If you have a 6th grade student, this spring term and summer is a critical time to consider your 9th grade plans. Students and families interested in competitive day schools and boarding schools alike need to treat 7th grade with great care. It’s 7th grade performance that will matter the most during the fall admissions season that unfolds most typically from September through January of a student’s 8th grade year. High school admissions directors will be carefully considering the following criteria in a holistic review application process:
- Academic achievement based on grades and report card comments from 7th grade and the first semester of 8th grade
- Academic achievement based on standardized testing, including ISEE, SSAT, CTP by ERB, and state testing
- Independent, on-the-spot multi-paragraph essay writing abilities based on the ISEE and SSAT essay prompts as well as possible school-based placement tests
- Application essay responses and 8th grade writing samples where a student has the opportunity to work through an effective writing process with integrity to produce their best work both at home and at school
- Teacher recommendations and other community outreach
- Successful interviewing with admissions officers, alumni, and/or student representatives
- Extracurricular activities, including clubs, sports, and community service
- Independent study or summer coursework
- Awards and accolades
- Sports recruitment
- Art or music portfolio
- Demonstrated interest in, or connection to, a particular school through ongoing engagement and relationships
The above doesn’t fall into place at the last minute or by accident. College readiness starts in preschool, thus careful planning and backmapping is needed to ensure that students and families are engaged in active, constructive, and incremental progress. Take note that the ISEE and SSAT are intentionally designed to be well above-grade level assessments. In fact, the most difficult content for the Upper Level test assesses content standards through grade 9 and into grade 10.
For further context, CTP by ERB, used by many independent schools for achievement testing, spans levels 1-11: Each CTP level corresponds to that same grade level. Therefore, a 7th grade student will most typically complete Level 7 testing. The ISEE is also published by the ERB, and it’s informed by the content standards for CTP by ERB. An 8th grade student testing officially in November and December of grade 8 will encounter content on the ISEE through levels 9 and into 10 for the most advanced items, which makes this test unusually challenging. While the SSAT published by the Enrollment Management Association isn’t specifically aligned with the CTP by ERB, it’s equally difficult and skewed above grade level per national standards. Suffice to say, a 7th grader needs an early start on preparation, and 7th graders need approximately 60-75 instructional hours, on average, to be ready with confidence and a proven track record for official testing. Strategies alone won’t address the significant new content that needs to be instructed. Content is king.
If a student has been performing just at or below grade level with relative challenges over the last school year or more, then there’s a higher likelihood that we’ll encounter prerequisite gaps. Content standards from primary grades and/or intermediate elementary grades may require attention before being able to progress to grade level or above grade level content. When this situation occurs, it’s best for tutoring to begin earlier to shore up foundational skills and address current school material. Practice with standardized testing – perhaps making use of the Lower Level ISEE for entrance to grades 5 and 6 or the Middle Level ISEE for entrance to grades 7 and 8 – provides a different vehicle from the school-selected program or resources in order to identify gaps, frontload concepts or skills ahead of classroom instruction, practice problem solving with mixed applications, introduce new vocabulary, and make introductions with multiple-choice formatting and related strategies, such as working backwards and process of elimination.
For essay writing, students are expected to handwrite their 5-paragraph essays legibly and quickly given the time limit. Cursive handwriting is preferable, in general, to support the flow of ideas, to avoid letter reversals, and to ultimately ease the speed of producing handwritten work once mastered. Students with significant graphomotor challenges and/or language-based learning disabilities may have a typing accommodation, thus mastered typing and related editing skills need explicit instruction and practice. A sixth grader should be able to type about 20-30 words per minute with proper finger position on the home keys. Handwriting practice and typing practice is a lot like piano practice, it needs to happen daily for at least 15-20 minutes with supervision and accountability.
7th grade school performance and ISEE or SSAT testing that happens in the fall of 8th grade are two of the most important considerations during a competitive 9th grade application process. The feedback from this Fall 2025 season made clear that strong achievement really matters a lot. The ISEE and SSAT scores were consistently a serious discussion point whenever we discussed a particular student’s candidacy with a prospective school. As part of a holistic review application process, the grades and the test scores have to reconcile; the independent writing sample and the other submitted writing samples have to reconcile; and the interview equally needs to showcase a student who is high achieving, curious, gracious, and ready to positively contribute to the school community. Other factors are surely considered as well, but the above are mission critical and specific to your student’s performance.
There’s a specific consideration for parents of 7th grade boys who will apply out for grade 9. It’s important to know that the competition for 9th grade male spots adds some additional pressure. Because New York City has a number of all boys schools that end after 8th grade – whereas all of the all girls schools have high school divisions – there’s a considerable number of boys competing for 9th grade spots. This dials up the need for demonstrated academic excellence in the context of more competitive day schools and boarding schools.
Parents and grandparents who approach the 9th grade admissions process late in 7th grade often feel overwhelmed by all the requirements and moving parts. We certainly appreciate that a late start can shift what should be a joyful and clarifying journey into a chaotic, annoying, and grudging experience. Therefore, we encourage you to start your high school planning early, intervene in a timely manner if you ever experience academic doubt, audit your child’s academic skills by grades 5 or 6, and set clear intentions by the spring of grade 6 in order to hit the ground running at the start of 7th grade. All too often 6th and 7th graders aren’t dialed into the importance of their choices and performance, and then they feel stressed and sometimes hopeless about their high school prospects come the start of 8th grade. An earlier engagement with our middle schoolers leads to their improved agency, greater buy-in to the process, and demonstrated responsibility as a result. Having information, structure, and support in place well before an important transition is about to occur demonstrates proactive and intentional planning, and it’s proven to be one of the best ways we can contribute to our student’s positive mental health, confidence, and ultimate happiness. We take great joy in facilitating school transitions that are well organized and smartly paced out, logical and strategic, calm and reflective, and ultimately successful.
Let’s have a family conversation together to find out what your child likes most and least about school and to better understand what’s really working for them and what’s not. Let’s talk together about their attention, their organizational systems, their perceived strengths and relative challenges, their social and academic goals, their community involvement, and their eventual middle school or high school hopes and dreams. We can unpack important timelines, explore questions and wonders, demystify the process, and map out a plan that makes the most sense for your child and family. Because no two families are the same, each family’s partnership with us deserves a differentiated approach. That’s exactly why we work with families on an hourly basis without any fixed programs or packages. In line with our belief that instruction should be differentiated for every student, we equally customize our consulting work with each family.
Scheduling A Planning Meeting
Whatever your educational consulting need or wonder may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We always have the option of scheduling a brief, complimentary call to discuss your needs and our services at a higher level.
Often a more substantive, initial school planning meeting is the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps.
We’re committed to creating a meaningful experience for each family, and we’d love to hear from you regarding your school and college planning needs. Please reach out so that we can schedule a planning meeting to maximize the remainder of this school year and get ahead of the school year to come!
Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman
Co-Founders and School Concierges, My Learning Springboard
