Independent School Entrance Examination

The Independent School Entrance Examination, or ISEE, is an entrance exam used by many independent schools and magnet schools in the United States. Designed and administered by the Educational Records Bureau, the ISEE has three levels: the Lower level, for entrance in grades 5-6; Middle level, for entrance in grades 7-8; Upper level, for entrance in grades 9-12. All levels consist of five sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, reading comprehension, and Mathematics Achievement, and a 30-minute essay section. The test is approximately two hours and forty minutes long in total, plus time for two breaks.

Verbal Reasoning

This section consists of two parts: synonyms and sentence completions. There are 40 questions, with 20 minutes allowed for the Middle and Upper levels and 25 minutes for the Lower level.

Quantitative Reasoning

This section is 35 minutes long and has 35 questions for all levels. The Lower and Middle levels consist of "Comprehension," "Interpretation/Application," and "Higher Order Thinking" parts, and the Upper level consists of "Arithmetic/Algebra/Geometry," "Concepts/Understanding," "Applications/Higher Order Thinking," and "Quantitative Comparison" sections. [cite web
url=http://www.erbtest.org/parents/admissions/isee
title=ERB web site]

Reading Comprehension

This section consists of about 7-9 Humanities, Science, and Social Studies passages. Candidates must read each passage and answer around 4-6 questions based on the information in the passage. The section measures students' ability to understand and comprehend each passage, as well as some vocabulary-in-context. There are 40 questions on the Middle and Upper level, and 36 questions on the Lower level—all levels are allowed 40 minutes.

Mathematics Achievement

On this section, there are 35 questions in 40 minutes in the Lower level, 45 questions in 45 minutes on the Middle level, and 45 questions in 40 minutes on the Upper level. All levels test "Knowledge and Skills," "Computation/Comprehension," and "Application," and the Upper level additionally tests Arithmetic/Algebra/Geometry.

Essay

On all three levels, candidates must plan and write an essay to provide a sample of his or her writing to schools to which the candidate is applying. A topic is distributed, and students have 30 minutes to write an essay using a black or blue pen. The essay is not scored, but it is photocopied and sent to schools to which the student is applying.

References