The High School Placement Test (HSPT) is a nationally recognized entrance examination used in the private or parochial school admission process. Different independent schools will ascribe different degrees of importance to each factor, but your student’s HSPT score is a clear-cut way to stand out among other applicants. Students are not allowed to retake the HSPT. Therefore, it’s vital to properly prepare for the exam well in advance to identify problem areas before it is too late.
But reviewing the specific material covered in each section, completing multiple practice tests, and learning test-taking skills before exam day will increase your student’s chance of success. Mindfish is a boutique test prep company that is small enough to offer superior personalized instruction but large enough to develop a comprehensive curriculum with bi-weekly proctored practice tests. More importantly, Mindfish’s offices in Denver, Boulder, Lakewood, and Greenwood Village allow our team to offer test prep services year-round in preparation for every aspect of the HSPT. We take great pride in our teaching staff that contains experts for a variety of academic disciplines.
We are also proud to be the official test prep provider for some of the best private schools in Colorado, such as Kent Denver School, St. Anne’s Episcopal School, and the Alexander Dawson School. The HSPT strategies our tutors deploy aim to instill self-confidence, a strong work ethic, intellectual curiosity, and a more balanced view of the importance of academic life. Enroll in HSPT prep with Mindfish to help your student secure an advantage over other independent school candidates today!
What Can Denver & Boulder Students Expect on the HSPT?
The HSPT has five sections and two short breaks, containing 298 questions and lasting 3 hours. The HSPT also sometimes includes optional sections focusing on religion, mechanical aptitude, and science that some private schools require for entry. Fortunately, the HSPT’s content does not change dramatically from year to year. All the questions on the HSPT appear as multiple-choice with four or five answer choices. The number of questions and time allotted for each section varies:
- Language Skills: With 60 questions and a 25-minute time limit, students must show proficiency in spelling, composition, usage, capitalization, expression, and punctuation.
- Mathematics: Lasting 45 minutes, students will encounter 64 questions about arithmetic, elementary algebra, mathematical concepts & problem-solving, and basic geometry. (Students aren’t permitted to use calculators in the math sections).
- Quantitative Skills: With 52 questions and a 30-minute time limit, this section focuses on number manipulations, geometric & non-geometric comparisons, and number series.
- Reading: This section has 62 questions and lasts 25 minutes. Students must demonstrate an ability to understand central meaning and details in reading passages such as themes, tone, and the author’s intent. The reading passages in this section will cover a multitude of subjects, including science, history, literature, and societal topics.
- Verbal Skills: With 60 questions and a 16-minute time limit, this section focuses on synonyms & antonyms, logic, analogies, vocabulary, sentence completion, and verbal classifications.
How is the HSPT Scored?
Like the SSAT and ISEE, the HSPT has a unique scoring rubric. The HSPT exam gets scored on a scale, with 200 being the lowest possible score and 800 being the highest score. Students will receive one point for each correct answer throughout the five different standard sections. Students will not receive penalties for any incorrect or unanswered questions. This raw score is then converted into the 200-800 scaled score based on students’ percentile rankings for a given year. Furthermore, each private school has a different set score as what constitutes a “passing” score. The scores listed in each student’s HSPT report includes:
- Battery Composite Score: This score totals all the subtest scores
- Percentile Rank: This score reports the percentage of students with scores below or above a national sample ranging from 1 (low) to 99 (high)
- Raw Scores: Correct, incorrect, and omitted answers get tallied from each test section to yield a raw score. The raw score then converts into a standard score and national percentile ranking for each subtest
- Scaled Score: Ranges between 200 and 800
- Total Basic Skills Score: This represents the total score taken from the reading, mathematics, and language skills sections
- Total Cognitive Skills Score: This is the total score calculated from the verbal and quantitative skills sections
Although these various scoring methods feel overwhelming, focus on what is in your control – helping your child prepare for and do their best on the test!