ISEE FAQs

When should I start preparing? How many hours does my student need to study?

There is no magic number of hours, or days, or months that kids need to spend preparing for this test. You should know that the grade is determined by how other kids score and most kids start studying in the spring before the test. Much depends on where you are starting from and what your goal is. For example, some kids have anxiety surrounding standardized test while some kids are naturally great at it or have ample experience in standardized testing. Similarly, it depends what scores you’re aiming for, which has a lot to do with what school you want your child to attend.

What score does my student need to gain admittance to our choice schools?

Again, there is no magic number nor a pass or failing score. The company who runs the test is the ERB and they assign a score between one and nine based on how well a student performs compared to their peers over the course of the last three years.  This number is called a stanine and is derived based on a percentile, which is not a raw percentage. The percentile is based on how well a student scores compared to everyone else. Therefore, a student who receives a raw score of 80% may receive a percentile of 73, which means he or she scored better than 73% of everyone in their grade who took the same test. This test is not like standardized testing you have seen before. It is well above grade level and pool of applicants is elite. For more about how the ERB delegates stanines, please go to their website: www.erblearn.org. Your child will receive four separate stanines: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, reading comprehension, and mathematics achievement. Their essay is not scored, but photocopied and sent to each school directly.

How many tests can my student take? When do I register?

Registration usually opens in the first week of August. There will be 2 to 4 proctored tests per month at various independent schools. Plan to register for two tests.  Do not wait to see what score you get on the first test to register for the second, as most tests will be sold out by then. Each student can take one test per season. The season ends the last day of November, so I recommend taking one test in October or November and a second test in December or January. You will have the ability to choose which scores to send to the schools with your application.

Do you offer full length practice tests?

Yes, I highly recommend taking at least two full length practice tests. My tests have been created and refined over the past 10 years and are comprised of questions that the students have never seen. Each practice test meets at my office at 10 AM and costs $200. The students will get the test back graded which provide invaluable insight into how each student has mastered basic skills and how they are employing test taking strategy. Scheduled practice tests for 2018 are: August 19; September 16; October 14; November 11; and December 9. If you wish to attend, just email me directly. Additional information will be emailed to everyone as the season progresses. 

What is the format of the test and what do the results mean?

There are three levels of the ISEE: fourth and fifth graders take the lower level test; sixth and seventh graders take the middle level test; and eighth graders and above take the upper level test.  Each test is comprised of five sections: verbal reasoning, which is mainly vocabulary; quantitative reasoning, which is just a fancy word for math; reading comprehension; math achievement; and an essay.  The common wisdom is a stanine score between four and six is considered safe. Anything above or below that range is noteworthy. 

Why are standardized tests so weird and why are they so hard?

Standardized tests feel weird to most students because the format is unfamiliar. Most kids learn a specific chapter or skill and then take a test on it. Then they move on to the next chapter and take a test on that. This test is basically taking all of the skills for their grade level, the grade below them, and the grade above them, mixing them up, and making them harder. They make them harder by using multi-step word problems that kids need to access two or three or sometimes four different skills and perform them in the right order without making any calculation errors. Simply put, the test is harder than any test most of these kids have ever taken. Why? Because it should be. It should be rigorous and challenging. If everyone did well, it wouldn’t be a very useful tool. Studying for this test is a journey: there will be highs and lows, but overall lesson is perseverance and hard work. Yes, the goal is to get a high score and get into the school you want, but this experience is unique because it challenges almost every student’s ability to maintain an open mind set and learn from their mistakes instead of being defeated by them. Our role as educators and parents is to support the journey and realize that no matter what, the skills and strategies are valuable deposits in a lifetime academic bank which are students will make withdrawals from for years to come.

Many standardized tests challenge us to fight our natural instincts, particularly in regards to answer selection. The video below is a good example of how our minds “see” things. Our goal is to build strategies to avoid the traps and identify problems for what they really are, not what the test writers want us to see.

What kind of improvement should I expect? Do you guarantee a certain increase?

You can expect an increase of between one and four stanine points, based on work your student puts in to their studying and how well they take to the testing format. There are no guarantees, but the best way I know to raise scores is to take practice tests and learn from them. Pacing can also be a big issue for some students, as can anxiety. A good tutor and supportive parents can help these issues. At the end of the day, this test is like a game. You didn’t get to pick the game or the rules, but you have to play it. The test results are simply how well you played this game on a particular day. They don’t mean you will or will not get accepted into a certain school. They certainly don’t reflect your intelligence, character, creativity, or potential.

Why don’t test scores always improve?

Despite the best laid plans and preparation, sometimes test scores simply do not go up. Unfortunately, there are environmental factors beyond our control: your child could wake up sick the day of the test, they could get thrown off by a time-consuming question, or they could simply go blank and forget all of their training. Other factors such as social or academic stressors come into play as well as biological factors such as nutrition and sleep. Of course, anxiety plays a role in test performance, as does their environment. Both are good reasons to have your student take as many practice tests as possible. Much in the same way that the favored team sometimes doesn’t always win, with all endeavors there is an element of chance and this one is no different.

Similarly, do not expect every practice test score to increase in a linear fashion. If you go for a three-mile run five weeks in a row, some weeks will garner better results than others and it doesn’t mean that you’re not getting stronger overall. A practice test is a tool used to identify areas of opportunity and for students to get accustomed to the test-taking format. Accordingly, as with the real test, varying results are typical.

 Do you offer application advice and interview prep?

Yes, my team and I can edit and make suggestions on both the parent and student essays. We also do interview prep.

Do you offer other kinds of tutoring?

Yes, I personally tutor students from second grade into college. My team also tutors kids in any area of need including math, science, foreign language, essay writing, reading comprehension, and SAT and ACT preparation.

What’s a helpful analogy to summarize test-prepping?

Click here to read about one!