ISEE?

[Anonymous]

My 6th grader took the Middle Grade ISEE for 7-8th. No prep for the content or structure / she has never taken such a long and hard test. She’s coming from a mediocre (at best) public where she’s always gotten 5s on the meaningless PARCC. So we had no idea how this would go. She got 5s on both math sections and 9s on both reading sections (comprehension and reasoning). This seems great mostly bc I’m just so impressed with her stamina and attitude but also because she went into this cold. But I assume so many people get 7-9s that it’s not that great to admissions. Can anyone offer some insight? I’d be grateful for any reality checking in either direction.

[Anonymous]

You seem proud that she didn't prep, but that seems like an odd choice.

[Anonymous]

Those are good scores. She'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those are good scores. She'll be fine.

Depends on where OP wants her to go, I'm afraid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those are good scores. She'll be fine.

Depends on where OP wants her to go, I'm afraid.

Correct. Those are solid scores, but might miss the mark if you’re shooting for, say, a Big3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those are good scores. She'll be fine.

Depends on where OP wants her to go, I'm afraid.

Correct. Those are solid scores, but might miss the mark if you’re shooting for, say, a Big3.

The Big3 don't take ISEE's though....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those are good scores. She'll be fine.

Depends on where OP wants her to go, I'm afraid.

Correct. Those are solid scores, but might miss the mark if you’re shooting for, say, a Big3.

The Big3 don't take ISEE's though....

Which is a shame. ISEE always seem far more intuitive than SSATs.

[Anonymous]

The 9s are great! The 5s are too low for competitive schools, but are perfectly fine for second tier privates or catholic schools. My guess is your daughter will get into a solid second tier if that what you're aiming for. Some of the more competitive schools looks for a total of 30 or anything above 7/8. The most competitive schools want mostly 9s and they get that because there are so many applicants.

Of course, it also depends on her overall profile. What does she bring to the school? Athletics? Arts? Music? Does she have a special talent the school can help nurture? Is your family a good fit? Can she be the token diversity candidate? My kid just had an interview at a selective private school and the first question was "tell me about your parents". Another question was "what does diversity mean to you".

[Anonymous]

We spent thousands of dollars on prep and our kid’s score didn’t change a bit. For #2, we did no prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those are good scores. She'll be fine.

Depends on where OP wants her to go, I'm afraid.

Correct. Those are solid scores, but might miss the mark if you’re shooting for, say, a Big3.

The Big3 don't take ISEE's though....

STA accepted our ISEE. We didn't take the SSAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 9s are great! The 5s are too low for competitive schools, but are perfectly fine for second tier privates or catholic schools. My guess is your daughter will get into a solid second tier if that what you're aiming for. Some of the more competitive schools looks for a total of 30 or anything above 7/8. The most competitive schools want mostly 9s and they get that because there are so many applicants.

Of course, it also depends on her overall profile. What does she bring to the school? Athletics? Arts? Music? Does she have a special talent the school can help nurture? Is your family a good fit? Can she be the token diversity candidate? My kid just had an interview at a selective private school and the first question was "tell me about your parents". Another question was "what does diversity mean to you".

Don't listen to this.
My white, non-legacy kid got into two Big3 schools for 7th grade with an ISEE of 6, 4, 7, 7. She has several friends who were similar.

The schools put very little stake into this test. It's one small point of information. If your kid's reading scores are 9s they'll love her as many schools think those are the most important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 9s are great! The 5s are too low for competitive schools, but are perfectly fine for second tier privates or catholic schools. My guess is your daughter will get into a solid second tier if that what you're aiming for. Some of the more competitive schools looks for a total of 30 or anything above 7/8. The most competitive schools want mostly 9s and they get that because there are so many applicants.

Of course, it also depends on her overall profile. What does she bring to the school? Athletics? Arts? Music? Does she have a special talent the school can help nurture? Is your family a good fit? Can she be the token diversity candidate? My kid just had an interview at a selective private school and the first question was "tell me about your parents". Another question was "what does diversity mean to you".

Don't listen to this.
My white, non-legacy kid got into two Big3 schools for 7th grade with an ISEE of 6, 4, 7, 7. She has several friends who were similar.

The schools put very little stake into this test. It's one small point of information. If your kid's reading scores are 9s they'll love her as many schools think those are the most important.

Well, it very much depends on which city OP is in. You are right that in DC the scores don’t need to be high for competitive schools. They do for many boarding schools or in NYC or other major cities around the US.
I know, you don’t believe me. So check out various schools around the country: https://iseepracticetest.com/target-scores/