What Parents Need to Know about the SSAT in 2026

There have been no major changes in the SSAT’s structure, format or content focus in recent years. As of August 2024, however, all students taking the SSAT in the U.S. or Canada can now choose the SSAT at Home option which allows students to take the exam digitally on their home computers. As a result, test center availability for both paper tests and virtual tests is more limited than in the past. Depending on your area, it may be difficult to find centers offering tests in person, so it’s important for parents to research testing centers in advance.

Marks Education recommends that most students take the SSAT on paper. This allows students to mark up and annotate reading passages, work out math problems, cross out wrong answer choices, and employ several other strategies that involve writing directly on the test pages. Taking the test virtually is not likely to ruin a student’s scoring goals, however, and the virtual option may be better for some students.

Another recent trend is that many high schools in the D.C. area and around the country are returning to requiring test scores since our blog on the topic in 2021. You can find a breakdown of testing policies below. Note that these are the testing policies for students applying to 9^th Grade, most of whom will be taking the upper-level versions of the SSAT and ISEE. Some schools may have different policies for students applying to middle school or later grades in high school.

While many independent schools require the SSAT, many also require or accept the Independent School Entrance Examination (ISEE), High School Placement Test (HSPT), Measures of Academic Progress (MAP Growth), or an in-house test created by the school. The Educational Records Bureau (ERB), the makers of the ISEE, and the Enrollment Management Association (EMA), the makers of the the SSAT, recently merged into E3n. The merger may cause many schools to accept both tests interchangeably. Contact Marks Education about what test is best for your student or to schedule a free proctored baseline test.