The Writing Sample and Test Day
Fifteen minutes, one picture, one story with three parts — plus the four test-day facts worth knowing, starting with never leaving a bubble empty.
10 topics · 41 questions
Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.
What the Picture Prompt Asks You to Do
- How it worksHow does one picture turn into a story with a person, a problem and a way it all ends?
- Worked exampleShow me a story growing out of a picture of a boy holding a broken kite beside a lake.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't naming everything you can see the same thing as telling a story?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The picture shows a boy beside a lake holding a kite broken into 5 pieces. Which opening turns that picture into a story?What to Look At in the Picture First
- How it worksHow do you scan for who, where and what just went wrong before writing a single word?
- Worked exampleFind the story hiding in a girl standing in a doorway with a very muddy dog behind her.
- Going furtherWhat happens to your story when you spot one tiny thing tucked away in a corner?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't a long list of colours and objects give a reader any reason to keep going?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The picture shows a girl in a doorway with a muddy dog behind her and 10 muddy pawprints across the hall floor. What is the story hiding here?Deciding Who the Story Is About and What Happens
- How it worksHow does choosing one main character and one problem give a story somewhere to travel?
- Worked exampleWalk me through choosing who a story is about when three children and a lost puppy are shown.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a story finished when the problem simply stops happening all by itself?
- Going furtherWhat changes about a story once you decide your main character wanted something all along?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The picture shows 4 children and a lost puppy. Who should the story be about?A Beginning, a Middle and an End
- How it worksHow do a beginning, a middle and an end lock together like three blocks in a row?
- Worked exampleShow me the three blocks of a story about a boy who loses his ticket on the way to a match.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't and then we all went home an ending, even though the writing stopped right there?
- Worked exampleFind the missing middle of a tale that opens with a lost kitten and closes with a happy family.
- Going furtherWhat happens to the three blocks when you let the middle one grow longest of all?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A story opens with a boy losing his match ticket 6 streets from the ground. Which sentence belongs in the middle block?Using Describing Words
- How it worksHow does one describing word parked beside a noun change what a reader sees in their head?
- Worked exampleShow me the dog ran growing into the soaking wet dog bolted across the muddy yard.
- Going furtherWhat happens to a sentence when you swap a plain word like went for a sharper one like crept?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't stacking five describing words onto one noun make the writing any better?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A student has the sentence the dog ran and 5 minutes left to improve it. Which rewrite is best?Finishing in 15 Minutes
- How it worksHow does cutting fifteen minutes into look, write and check stop you running out of clock?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't starting to write in the first ten seconds the quickest way to finish a story?
- Worked exampleShow me a plan with two minutes to look, eleven to write and two to read it back.
- Going furtherWhat happens when the clock is nearly out and your story still has no ending on the page?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The Elementary writing sample lasts 15 minutes. A student spends 3 minutes looking at the picture and 3 minutes reading her story back at the end. How many minutes are left for the writing itself?Answer Every Single Question: There Is No Guessing Penalty
- How it worksHow does a test that never takes points away turn every wild guess into a free chance?
- Worked exampleShow me two answer sheets, one with 6 blanks and one with 6 guesses, and which one scores more.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't guessing dangerous here when older brothers and sisters lose points for wrong answers?
- Worked exampleFind how fast you must work to fill 4 empty bubbles when only 40 seconds are left on the clock.
- Going furtherWhat happens to your chances when you cross out two silly answers before you take your guess?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Two answer sheets are identical except for 9 questions. One sheet leaves them blank; the other guesses on all of them and gets 4 right. The Elementary SSAT takes nothing away for a wrong answer. How many more points does the guessing sheet score?The Shape of Test Day and the Clock
- How it worksHow does a section with 30 questions in 30 minutes hand you about one minute for each?
- Worked exampleFind how much time is left over after 12 minutes have gone on the first 15 math questions.
- Going furtherWhat happens to your pace when one stubborn question swallows three whole minutes?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't sitting on the hardest question ever earn you more than the easiest one?
- How it worksHow does a room where no calculator is allowed change the way you plan 30 math questions in 30 minutes?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The quantitative section gives 30 questions in 30 minutes. A student has already used 20 minutes of it. How many minutes are left?How the Score Works: 300 to 600
- How it worksHow do your right answers get turned into a scaled score somewhere between 300 and 600?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a scaled score the same thing as the number of questions you got right?
- Worked exampleFind the biggest and smallest totals possible when three sections each run from 300 to 600.
- Ties togetherHow do the math, verbal and reading scores stack into one bar running 900 to 1800?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The three scored sections each run from 300 to 600. A student scores 508 on quantitative, 495 on verbal and 572 on reading. What is her total?The Experimental Section
- How it worksHow does trying new questions out on real students decide which ones get used next year?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't it worth hunting for which section is the unscored one while you are sitting the test?
- Going furtherWhat happens to a brand new question that nearly every student gets wrong for the same reason?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The Elementary test ends with a short experimental section, and a student has 9 minutes of it left. Why do those questions exist?AP®, SAT® and PSAT/NMSQT® are trademarks registered by the College Board (PSAT/NMSQT® jointly with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation). ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT Education Corp. GRE® is a registered trademark of ETS. LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admission Council. MCAT® is a registered trademark of the Association of American Medical Colleges. ISEE® and SSAT® are registered trademarks of their owners. None of these organizations is affiliated with, or endorses, Jentoo.