FAQs for ISEE

What role does the ISEE have in the admission process?
Can I view more detailed information about the ISEE?
What is a raw score?
What is a scaled score?
What is the composition of ISEE norm group?
What is a percentile?
Is your percentile ranking a competitive group of students?
What is a stanine?
What does the analysis section of the report provide?
Whom may I contact with additional questions or to discuss a student’s score report?
Are tutors using the current ISEE information?

 
What role does the ISEE have in the admission process?
Schools use the ISEE scores as one piece of the overall student profile for applicant consideration.

The ISEE offers a standard assessment of skills to rank a student’s abilities and achievement to others applying to the same grade. It is valuable when comparing similar applicants from different schools.

The standards on the ISEE align with those of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the International Reading Association (IRA), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

Can I view more detailed information about the ISEE?
Yes. An overview of the test, sample questions categorized by item type, and a score report with a thorough explanation of each part of the report is available at no cost by downloading What to Expect on the ISEE.

What is a raw score?
A raw score is the number of questions a student answered correctly. There is no penalty for incorrect answers on the ISEE.

What is a scaled score?
The scaled score is a common scale, derived from the raw score, that has the same meaning for all students regardless of the edition or form taken. The scaled score is used to control for slight variations among different forms of a test. It enables us to report a score on a common scale that has the same meaning for all students. The scaled score range for all sections and levels of the ISEE falls between 760 and 940.

What is the composition of ISEE norm group?
The norm group consists of all students in the same grade who took the ISEE test over the past three years. Students are not ranked regionally, and they are not compared to other testers on the same day of testing. All students in the 2011–12 season are compared to the same “norm” group of ISEE testers by grade over the past three years.

What is a percentile?
The percentile is a ranking of where the student stands relative to the ISEE norm group. (It is not the percentage of questions the student answered correctly.) For example, a percentile rank of 63 on an ISEE test section indicates that the student scored as well as or higher than 63 percent (and lower than 36 percent) of all students in the norm group. Percentile rank scores range from 1 to 99.

Is your percentile ranking a competitive group of students?
Yes, the ISEE percentile rank is a competitive group of students, in that all students taking the ISEE are generally high-achieving students. The reference group is the group of students at this grade level who took the ISEE over the last three years. It is not a national norm that students may have been compared to on other standardized tests. Thus, your student may find his or her percentile score to be lower than it was on other tests.

A student who always scored above the 50th percentile may find himself or herself below the 50th percentile, and students who normally score above the 90th percentile on other tests may find themselves barely above average on the ISEE. For example, parents are frequently surprised when they see a 75th percentile score for a child who scored at the 95th percentile last year on a test based on state or national norms. This difference is due to the high-achieving population of students taking the ISEE, which makes the ranking very competitive.

What is a stanine?
A stanine is an abbreviated version of the percentile. While there are 99 percentile ranks, which are ideal for fine distinctions among students, the stanine has only nine possible values and divides students into nine groups.

What does the analysis section of the report provide?
The analysis section of the report provides additional information to show the child’s mastery in the skill individually as well as the number of correct answers for each section.

Whom may I contact with additional questions or to discuss a student’s score report?
At any point you may request information or review of a score report.  If you just received your child's ISEE scores and have some questions, please contact us at  or call (800) 989-3721 ext. 9821.

Are tutors using the current ISEE information?
The ISEE is a secure test. Actual test questions are not released to tutors, schools or individuals.

While ERB does not endorse the use of tutors for any of our services, we have created our own materials, which are free for download, to help students prepare. Download your free copy of the What to Expect on the ISEE.

These materials are the only up-to-date, consistent, and accurate materials that are sanctioned by ERB for the ISEE.