ISEE vs SAT

Alexis Avila, Founder/President of Prepped & Polished, talks about the differences between the ISEE test and the SSAT test.

ISEE has sentence completion questions, while the SSAT has analogies.
The first ISEE math section (middle and upper level only) has quantitative comparison questions.
The ISEE has four answer choices and no guessing penalty, while the SSAT has five answer choices and a ¼ point deduction for wrong answers.

If you’re applying to boarding or private school, you’re going to have to take the SSAT, ISEE test, or both. Now, what are the differences between the two tests?

The ISEE test has sentence completion questions, the SSAT has analogies. The ISEE test’s first math section has quantitative comparison math questions, middle and upper-level ISEE tests only.

Now, the ISEE test has no guessing penalty and four answer choices. The SSAT test has a guessing penalty – a quarter-point deduction for questions answered incorrectly and five answer choices to choose from.

Overall, the ISEE test is much more straightforward than the SSAT test. After all, there’s no guessing penalty. However, the second math section of the ISEE test has 45 questions. You have 40 minutes to do them. That’s one minute per question – less than one minute per question, and that throws kids off, so be careful with the pacing there.

I recommend the ISEE test for students who aren’t good test takers because there’s no guessing penalty. However, lately, I find that the SSAT test is a more coachable test because analogy questions are easy to master.

The ISEE lower-level test is for students currently in fourth and fifth grade, the ISEE middle-level test is for students currently in sixth and seventh, and the ISEE upper-level test is for students in eighth through eleventh grade. On the other hand, the SSAT lower-level test is for fifth through seventh graders and the SSAT upper-level test is for eighth through eleventh graders.

Now, overall, find a private tutor who will teach you strategies and pacing for all components of the test. If you walk into the test knowing exactly what to expect, you’ll be much more confident, no matter what test you choose. Now I’m attaching a link to this that elaborates on these tips.

Good luck to you, and I’ll talk to you soon.

ISEE vs. SSAT expanded

Are you preparing for the ISEE or the SSAT? Do you have other questions about these tests?

Post your tips/comments below.

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