If you are hoping that your child will be admitted to that selective independent school, then it is important to encourage them to study for the SSAT. If your child will be entering fourth grade, then they will take the SSAT Elementary Level Third-Grade test. If you are hoping to have your child admitted to the school as a fifth-grader, then he or she will take the SSAT Elementary Level-Fourth Grade test. The four sections of the test include Writing, Quantitative/Math, Verbal, and Reading.

Varsity Tutors' Learning Tools offers many study help activities to help you and your child prepare for all three scored portions of the test, including the SSAT Elementary Level Reading section. One great Learning Tool that makes studying on-the-go easy is the SSAT Elementary Level Reading flashcards.

You and your child can study the free flashcards online any time you have a computer, smartphone, or tablet handy. That means that your child can study with them at home, but you can also take advantage of any unexpected downtime during your child's day and turn it into an easy impromptu study session.

The SSAT Elementary Level Reading study flashcards can help your child practice the reading and comprehension skills that the SSAT will test them on. During this section of the SSAT, your child will be presented with seven passages to read. After reading each passage, they will answer several multiple-choice questions based on it. Poetry, prose, nonfiction, and fiction passages may appear on the test. There are flashcard decks that cover each type of writing, so if there is one type that your child struggles to comprehend most, you can practice with that deck a little extra.

The flashcards quiz your child on evaluative understanding, inferential understanding, and literal understanding of all four types of passages, along with helping them practice determining a meaning of a word based on the context.

Another Learning Tool that can aid you and your child in your SSAT Elementary Level Reading review is the flashcards maker. To begin using this Learning Tool, just click on the “Create Tests & Flashcards” icon. You will then be directed to the flashcards builder and prompted to give your new deck of flashcards a name you will remember. Then, you will be provided with as many blank flashcards templates as you need to create your new deck.

When creating your own passage-based questions and answers, it can be a great idea to enter passages from your child's favorite books into the templates. While they do need a lot of practice answering questions on passages they have never read before, working with familiar passages can help them begin to understand concepts they may be struggling to understand. Then, once they master the familiar passages, you can move onto the ready-made flashcards or flashcards you create with passages they are not familiar with.

You can also enter questions and answers that you may have on other SSAT Elementary Level Reading review materials into the flashcards creator. This can help you practice the questions from bulky study materials with your child without having to carry them around anymore.

Be sure to get in as much SSAT preparation with your child as you can before test day. Practicing questions they will encounter on the test can help your child feel confident and prepared to do their best on the SSAT!