Below are 32 free SSAT practice questions, 16 for the Middle Level and 16 for the Upper Level, covering all four scored question types: quantitative, synonyms, analogies and reading. Each has five answer choices, an explanation, and SSAT scoring: +1 for a right answer, −1/4 for a wrong one, 0 if you omit it.
We wrote every question ourselves in the style of the real test; none is copied from an official SSAT. The format facts, timing and scoring rules on this page come from admission.org, the SSAT's official site, checked November 8, 2026.
Each level has 6 quantitative questions, 3 synonyms, 3 analogies and a short original passage with 4 reading questions, roughly the mix of the real test in miniature. Give yourself about 15 minutes per level if you want to feel the pace. On the real SSAT you get about 72 seconds per math question, 60 seconds per reading question and 30 seconds per verbal question.
SSAT practice questions: 16 per level
Pick your level: Middle if you're in grades 5–7 now, Upper for grades 8–11. Choose an answer to see the explanation, or omit a question you'd skip on test day. Scoring follows the SSAT: +1 right, −1/4 wrong, 0 omitted.
Quantitative (6)
Five answer choices, no calculator. Use scratch paper.
Verbal: synonyms (3)
Choose the word closest in meaning to the word in capital letters.
Verbal: analogies (3)
Choose the answer that completes the analogy with the same relationship.
Reading (4)
Read the passage, then answer the questions about it.
Passage: Literary fiction
The brass clock
Every Saturday, Mara walked to her grandfather's workshop at the end of Pier Street, where clocks of every size ticked on the shelves like a room full of patient insects. Most of them were waiting to be repaired. One was not. It sat on the highest shelf, a brass ship's clock with a cracked face, and it had not moved since before Mara was born.
"Why don't you fix that one?" she asked one morning, pointing.
Her grandfather did not look up from the watch he was cleaning. "Some things are better left as they are," he said. Then, after a moment: "It belonged to my brother. He kept it on his boat."
Mara had never heard of a brother. She waited, but he only bent closer to the watch, his magnifying lens catching the light from the window.
For three Saturdays she said nothing more about it. She swept the floor, sorted springs into jars by size, and learned to oil a gear without flooding it. On the fourth Saturday, her grandfather lifted the brass clock down himself and set it on the bench between them.
"Your hands are steadier than mine now," he said. "If you're careful, you can start it. But don't replace the glass. I want to remember where it cracked."
Mara opened the back of the clock slowly, as if it might be asleep. Inside, the gears were green with age, but none were broken. By late afternoon the second hand gave a small jump, then another, and then it kept going. Her grandfather listened for a long time before he spoke. "There," he said quietly. "Now it's keeping time again."
Your Middle Level results
Answer or omit questions above and your SSAT-style raw score appears here: +1 for each right answer, −1/4 for each wrong one, 0 for each omitted question.
When guessing pays: a blind guess among five choices is worth 0 points on average. Rule out even one choice and a guess is worth more than omitting; rule out two or three and it's clearly worth it. On the real test, a raw score like this is converted to a scaled score and percentile, which this set doesn't estimate.
Quantitative (6)
Five answer choices, no calculator. Use scratch paper.
Verbal: synonyms (3)
Choose the word closest in meaning to the word in capital letters.
Verbal: analogies (3)
Choose the answer that completes the analogy with the same relationship.
Reading (4)
Read the passage, then answer the questions about it.
Passage: Argument (science and society)
The case for darker nights
For most of human history, the night sky was the largest thing a person could see. Today, many children grow up without ever seeing the Milky Way, not because it has gone anywhere but because the glow of their own towns has washed it out. Astronomers call this glow light pollution, and it is easy to dismiss as a problem only for people with telescopes. It is not.
Many living things set their internal clocks by darkness. Sea turtle hatchlings, which crawl toward the brightest horizon to find the ocean, can be drawn inland by beachfront lights. Migrating birds that navigate at night may circle lit buildings until they are exhausted. Even in people, bright light late in the evening can make it harder to fall asleep, because the body reads light as a sign that the day is not over.
What makes light pollution unusual among environmental problems is how easily it can be reduced. A polluted river may take decades to recover; a street can grow darker the moment its lamps are changed. Shielded fixtures that point light down at the ground, instead of up and sideways into the sky, let drivers and walkers see just as well while wasting less energy. Timers and motion sensors can switch off lights that would otherwise shine all night over empty parking lots.
None of this requires a town to go dark. It requires only that we ask, of every light, whether it is helping anyone. A light that shines into the sky is not lighting a sidewalk. It is simply lost, and it takes the stars with it.
The Middle Level (grades 5–7) and Upper Level (grades 8–11) SSAT have the same format: 150 scored questions in quantitative, reading and verbal sections, an unscored writing sample and an unscored experimental section, in 3 hours 10 minutes including two 10-minute breaks. Each level is written for its own grade range. The sections run in this order:
| Part | Section | Questions | Time | Scored? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Writing Sample1 prompt; Middle: creative story starter or personal question; Upper: personal or general question | 1 prompt | 25 min | No |
| 2 | Break | – | 10 min | – |
| 3 | Quantitative 1Arithmetic, elementary algebra, geometry and other concepts; no calculator | 25 | 30 min | Yes |
| 4 | ReadingPassages of 250 to 350 words: literary fiction, humanities, science, social studies | 40 | 40 min | Yes |
| 5 | Break | – | 10 min | – |
| 6 | Verbal30 synonyms and 30 analogies | 60 | 30 min | Yes |
| 7 | Quantitative 2Same content as Quantitative 1 | 25 | 30 min | Yes |
| 8 | Experimental6 verbal, 5 reading, 5 quantitative; not scored or reported | 16 | 15 min | No |
| Total | 150 scored + 16 experimental | 3 h 10 min |
A few details that matter when you practice:
For a longer walkthrough of each section, see our SSAT test structure and format guide and how long the SSAT is.
Every scored SSAT question is one of four types: a quantitative problem, a synonym, an analogy or a reading question, each with five answer choices labeled A to E. Here is what each type rewards, with the questions above as examples.
Expect arithmetic (fractions, percents, ratios), algebra (solving equations, expressions), geometry (perimeter, area, angles, circles) and data (averages, probability). The wrong choices are usually the results of predictable mistakes. In Middle Level question 2, $15 is the discount instead of the price; in Upper Level question 3, $84 is what you get by adding +25% and −20% as if they applied to the same number. When your answer appears among the choices, check that it answers the question asked, not an intermediate step: Middle Level question 3 asks for 2n, not n.
Two habits help on the real test. Work with totals whenever averages appear (Middle question 5 and Upper question 6 both fall apart quickly once you multiply out the sums), and plug answer choices back into equations when algebra feels slow.
A synonym question gives one word in capital letters and asks for the choice closest in meaning. The traps are an antonym (rare for ABUNDANT), a word from the same topic (valuable for FRAGILE) and a word that looks or sounds similar (heavenly for EPHEMERAL, which students confuse with ethereal). If you don't know the word, roots can still get you close: BENEVOLENT breaks into bene (good) and vol (wish). Our hardest SSAT vocabulary words list is a good place to build range.
An analogy gives a pair of words and asks which choice has the same relationship. The reliable method is to say the relationship as a short sentence before looking at the choices: "a thermometer measures temperature," "a drought is a lack of rain." Then test each choice in your sentence. If two fit, make the sentence more specific. Watch for near-miss relationships (Upper question 12: a baker makes bread, but a sculptor doesn't make a chisel) and for second meanings (scale in Middle question 10). This set uses two common analogy formats: completing the second pair ("Feather is to bird as scale is to") and choosing a whole pair.
Every reading answer is supported by the passage. The most common wrong choices go too far (the Upper passage argues for darker nights, not for turning off every light) or say something reasonable that the passage never states (the Middle passage never says what happened to the brother). For each question, find the line that proves your choice. The Middle passage is literary fiction and the Upper passage is an argument, the two kinds of writing admission.org says the SSAT uses.
On the Middle and Upper Level SSAT, each right answer earns 1 point, each wrong answer loses 1/4 point, and each omitted question earns 0 (admission.org, score reports). The total is your raw score for that section, which E3n converts to a scaled score and a percentile that compares you with first-time test takers in your grade over the last three years (how to read the score report).
Worked example. On the 60-question verbal section, a student answers 48 questions, gets 40 right and 8 wrong, and omits 12. Raw score: 40 − 8 × 1/4 = 38. If instead the student had guessed blindly on the 12 omitted questions, the average result is about 2.4 right (+2.4) and 9.6 wrong (−2.4), a net change of zero, with a real chance of ending up below 38.
The penalty is sized so that blind guessing breaks even. What changes the math is ruling out choices. Each answer choice you can eliminate raises the value of a guess:
| Choices ruled out | Chance a guess is right | Average points per guess | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| None (blind guess) | 1 in 5 (20%) | 0.00 | Omit |
| 1 | 1 in 4 (25%) | +0.06 | Guess (small edge) |
| 2 | 1 in 3 (33%) | +0.17 | Guess |
| 3 | 1 in 2 (50%) | +0.38 | Guess |
In practice: on a question you can't touch, omit and move on. On a question where you've crossed out even one choice for a real reason, guess. That's why the practice set above has an omit button: deciding when to omit is a skill, and the results panel shows what your wrong answers cost. Over ten guesses with three choices ruled out, you'd expect about 3.75 points more than omitting. Our SSAT guessing strategy guide goes deeper on pacing and when to come back to a skipped question.
Practice questions are most useful for learning the question types and finding your weak spots; full-length timed tests are what show you your pace and stamina. A routine that works with a set like this one:
If you're in grade 7 and deciding between levels, you don't choose: the level depends on your current grade. Grade 7 students take the Middle Level, and grade 8 students the Upper Level.
The Elementary Level SSAT, for students in grades 3 and 4, has no wrong-answer penalty: right answers earn a point and wrong answers cost nothing, so students should answer every question. It's also shorter, at 2 hours 5 minutes, and its sections are different from the Middle and Upper Level:
| Section | Questions | Time | Scored? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quantitative | 30 | 30 min | Yes |
| Verbal | 30 | 20 min | Yes |
| Break | – | 15 min | – |
| Reading | 28 | 30 min | Yes |
| Writing Sample (picture prompt) | – | 15 min | No |
| Experimental | 15–17 | 15 min | No |
Elementary reading has seven short passages with four questions each, and the writing sample is a story about a picture. The questions on this page are pitched at grades 5 and up, so for grade 3 and 4 practice use our SSAT Elementary practice questions instead.
After this set, move to timed practice by section, then a full-length test. These pages pick up where the 32 questions above leave off:
For official practice, admission.org's SSAT practice page offers a free online Mini-Practice Test and paid Online Practice and guide books with four full-length Middle and Upper Level tests, written by the team that makes the SSAT.
Last verified against admission.org's SSAT level guides, score report, guessing and practice pages: November 8, 2026. All practice questions on this page are original and written by Test Ninjas.