The HSPT is a paper test given on a Saturday morning at a high school your child has probably visited once. Nothing about the logistics is hard, but a forgotten confirmation code or a rushed breakfast costs more than a missed practice question. Here is the whole day.
Two weeks before
- Confirm the date, site, and check-in time on your diocese page in the directory and on the school's own site. Some dioceses give the test at the student's elementary school on a weekday and at high schools on Saturdays.
- Check the registration status. Most dioceses use an online portal that emails a confirmation. If nothing arrived, call the admissions office of the test site.
- Accommodations (extended time, separate room) usually require documentation weeks before the test. If your child has an IEP or 504 plan and you have not submitted it, do it now; walk-in requests on test day are refused everywhere we have checked.
- Do one full-length timed practice on a weekend morning at the real start time, so the length and the pace are familiar.
The night before
- Stop studying by early evening. A last cram session does not add points; a bad night's sleep subtracts them.
- Pack the bag (list below) and put it by the door.
- Set two alarms and agree on the leaving time. Look up the drive; Saturday morning parking at a high school with hundreds of families arriving at once takes longer than the map says.
- Normal bedtime, or slightly earlier. Not a novelty-early one that leaves them staring at the ceiling.
What to bring
- Three sharpened number 2 pencils with good erasers. The answer sheet is machine-scored; pens and mechanical pencils are usually not allowed.
- The registration confirmation (printed or on your phone) if your diocese issued one. Some sites also want a photo ID for the student; check the site's instructions.
- A simple watch with no alarm, if the site permits it. Not every room has a visible clock, and proctors do not always announce the time. This is the single most useful item on the list.
- A water bottle and a small snack for the break. A granola bar, not a full meal.
- Layers. Gyms and cafeterias are either cold or hot, never in between.
- Glasses, if your child needs them and sometimes "forgets."
What to leave home
- Calculators. Not permitted on any section.
- Phones at the desk. Most sites require them off and in a bag. A phone that buzzes during the test can get the answer sheet voided.
- Highlighters, scratch paper, notes. The test booklet is the scratch paper.
The morning of
- A real breakfast with protein, not just cereal. The test runs two and a half hours after a 30-minute check-in.
- Leave early enough to be sitting down ten minutes before the stated check-in. Late arrivals are turned away at many sites and have to reschedule, which in most dioceses means a make-up date with fewer seats.
- Drop-off, not hover. Parents generally wait outside or in a designated area. Tell your child where you will be at pick-up and leave it there.
What to tell your child about the test itself
These four things matter more than any last-minute content review.
- Answer every question. There is no penalty for wrong answers. If time is running out, bubble the remaining questions with a single letter before the proctor calls time.
- The clock is tight on purpose. Verbal Skills gives 16 seconds a question; Reading gives about 24. Nobody is expected to linger. If a question is not clear after a few seconds, pick the best option, mark it lightly in the booklet, and move on.
- Keep the answer sheet in sync. Skipping a question and then filling the wrong row is the most common test-day disaster. Check the question number against the row every five questions.
- Sections are separate. When a section ends, it ends. A rough Verbal section has no effect on Quantitative. Reset at each break.
- Pick a guess letter now. One letter for every blind guess, decided before test day, so no time is spent choosing.
- Point, then bubble. Pencil on the question number in the booklet, pencil on the same number on the answer sheet, then fill it in. Every question.
The full set of in-test tactics is on the test-taking strategies page, written for the student.
After the test
Ask how it went, once, and then let it go. Scores typically arrive in four to eight weeks depending on the diocese, usually alongside or shortly before admissions decisions. Our scoring guide explains the report when it comes.