Practice High School Placement Test
Test Curriculum
Full-length, practice High School Placement Test (HSPT) for the exclusive use of Silver Creek Academic Academy (SCA) students and teachers.
The Pitch
The Problem
A large part of the prep for HSPT for students comes from taking practice tests. Students enrolled in HSPT classes at SCA received two full-length practice tests from the Kaplan class textbook, and students not enrolled in the classes had to pay a separate fee to sit down for a single practice test. All practice tests were originally sourced from textbooks published by other companies (Princeton, Kaplan, etc.). Therefore, students could buy these books themselves, or rent them from the library, and get the exact same practice test SCA was offering.
The Solution
SCA creates and administers their own, exclusive HSPT practice test to give to students, one they cannot get anywhere else and that functions not just as practice but as a diagnostic for study strategies, making it an invaluable resource should students seek to better their scores on the real HSPT. Produced via a collaboration between the upper grade Math teacher (Kendyl Young) and the advanced English and Test Prep teacher (me), I proposed the first ever original, full-length, practice SCA HSPT.
The Test
Format
Multiple Choice (A–D or A–C) | 298 Questions | 2 ½ Hours
| Verbal Skills | 60 questions | 16 minutes |
| Quantitative Skills | 52 questions | 30 minutes |
| Reading Comprehension | 62 questions | 25 minutes |
| Mathematics | 64 questions | 45 minutes |
| Language Skills | 60 questions | 25 minutes |
Questions
| Verbal Skills | Synonyms, antonyms, analogies, logic, verbal classification | Testing vocabulary level and comprehension, word association skills |
| Quantitative Skills | Number series and manipulation, geometric and non-geometric comparisons | Testing logic, deductive reasoning, mathematical problem-solving skills |
| Reading Comprehension | Main idea, detail, inference, vocabulary (in context and standard definition) | Testing reading comprehension and analysis, deductive reasoning, vocabulary skills |
| Mathematics | Concepts and arithmetic, algebra, algebra word problems, geometry, diagrams | Testing comprehension of mathematical concepts and practical application |
| Language Skills | Punctuation, capitalization, usage, spelling, composition | Testing English language fluency and writing skills |
Scoring
| Raw Score | General Performance Rank |
| 240–298 | Good |
| 210–240 | Average |
| 180–210 | Below Average |
| 0–180 | Failure |
Scores are also converted into Scaled Scores (200-800) and Percentile Ranks.
SCA HSPT Verbal
SCA HSPT Reading
SCA HSPT Vocab
SCA HSPT Language
Sample Pages Answer Key
1. B
2. D
3. C
4. B
5. A
6. A
7. A
8. B
9. C
10. C
125. C
126. B
127. A
153. B
154. A
155. D
156. A
157. C
158. B
159. D
160. A
161. D
162. B
163. A
164. C
239. C
240. B
241. C
242. C
243. A
244. A
245. C
246. A
