Uses
SAT: The test that American high school students must take to enter American universities. In recent years, many American universities set it test-optional.
SSAT: American High School Entrance Examination for private high schools in the United States, Canada, and many other international top private schools.
Content
SAT: The SAT consists of three sections: Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Language & Writing.
SSAT: The test has four sections: Verbal, Reading, Math, and Writing. The first three parts are scoring items. Although the writing part won't be scored, it will be sent with a copy of the official SSAT score to the school students apply for, so it is equally important.
Score Settings
SAT: Full score: 1600
SSAT: The full score for the middle level is 2130, upper level 2400
Vocabulary Question
The SSAT has a separate Verbal section testing synonym and analogy, but the SAT doesn’t. In fact, many SAT candidates do not need to focus on vocabulary anymore if they have experience with SSAT, as the vocabulary required in SSAT is only 3000ish less than that in SAT. Also, there are vocabulary questions in the reading part of SAT and SSAT. This question often does not test the common meaning of the word itself, but examines the contextual meaning, which requires the examinee to know the strategy of doing the question very well.
Reading Passage
SSAT reading passages are usually short, but those on the SAT are about 3-5 times longer. Both exams attach great importance to novels and historical and political essays.
Exam Time
SAT: The duration of the test is 3 hours 45 minutes (225 minutes).
SSAT: 155 minutes