This course prepares middle school students for the High School Placement Test (HSPT) used in Catholic and other private-school admissions. It is designed for students who need both strong academic review and fast-paced exam practice. The program covers the full skill set tested on the HSPT: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, reading comprehension, mathematics, and language.
Students begin with orientation, a diagnostic pretest, and a personal study plan so they can see exactly where they stand and what to improve first. From there, the course teaches the underlying curriculum behind each question type instead of relying on shortcuts alone. Lessons include concrete skill instruction, guided practice, timed work, and review of common mistakes.
By the end of the program, students will be able to:
- Understand the HSPT format, timing, pacing demands, and score-related expectations
- Improve vocabulary, analogies, classifications, and verbal logic skills
- Solve quantitative reasoning problems involving patterns, comparisons, ratios, probability, and number relationships
- Read passages more efficiently and answer questions about main idea, detail, inference, vocabulary in context, tone, and author’s purpose
- Strengthen math accuracy in arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percents, algebra readiness, geometry, measurement, and word problems
- Correct grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and sentence structure errors
- Work faster under pressure without increasing careless mistakes
- Use mistake logs, timed drills, and full practice reviews to raise scores strategically
The course is organized from foundation to application:
- Orientation and diagnostic work to establish readiness, timing benchmarks, and a study plan
- Core test-taking strategy for elimination, skipping, guessing, and speed control
- Verbal skills training in vocabulary, word relationships, analogies, classification, and logic
- Quantitative reasoning development in number sense, sequences, comparisons, and word-based reasoning
- Reading comprehension instruction for both literary and informational passages
- Mathematics review from arithmetic through algebra readiness, geometry, and applied problem solving
- Language and mechanics practice focused on grammar, sentence correction, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
- Timed drill labs and full HSPT-style review to turn skill gains into test-day performance
Throughout the course, students work with original exam-style questions, short quizzes, cumulative review, and targeted correction of recurring errors. The result is a practical preparation system that helps students improve accuracy, speed, time management, and confidence for Catholic high school placement exams.