Conquer the HSPT & Secure Your Student’s Private High School Future
At A+ Tutoring & Test Preparation of Cincinnati, we know that 8th grade is a high-stakes turning point. For families aiming for premier Catholic and private high schools across Greater Cincinnati—including St. Xavier, Moeller, Elder, LaSalle, Ursuline, Mount Notre Dame, Saint Ursula, and Summit Country Day—the High School Placement Test (HSPT) is the ultimate gatekeeper.
A top HSPT score does more than just secure admission. It places your student in honors and AP tracks and unlocks thousands of dollars in four-year merit scholarships.
Instead of generic test-prep booklets or passive online drills, our HSPT program is personally led by Mr. DiSalvo. Bringing over 25 years of educational expertise and a background in behavioral psychology, Mr. DiSalvo knows how to turn test anxiety into calm, confident execution on exam day.
Why the HSPT is Different (And Why Standard Prep Fails)
The HSPT is unlike any test your 8th grader has taken in middle school. It is an intense, fast-paced exam with nearly 300 questions spanning Cognitive Skills, Verbal, Reading, Math, and Language.
Many bright students struggle with the HSPT because of three main hurdles:
-
Brutal Pacing: Students have as little as 12 to 20 seconds per question in certain sections.
-
Tricky Cognitive Sections: Questions on verbal and quantitative logic require specialized problem-solving skills not typically taught in standard 8th-grade classrooms.
-
High-Stakes Pressure: The fear of letting parents down or missing out on going to school with their friends can cause capable students to freeze up.
At A+ Tutoring, we fix the anxiety first. We don’t just teach the material; we teach your student how to manage time, eliminate mental fatigue, and out-smart the test makers.
Our Stepwise Success System™ for HSPT Mastery
We utilize our proprietary 6-step framework to demystify the HSPT, build bulletproof confidence, and deliver rapid score improvements:
-
Underlining (Diagnostic Precision): We pinpoint the exact hidden skill gaps—whether in fractions, vocabulary roots, or logical sequences—that are holding your student back.
-
Classifying (Question Recognition): We train students to instantly recognize question types across the Cognitive, Quantitative, and Verbal sections so they know the exact mental blueprint to deploy.
-
Arranging (Time Management Architecture): We teach proven pacing strategies so students never run out of time or panic on final sections.
-
Targeted Underlining (Trap Elimination): We show students how to isolate core logic in reading passages and word problems, making them immune to clever “distractor” answer choices.
-
Predicting (Pre-Emptive Answering): We train students to anticipate the correct answer before reading the options, boosting both speed and accuracy.
-
Correlating (Scholarship & Placement Optimization): We align your student’s performance directly with the score thresholds needed for placement into honors tracks and top merit scholarship tiers.
Give Your 8th Grader the Hometown Advantage
Whether your child needs a massive score boost in Math and Quantitative reasoning, or simply needs to sharpen their Verbal speed and test stamina, our individualized, one-on-one sessions deliver measurable results.
Mr. DiSalvo has consistently helped Cincinnati-area middle schoolers transform HSPT dread into top-percentile scores, opening doors to the region’s most prestigious high school programs.