One-on-one HSPT prep with me, Nico, at your home across Los Angeles or online. The HSPT decides Catholic high school admission for your 8th grader — and often placement and scholarships — in a single sitting, which amounts to 298 questions in about two and a half hours. Schools discourage retakes, so we prepare like there's one shot. Because there is.
It's the placement test used by Catholic high schools — in LA that includes Notre Dame, Crespi, St. Francis and Loyola — and it crams five sections into one rapid-fire morning. Results come back as national percentiles for each section plus a composite, and they can carry scholarship and honors-placement weight, not just admission: mid percentiles support admission, the top ranges are where many schools look for honors and tuition assistance.
Three things define it: speed (about half a minute per question, less on Verbal), no guessing penalty (a blank is the only wrong strategy), and one sitting (retakes are discouraged). Preparation is how you take the pressure out of all three.
The Verbal section runs 60 questions in 16 minutes. We train at real speed weekly until that pace feels normal instead of frantic.
No penalty means every unanswered question is a donated point. Commit-and-move-on is a discipline, and we drill it.
A strong composite score can mean honors placement and tuition assistance. One prepared morning in eighth grade can quietly be worth thousands.
Every student I work with begins with a full-length, timed practice HSPT: all five sections, real clocks, scored section by section. That one morning shows which section is costing points and how far the composite sits from the scholarship range — so the plan is built on your student's numbers, not a syllabus.
From there, HSPT prep is one-on-one, at your home across Los Angeles or online — the work a prep course or class does in a room of twenty, done with one tutor who adjusts every week. Full timed practice tests repeat through the fall, so the January sitting is the fourth or fifth time your student has run the whole morning, not the first.
A full timed HSPT in week one. We read it section by section and set a percentile target for each school on the list.
One session a week from the fall through January, with timed sets in between, beats a crash class the week before the test.
Full timed retakes every few weeks, so pacing and stamina are settled long before test day.
Same backbone as all my test prep — diagnostic, target, weekly timed practice, regular practice tests — compressed to fit an eighth-grader's fall schedule.
A full timed HSPT before anything else, so we know the real starting percentile and exactly which of the five sections needs the most work.
Content gaps close quickly at this level; pace is the differentiator. Weekly timed sections build the tempo required on test day.
By test day your student has done the full morning several times — same order, same clock. The real one is just the familiar one that counts.
Applying to more than one? Good news: the HSPT is the same test everywhere, so one preparation covers every school on your list. These are the schools LA families most often prepare for — listed so you can place your application, not as a claim about who I've taught. From my desk in Studio City, the Valley schools are a short drive; see where I tutor.
Each school administers the test on its own campus, almost always in January of eighth grade — check your school's admissions page for its exact date, and we'll build the plan backward from it.
Sherman Oaks · co-ed. Ten minutes from my desk. HSPT on campus Saturday, January 23, 2027; a 95+ composite there earns an automatic merit scholarship.
Encino · boys. Fifteen minutes west along Ventura. The earliest test dates in the Valley: January 2 and 16, 2027.
Woodland Hills · girls. No longer requires the HSPT — grades, recommendations and optional honors-placement exams carry the file.
West Hills · co-ed. No entrance exam — the transcript and a family interview decide it. Often paired with Crespi or Notre Dame, where the HSPT still counts.
Burbank · co-ed. Close to Toluca Lake and the studios.
Mission Hills · co-ed. HSPT Saturday, January 23, 2027; a 90th-percentile composite with a 3.5 GPA earns the Principal's Award.
Los Feliz · girls. Over the hill, an easy online fit.
La Cañada Flintridge · boys. HSPT Saturday, January 23, 2027; only on-campus testers qualify for the ranked Capuchin Scholar Awards.
Near downtown · boys. Has its own page — I've tutored Loyola students for years.
The January date is fixed, which makes the plan simple: count backward. Starting in early fall leaves room for the score to actually move.
A full timed HSPT to find the real starting percentile — before committing to anything.
Weekly sessions on the weakest sections, with timed section drills to set the pace.
Full timed mornings — same order, same clock — until the format is boring.
The real one is just the familiar one that counts. Applications go in with a score you chose, not one that happened.
In eighth grade, usually in winter — most Catholic high schools administer it on campus as part of the application.
That fixed date is why we work backward from it: a 12–20 week runway starting in late summer or early fall of eighth grade to make the process easy.
Plan on one sitting. Schools generally discourage retakes, and policies on which score counts vary — so the first morning is the one that matters.
That's not meant to add pressure; it's why preparation is worth it. Walking in trained beats walking in hopeful.
More than admission — many Catholic high schools also use HSPT results for course placement and scholarship decisions.
A strong composite percentile can mean honors placement and real tuition money, which makes this one of the highest-leverage mornings of eighth grade.
Most Catholic high schools in and around the Valley and LA — Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks), Crespi (Encino), Providence (Burbank), Bishop Alemany (Mission Hills), Immaculate Heart (Los Feliz), St. Francis (La Cañada) and Loyola near downtown. Two Valley schools have dropped it: Louisville no longer requires the HSPT and Chaminade requires no entrance exam.
The test is the same everywhere, so one preparation covers every application on your list.
Results come back as national percentiles for each section plus a composite. Mid percentiles support admission; the top ranges are where many schools look for honors placement and scholarship consideration.
Schools set their own bars, so the useful number is your student's starting percentile — that's what the week-one diagnostic finds, and the target gets set from there.
Yes — always. Unlike the SSAT, the HSPT has no guessing penalty, so no question should ever be left blank.
The skill we train instead is speed: at roughly half a minute per question, knowing when to commit and move on is worth more than knowing one extra vocabulary word or finishing a harder math question.
No classes — HSPT prep with me is one-on-one, and it starts with a full-length, timed practice test.
A course moves at the room's pace; we move at your student's. Weekly sessions from the fall through January, timed practice tests every few weeks, at your home across Los Angeles or online.
Yes — the first session is a full-length, timed practice HSPT, at your home in Los Angeles or online.
It is scored section by section so we can see the real starting point, and it repeats every few weeks through the fall. The January test should never be the first time your student runs all five sections against the clock.