from slavery near Cincinnati, Ohio. Traveling at night through the frigid winter, without an overcoat to keep him warm, William suffered from cold and hunger, and yet, as he recorded in the first of many autobiographical narratives, his thoughts were constantly drifting toward the future. “My escape to a land of freedom now appeared certain,” he wrote, “and the prospects of the future occupied a great part of my thoughts. What should be my occupation, was a subject of much anxiety to me; and the next thing what should be my name?” Although his mother had called him “William,” he had, for most of his life, been known as “Sandford” to the series of men who had legally owned him. But now he would be William.
A last name would be trickier to come by. Although William knew the name of the white man who was his biological father, he refused it, claiming “I would rather have adopted the name of ‘Friday,’ and been known as the servant of some Robinson Crusoe, than to have taken his name.” Eventually, fate intervened in the form of a friendly Quaker who took William in when he fell ill. Grateful for the Quaker’s help, William gave him the privilege of choosing a new name: William Wells Brown.
It is most reasonable to infer from the passage that
a. William did not have regular contact with his father
b. William felt sentimentality for the name Sandford
c. William was unwelcome in Cleveland
d. William and his mother were happy together
e. William converted to become a Quaker
You can check your answer at the very bottom of the post.
Want to see this process in action or try out more inference practice questions? Check out our Inferences Youtube video in our SSAT Strategies video series! We’ll walk an SSAT-style passage and continue breaking down these inference questions together.
Answer: A is the correct answer. We can tell this from the evidence, “William knew the name of the white man who was his biological father” and his subsequent refusal of that name. If William had been in regular contact with this father, the author would not need to state that William knew his father’s name; it would be a given. We can eliminate the other answers because there is no evidence to support C, D, or E, and B is contradicted by the fact that William changes his name immediately upon gaining freedom.
I am the only person in the world who is not on TikTok. Or at least it feels like it. And sometimes I wonder if I’m missing out.
So I’ve been researching whether TikTok is worth my time. And all of my reading has had a surprising benefit (you know, beyond introducing me to hypnotic food videos): it’s a real-life study in author’s purpose.
Author’s purpose is simply the author’s reason for writing a text. It is commonly divided into three categories: persuade, inform, and entertain. They spell out the tasty acronym PIE.
Texts that persuade try to convince the reader of something. Opinion pieces, editorials, reviews, and advertisements are all persuasive texts.
Texts that inform give the reader information. Common examples include news articles, how-to articles, and most textbooks.
Texts that entertain simply want the reader to enjoy reading. Novels and comic books fit in this category.
While I’m solving the mystery of whether I should join TikTok, the types of articles I read also fit into these three categories.
Take “TikTok tops Google as the most visited site on the Internet.” From the title, we might already suspect that this article is going to inform— it’s giving us evidence of TikTok’s popularity but not trying to convince us of anything. As we read further into the article, the informing continues. We learn about the founding of TikTok, its ranking compared to other websites and social media apps, and some of its criticisms. But even though the article mentions those potential downsides, it does not try to convince us to act in a particular way.
Contrast that with the article titled “TikTok is the best place on the Internet. We should all delete it.” This article is very clearly meant to persuade. If you click through the article, you’ll notice that the author walks through multiple arguments for why TikTok is not great, primarily because of its potential privacy concerns and censorship. Even the title alone could definitely have clued us in to the author’s persuasive purpose.
Then there are those resources that don’t make me feel like I’m researching because they’re just plain fun to read (er, watch). Watching the bones/no bones dog? Or Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell’s Grace Kelly duet? Or weirdly mesmerizing rug cleaning videos? Definitely meant to entertain (and they’re succeeding).
Now here’s how this knowledge translates to the SSAT.
After you finish reading a text, jot down the main idea using our formula “topic + so what.” (Review that here if you’re unfamiliar.) You should do this for every passage, whether you encounter an author’s purpose question or not!
Then move on to the questions. When you see an author’s purpose question, decide whether the text you just read is persuading, informing, or entertaining. Do this before you even read the answer choices! You’ll keep yourself from getting distracted by answers that sound impressive but aren’t correct.
Now finally, check out the answer choices. The first word in the answer choice will likely be a verb. Is it a synonym for persuade, inform, or entertain? If the first word is not in the same category as the passage, eliminate it. Then use your “topic + so what” to verify that the rest of the answer is correct.
Let’s try it out!
Check out “Is TikTok safe? Here’s what you need to know.”
Once you’re done reading, let’s identify the main idea. This article seems to explore different perspectives on the possible security risks of TikTok. So our topic + so what might be something like TikTok’s security risks + mostly aren’t worrisome.
What is the purpose?
Now, let’s determine the purpose. Is this persuading, informing, or entertaining?
We can rule out entertaining right away—people likely aren’t seeking out this article solely for enjoyment. Then it’s a tough choice between persuading and informing! Overall, though, it doesn’t seem like the author presents us with one overarching, controversial viewpoint. The article considers multiple angles and summarizes multiple opinions from experts without trying to convince readers to do or believe one thing. That means it’s likely meant to inform.
Given that information, if you saw this question, which answer would match best?
The passage’s purpose is most likely to
a. Convince readers to lobby for banning TikTok
b. Educate readers on the perils of social media use
c. Advocate for increased privacy measures for TikTok users
d. Describe TikTok’s adverse effects on attention span
e. Report the relative insignificance of TikTok’s safety violations
What do you think?
Well, we can eliminate A and C because those both “convince” and “advocate” are synonyms to persuade, not inform. D can be eliminated because it’s off-topic; this passage doesn’t discuss attention span. Between B and E, B is a bit more general. It discusses social media use in general, not TikTok specifically. That leaves us with E as the stronger answer: “report” is a fine synonym to inform, and “relative insignificance of TikTok’s safety violations” roughly matches “TikTok’s security risks + mostly aren’t worrisome.”
Now let’s try this out on an SSAT-style practice passage. Read this passage, then proceed to the question.
Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
The primary purpose of the passage is to
a. Detail how the author believes a successful ruler should behave
b. Advise rulers on how to ensure a long reign
c. Encourage citizens to fear their rulers
d. Facilitate communication between rulers and subjects
e. Illuminate the complications of monarchy
What do you think? When you’re ready to check your answer, scroll down to the very bottom of the page for the answer and explanation.
If you’d like to see this process in action or try out another practice passage, check out our Author’s Purpose Youtube video! We’ll walk through an SSAT-style passage and break down this type of question together.
Answer: The best answer to the SSAT practice question is A. This passage is persuading, and its main idea might be something like rulers + feared over loved. “Detail” means to walk through in depth. While it’s often used as a synonym to inform, in this case, the author is walking through his assertion in depth, so it still fits. “How a successful ruler should behave” summarizes the idea that a ruler should be feared rather than loved.
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli is in the public domain
Are you a master at making playlists or queuing up the perfect song list on Spotify? An expert at finding the exact right song for the exact right vibe? Then you’re already amazing at author’s tone. You just don’t know it yet.
In this post, we’ll cover how to transfer your amazing insights on today’s hits to author’s tone questions on tests like the SSAT. Brace yourself - the breakup songs are coming.
