ISEE Exam Information and Guideline
Independent School Entrance Examination
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The Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) is an admission test developed by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) for its member schools as part of their admission process. The ISEE was created by Measurement Incorporated, Durham, NC, and ERB, with assistance from faculty of ERB member schools.
The current edition has been updated to include educational assessment best practices and to align with national standards in English and mathematics as articulated in standards adopted by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Nearly two-thirds of the questions on the ISEE were developed by ERB-member faculty and administrators from a cross section of independent schools across the United States under the direction of test development specialists at Measurement Incorporated.
The ISEE is the admission test of choice for many independent schools throughout the country and abroad. Test sites are available in numerous cities during the admission testing season. The ISEE consists of five sections at three levels designed to measure the verbal and quantitative reasoning and achievement of students in grades 4–11 seeking admission to grades 5–12 in independent schools. Students seeking admission to grades 5 or 6 take the Lower Level; students seeking admission to grades 7 or 8 take the Middle Level; and students seeking admission to grades 9–12 take the Upper Level.
It is important to note that the ISEE may not be taken for practice; it may be taken only for the purpose of providing scores to participating schools as part of the admission process. An applicant may take the ISEE only once per admission season or six month window.
The five sections that make up the ISEE are (in order of testing): Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Achievement, and an Essay which is written by the student in his or her own handwriting in response to a given writing prompt. Each section is designed to tap into a unique aspect of a students preparation for academic work.
The first four sections are composed of multiple-choice questions. The fifth section, the essay, is not scored but requires the student to respond in his or her own handwriting to a preselected writing prompt.
The first two sections, Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning, measure the applicants reasoning ability.
The Upper Level Verbal Reasoning section consists of two types of items: vocabulary and sentence completion. Each vocabulary item consists of an abstract, grade-level appropriate word followed by four possible answer choices. Each sentence completion item consists of a sentence with one missing word or pair of words followed by four potential answer choices. A student must select the word or pair of words that most appropriately completes the context of the sentence.
At the Upper Level, the Quantitative Reasoning section consists of word problems and quantitative comparisons. The word problems differ somewhat from traditional mathematics achievement items in that some of them require either no calculation or simple calculation.
Mathematics Achievement items conform to national mathematics standards and ask the student to identify the problem and find a solution to a problem. The items require one or more steps in calculating the answer.