Cool, but not that cool...

Happy New Year and Welcome 2026!

Although classes won’t start until tomorrow, Mr. Holt and I had the pleasure of administering the SSAT exam at BHS yesterday morning.  As I proctored the 15 students working their way through over 3 hours of testing, I suddenly remembered when I took the SSATs in the fall of 1986.

Way back then, I had no idea of what I was about to do.  I did not come from a place where SSAT tests were part of what anyone that I knew would call normal.  However, I grew up down the road from Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school that enrolled day students.  Without really understanding the process, I decided to apply to Choate, and discovered that I would need to take the SSAT.  Fortunately, Choate hosted the test on campus, otherwise, I would have no idea where one would take a test such as this.

I vividly recall walking into the test in one of their basketball courts, with what seemed like hundreds of desks lined up where I had once attended a basketball clinic.  The clinic was fun – this was scary.

I also remember clearly seeing a kid that I knew a little, Aaron Webb.  Aaron did not go to my public school; he went to a small private school a couple of towns over.  Aaron held himself with supreme confidence, what today would be referred to as swagger.  It was the type of cool that bordered indifference.  It was hard to know whether he saw himself as the Fonz or Jeff Spicoli, but he did not look scared or nervous.

I went on to take the test that day and, fortunately, did well enough, in addition to the rest of my application, to be admitted to Choate Rosemary Hall.  Attending Choate was the single most important experience in my life.  It set me on a course that I could never have imagined as a child in Wallingford, Connecticut.  For the most part, it started with the SSATs.

Now as Head of School, I have come to understand that the SSAT test should neither be scary, nor should it cause anxiety.  Further, I know that taking a standardized test of any sort is a skill that can be practiced, developed, and learned.  In fact, one can prepare specifically for the SSAT, and I have witnessed significant improvements in some students through preparation.  As such, SSAT preparation is becoming a larger part of The Beech Hill School’s Skill’s curriculum.

While I don’t want my students to walk into the SSAT with the over-the-top cool of Aaron Webb, I do hope that they will find themselves prepared and confident in this, or any standardized test setting they confront in their lives.