ISEE Strategy
We recommend that students take the ISEE more than once. Ideally, students take the test once during the course of test preparation with a tutor, and then again at the end of test preparation. This gives students time to learn from their mistakes and practice time-management and test-taking strategies. It also gives tutors the opportunity to use the student’s test as an additional formal assessment with which to guide their instruction over the remainder of…
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In order to perform well on the ISEE and SSAT tests, learning to study vocabulary effectively is crucial. The Verbal section of each test challenges the vocabulary skills of even the strongest students. It can be difficult to study vocabulary effectively with your busy schedule, but without making it a priority, you will not be able to perform well on the synonyms and analogies portions of the SSAT exam or the synonyms and sentence completions…
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The key to mastering the reading sections of the ISEE/SSAT tests is two-fold: reading the passage effectively, and answering the questions efficiently. The reading section of the ISEE/SSAT tests is designed to assess how well you are able to grasp the main idea and tone of a passage. The most important thing to remember is that you are not expected to retain details as you read. This is different from how you probably read other…
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The key to structuring your standard essay for the ISEE or SSAT is to ensure you have the proper format. Here’s the general format for a successful standard essay: Introduction Sentence 1: Thesis/Answering the question Sentence 2: Introduce your first supporting paragraph (what you’re going to say in the second paragraph) Sentence 3: Introduce your second supporting paragraph (what you’re going to say in the third paragraph) Sentence 4: Sum up your ideas and transition…
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The key to mastering the ISEE essay is preparing yourself for the difficulty of developing a full essay within 30 minutes. Before we discuss the details of the essay assignment, there’s something you need to know: your ISEE essay is not being scored. It will be sent along with the rest of your test to the schools to which you are applying. It is going to be looked at alongside your admission essay (if the…
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The synonym section of the ISEE/SSAT tests is very challenging due to the difficult vocabulary, as well as the traps that the test-makers include to confuse you. The first trap to look out for is the Secondary Part of Speech Trap. Sometimes the word has a secondary meaning when it is used in a different part of speech. For example, words can be both a noun and a verb, and have different meanings depending on…
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In the Synonym, Sentence Completion, and Math sections of the ISEE, it is important for you to become comfortable with the one-two pass strategy. In the first pass, you should only attempt problems that you feel you have a good chance of being able to answer correctly. In the second pass, you should attempt the remaining problems. By using the one-two pass strategy, you won’t get caught up on a difficult problem halfway through and…
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