High School Placement Test

The High School Placement Test (HSPT) is a placement test given to eighth-grade students before they enter high school. This comprehensive test aids with admissions, class selection, and scholarships. The HSPT test is available in Braille, large print, and audio, if needed, but these formats must be requested ahead of time. The HSPT test is available in two versions: open and closed.

The open version of the HSPT test takes two hours and 30 minutes to complete. It is scored by using a scoring kit. It tests students in the following areas: reading, math, language, and verbal and quantitative skills. There is also a science portion of the HSPT test available for an extra fee. The score reports of the test include standard scores, local and national percentiles, grade equivalents, and cognitive skill quotients. The open version of the HSPT test also includes supplemental materials such as a manual to help score and interpret results, a technical supplement, a class record to display and assess scores, a student score report that shows to read the results, and a practice test that includes questions from each area from the test, along with an answer sheet to familiarize students with the types of questions that will be asked.

The closed version of the HSPT test also takes two hours and 30 minutes to complete and is available as a lease/score program. This means that a school can lease the testing materials and receive the scoring service for no additional fees. A school can also purchase other services, such as score reports, individual analysis profiles, and performance profiles, for an additional cost. Individual analysis profiles are in-depth analyses of each item on the HSPT test. They show the skills the student has mastered and what objectives he needs to improve upon. Performance profiles measure a student’s performance on each subtest. A special answer sheet is also available for the closed HSPT test, which helps track student addresses and notification forms. The subject areas are the same as the open version of the HSPT test, but other subjects are available as well, such as science, mechanical aptitude, and Catholic religion. Standard scores, local and national percentiles, and cognitive skill quotients are standard features of the closed version of the HSPT test.

There is nothing a student needs to do to register for the HSPT test. The high school handles the registration process and pays for the tests and other materials. There is a Pre-HSPT test that students can take in seventh grade to gauge how well he will perform on the HSPT test. However, this is only administered by high schools. The best thing students can do is do the best they can. The HSPT test is only allowed to be taken once per student. If the student does happen to take it more than once, the lowest score is counted as his score.

Schools can purchase an HSPT test E-Score answer sheet for students’ tests. It is more flexible that traditional answer sheets and allows for immediate scoring, so the results are known right away.