ISEE test explained: the Primary, Lower, Middle and Upper Levels with every section, question count and time limit, how it is scored (no penalty, scaled scores from 760 to 940, percentiles against three years of same-grade applicants, stanines), the testing formats and fees for 2026-27, ISEE vs SSAT, and how to prepare, with a printable

The ISEE is the other half of independent-school admission testing, with the SSAT; a family usually meets it because the school they want lists it first. Its publisher explains it plainly in a Quick Facts guide for families and in the What to Expect guides, which are the source for everything below, including the scoring rules that most prep sites get slightly wrong.

Download the ISEE sheet (PDF) (the levels with sections, questions and timings, the scoring rule, the percentile-to-stanine table, the formats and fees and a preparation planner; two pages, free).

The levels, sections and timings

From the 2026-27 Quick Facts guide. Questions / minutes.

The sections come in that order at every level from Lower up; the first four are multiple choice and the essay is unscored, typed in the online format and handwritten on paper, and sent to the schools with the score report. Verbal Reasoning is synonyms and sentence completion; Quantitative Reasoning is mathematical thinking with little computation (including quantitative comparisons at the Middle and Upper Levels); Reading Comprehension is passages with questions on main idea, inference, vocabulary in context, organisation and tone; Mathematics Achievement is the maths of the grade as taught, with computation. The Primary Levels have reading and mathematics only, with an unscored writing sample at the school's option.

How it is scored

Correct answers only. The raw score is the number right; a wrong answer and an omitted answer count the same. The What to Expect guide's advice: eliminate a choice and guess, but do not sit on a puzzling item; move on and return.

Scaled score. Each scored section's raw score is converted to a scaled score on the ISEE's scale of 760 to 940, so that different forms of the test compare.

Percentile rank and stanine. The scaled score is placed against the norm group: independent-school applicants to the same grade who tested over the past three years, and no one else (not the same test date, not the same site). Because that group is select, the guide warns that ISEE percentile ranks are generally lower, anywhere from 10 to 40 points lower, than the same student's percentiles on nationally normed tests, and that the schools know this. The stanine is read from the percentile:

The guide's reading: stanines 1 to 3 below average, 4 to 6 average, 7 to 9 above average, within the applicant pool. The Individual Student Report posts to the family's online account three to five days after online testing, and goes to the schools the family listed.

Formats, seasons and fees (2026-27)

A student may take the ISEE once per testing season, and there are three seasons: fall (August to November), winter (December to March) and spring/summer (April to July). The publisher's fee schedule:

Fee waivers come from the school applied to, not from the ISEE office, and cover the test and a preparation package. The test is the same in every format; scores from online testing post in three to five days.

ISEE or SSAT

Both are now published by E3n, which states that their scores cannot be used interchangeably. Choose by the school's preference, then by the student: a child who guesses well and knows the grade's maths cleanly often prefers the ISEE's no-penalty rule and achievement section; a strong reader with a good ear for analogies may prefer the SSAT.

How to prepare

1. The publisher's own material first. The What to Expect guides contain a full sample test per level with explanations, and the Quick Facts guide points to the official preparation package (free with a fee waiver).
2. Mathematics Achievement is the grade's maths, taught the way the school teaches it; the gaps there are the first to fix, because they also cost in Quantitative Reasoning.
3. Sentence completion and synonyms reward daily reading and a vocabulary notebook more than lists.
4. Timed practice with the real timings, two or three times, the last on a weekend morning; practise the guessing rule (eliminate, choose, move on).
5. Pick the season so the scores arrive before the schools' deadlines, and remember the one-test-per-season limit when planning a retake.

The public-school counterpart in New York City is the SHSAT; the Catholic schools' test is the HSPT.

Download the ISEE sheet (PDF) (the levels, the scoring, the stanine table, the formats and fees and the planner; two pages, free).

Where to get help

A 1-on-1 online class with a tutor who holds a master's degree and teaches the US curriculum from Grade 1 number work to AP Calculus, chemistry and physics, at 7 am before school, after 4 pm and on weekend mornings, US time, for US$10 to $13 an hour: the report read together in the free 30-minute first class, the domain or the skill the score is really pointing at found, and the term spent on exactly that, with the method written out the way the school marks it. How online tutoring from India to the USA works, or the 1-on-1 online tutoring page.

Sources: E3n, ISEE Quick Facts Guide 2026-2027 (the merger of ERB and EMA; grades 2 to 12; the three testing seasons and one test per season; the Primary 2, 3 and 4, Lower, Middle and Upper Level sections with question counts, minutes, totals and breaks; the formats and fees; fee waivers; score recipients); ERB, What to Expect on the ISEE, Upper Level (2021) and Lower Level (2018): the section order and contents, the no-penalty rule and guessing advice, the norm group of same-grade applicants over three years, percentiles 10 to 40 points below national norms, the scaled score range of 760 to 940, the percentile-to-stanine table, the Individual Student Report and its timing, 'good' scores being the school's to define. Fetched 11 November 2026.

Questions parents ask

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