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Overview of the ISEE Lower Level

The Lower Level ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam) is an admissions test used by many independent schools throughout the United States and abroad. This level of the test is used for students applying for admissions to 5th and 6th grade. The test is broken up into five different sections:

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning


The Verbal Reasoning section is made up of 34 questions, and students are given 20 minutes to complete the section. This section is broken up into synonym questions and sentence completion questions. Synonym questions consist of an abstract, grade-level appropriate word followed by four answer choices. Sentence completion questions consist of a sentence missing a single word or a phrase followed by four answer choices. Students must choose the answer choice that best completes the sentence.

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning


The Quantitative Reasoning section is made up of 38 questions, and students are given 35 minutes to complete the section. This section consists of word problems that are somewhat different than what most students have seen in school, and some require very little or no calculation. The purpose of this section is to test students’ mathematical reasoning skills.

Section 3: Reading Comprehension


The Reading Comprehension section is made up of 25 questions, and students are given 25 minutes to complete the section. This section is made up of five reading passages covering a variety of topics including history, science, literature, and contemporary life. Each passage is accompanied by five multiple-choice questions.

Section 4: Mathematics Achievement


The Mathematics Achievement section is made up of 30 questions, and students are given 30 minutes to complete the section. The questions in this section cover topics that students have learned throughout their math career and are more straightforward than the word problems found in the Quantitative Reasoning section.

Section 5: Essay


The essay section asks students to respond to a prompt, and students are given 30 minutes to complete the section. The essay section is not graded, but it is sent to private schools along with the rest of the test scores.


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