what-to-expect-on-the-isee-answer-explanations

The ISEE Upper Level is the private schools admissions test for students applying to grades 9 through 12. It is administered by the non-profit group, Educational Records Bureau, ERB, which is also the same group behind other popular private school tests like the CTP-4 often generically called “ERBs.”

An acronym for Independent School Entrance Exam, the ISEE is a 5-part, 3-hour standardized test:

  1. Verbal Reasoning, 20 minutes for 40 questions
  2. Quantitative Reasoning, 35 minutes for 37 questions
  3. Reading Comprehension, 35 minutes for 36 questions
  4. Mathematics Achievement, 40 minutes for 47 questions
  5. Personal Essay, 30 minutes for 1 question

Official Practice Test, “What to Expect on the ISEE”

While Piqosity offers 6 full-length practice tests and more than 2,000 practice questions, ERB publishes the only official practice test. Parents can download this test, “What to Expect on the ISEE” at no-charge direct from ERB at ERBLearn.org.

However, there are at least two things to be aware of with this official practice test:

  1. The test is not full-length
  2. There are no answer-explanations

Practice ISEE Test Structure vs. Real Test

  1. Verbal Reasoning, 35 questions (5 questions short)
  2. Quantitative Reasoning, 32 questions (5 questions short)
  3. Reading Comprehension, 30 questions (6 questions short)
  4. Mathematics Achievement, 42 questions (5 questions short)
  5. Personal Essay (no difference)

At 139 questions, the ERB’s official practice test is about 15% shorter in both question count and suggested time limit. The difference comes from ERB omitting the so-called “experimental” questions from the practice test.

On the actual test, unscored experimental questions help ERB develop future test iterations. However, there’s no way for students to know which questions are or are not experimental; therefore, they have to treat every question as if it will be scored.

Answer Explanations for the Practice Test

Along with our content partners, Piqosity has created comprehensive answer explanations for every questions of the ERB’s official practice test. We make these answer explanations available at no-charge as a PDF document and as YouTube videos. Access them below:

Download Answer Explanations as PDF

Watch the Videos on YouTube

Verbal Reasoning Answer Explanations

Quantitative Reasoning Answer Explanations

Reading Comprehension Answer Explanations

Mathematics Achievement Answer Explanations

Take More Practice Tests on Piqosity

Piqosity offers 6 full-length practice tests for the ISEE Upper Level plus 2,000 additional practice questions. Students are able to get a test-day predicted score after each practice they complete, and additional practice is adaptive according to the student’s unique strengths and weaknesses.

Lean more and sign up at Piqosity.com/ISEE-Upper-Level/