ISEE

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The ISEE is offered in several different levels, depending on the grade of the student taking it:

• Students applying to early elementary grades (2nd, 3rd, & 4th grades) take a Primary 2, 3, or 4 exam.
• Students applying to 5th or 6th grade take the Lower Level exam.
• Students applying to 7th or 8th grade take the Middle Level exam.
• Students applying to 9th grade and up take the Upper Level exam.

The Lower, Middle, and Upper Level exams all have the same structure: only the difficulty of the questions is different. For all versions of the test, not all questions count toward the final score: either 5 or 6 questions per section, distributed randomly among the rest, are being test-run for future versions of the test. The exact breakdown can be found to the right.

The Verbal Reasoning section is divided into two parts. Part One consists of a set of synonym-matching questions: the student is presented with a word and must pick a synonym of that word from among offered choices. Part Two is a set of sentence-completion questions. A sentence is written with a blank in place of a missing word, and the student must select the word that fills in the blank most logically and coherently. (On the Upper Level exam, several of the sentences have two blanks and each answer choice offers a pair of words.)

The Quantitative Reasoning section is also divided into two parts. Part One presents several short word problems drawing on topics from pre-Algebra, early Geometry, and some Algebra. Part Two contains Quantitative Comparison questions. Every question has two different described quantities, one labeled Column A and the other Column B and the same set of answer choices, described in the directions. The Student answers (A) if Column A is always strictly greater, (B) if Column B is always strictly greater, (C) if the two columns are equal or identical, or (D) if there is no definite relationship.

The Reading section presents six passages, each usually around three or four paragraphs in length. Each passage is accompanied by six questions asking about various aspects of the passage's content. The student may have to consider the author's views or perspective, their use of vocabulary, or their presentation of ideas to decide the correct answer.

The Mathematics Achievement section is not divided into parts or passages. All questions are word problems like Part One of the Quantitative Reasoning section, but usually drawing on somewhat more advanced material from Algebra or Geometry.

The Essay asks a short question about a fairly broad topic. Past questions have included "If you could change one thing about your school, what would you change and why?" or "Who is someone to whom you look up? Explain why you feel this way." How a student responds to this question is entirely up to them. It is important to note that the Essay is not scored. Rather, it is simply sent along with the scores to the schools, which then read and evaluate it for themselves. So it is still important that a student write a response that is as substantial, clear, thoughtful, and polished as possible within the time limit, but without any worry for writing the "best" answer or adhering to a particular structure.