ISEE – the jumpstart

As the ISEE season begins, families are beginning the application process for their students to apply to private school. As you prepare, here are a few tips to help you organize.

First, there are three levels of the ISEE test: Lower Level, Middle Level and Upper Level. If your students are in 4th or 5th grade this year, they will be taking the Lower Level Test. If your students are in 6th or 7th grade this year, they will be taking the Middle Level Test. If your students are in 8th grade and above, they will be taking the Upper Level test.

Each test has 5 components:
Verbal Reasoning
Quantitative Reasoning
Reading Comprehension
Math Achievement
Essay

In each section, students receive a scaled score between 1 and 9 which arrives on a score report that breaks down how they did in each question type. The exception is the essay, which is photocopied and sent with the score report to the schools where your students are applying.

To help your students get ready for the test, we recommend that they read! read! read! They should be accustomed to seeing writing styles and knowing the difference in tone between JM Barrie and JK Rowling.

Reading comprehension is a skill and the more anybody practices, the better they become. They should also learn about a variety of topics by watching National Geographic, The History Channel, the Discovery Channel. Students will quickly access the information in a reading comprehension passage about ancient Egypt if they already know about, for example, King Tut, then if they can’t even pick out the Middle East on a map.

Which, to jog your memory, looks something like this:

For Math, it is less a skill to do well in the Math section, and more content driven, so, to boost Math scores, review the Math concepts that will be on the test and practice mental Math (multiplying, dividing, subtraction and division) until knowing 12 * 36 is as easy as 10 * 8. Knowing basic Math with fluency will help in the more complex Math problems by avoiding simple Math errors that we are all prone to. Plus, you don’t even need an instructor to review basic Math, you just need time and some flashcards.

How will you do on the ISEE? Take our online diagnostic test and see! We’ve launched our online program that has 5 practice tests and a diagnostic test to give your students a feel for the content and the pacing of the test.