Secondary School

Schools
SSAT Test
SSAT Accommodations

Your school choices

If you and your child are applying to private schools in Hawaii, you have a lot to consider. In applying to schools such as Punahou, ‘Iolani, Saint Louis, or any our island’s many private schools, the whole child is considered: grades, teacher recommendations, extracurricular activities, learning styles, and SSAT scores. Dr. Kerwin and our teachers have decades of experience helping students and families reach their academic goals in Hawai’i. You already have a lot to deal with – let us be your experts at the testing and admissions process.

SSAT Test

In applying to schools such as Punahou, ‘Iolani, Saint Louis, or any our island’s many private schools, the whole child is considered: grades, teacher recommendations, extracurricular activities, learning styles, and SSAT scores. While an SSAT score won’t make or break an application, its importance is far from negligible.

If your child will be applying for Grades 3 or above, at least one of the many schools you’re interested in applying to will require the SSAT. The SSAT stands for the Secondary School Admissions Test (not Standardized) and is administered in multiple countries around the world multiple times throughout the year. In many ways it is like the SAT for grade school. Although not all private schools in Hawaii require the SSAT for admissions, if you are considering schools like Punahou, ‘Iolani, St. Louis, then your child will take the SSAT.

SSAT Accommodations

Helping our families with children that have learning differences is close to our heart. We implore you to take full advantage of the accommodations allowed on the SSAT; there are many! As the test is an arduous process for any student it can definitely be even worse if a student’s needs are not met. The EMA has a whole list of different accommodations which can be found in a pdf on their site. Some are as simple as having a calculator which can prove significant on the math portion. Others can be having an adult with your child as ‘reader’ to read the material out loud or even act as a scribe. it should be noted that this can not be a family member or someone who has been an SSAT coach to the child. 


“The approver listed on a student’s application for accommodations is recommended to be a practitioner
or representative from the student’s current or previous school (ex. school psychologist, special education
coordinator, counselor, school administrator, therapist, learning specialist, teacher, etc.)”

  • Time and a half on every section
  • 'Reader' that reads content out loud at the discretion of the student
  • 'Scribe' who the student dictates to on the written section
  • Computer or electronic spell check device for the written section
  • Use of a four-function calculator on math sections
SSAT Accommodations Overview
List of SSAT Accommodations