Tutoring for ISEE exam for 9th grade admissions

[Anonymous]

Was thinking of getting a tutor for a few hours and practice sessions of the ISEE test, mainly to get familiar with it and build up some confidence for the test day. But am I overthinking it? We are applying for 9th grade admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was thinking of getting a tutor for a few hours and practice sessions of the ISEE test, mainly to get familiar with it and build up some confidence for the test day. But am I overthinking it? We are applying for 9th grade admissions.

We are/were at a private k-8. Everyone gets tutoring. My older DD got 9,8,8,7. I think it was effective, but she was already a straight A student. She still didn't get her top 2 choices, but #3 was still pretty good.

[Anonymous]

I’m only familiar with the SSAT, which has a lot of available resources with practice tests for kids to self-study and practice. DC used Test Innovators, for example, because their k-8 provided access to all students, and liked it enough that we bought access to SAT materials on it a couple years later. Are there similar practice tests and study materials available for ISEE? A tutor may not be a necessary expense, especially if your goal is mostly getting them familiar with the test before hand (which is a really good idea for any standardized test!)

[Anonymous]

Do it.

[Anonymous]

Test Innovators has ISEE prep as well.

[Anonymous]

Buy one of the on-line packages from
Test Innovators that has multiple practice tests, have your child take a couple practice tests then bring in a tutor. Your child can get familiar with test without a tutor then the tutor can help with testing gaps.

[Anonymous]

I bought the test innovators online package with multiple practice exams. DD took the exams to see what questions she tended to miss, and then looked up the concepts she didn't know. She did great on the actual exam, and the scores went up from the first practice test in all sections except for the one she already had a 9 in. I don't think a tutor is necessary.

[Anonymous]

Maybe try the test to see how your kid does first? My kid did not have time to prepare for the SSAT (we applied in January) and only did a couple practice tests on the SSAT website. Got a decent score (96 percentile overall) and is now at a big 3.

[Anonymous]

We used this app to prep the vocab portion. It uses the test innovator word list

https://vocab.voyage/

[Anonymous]

Depends on which schools she wants to apply to - Sidwell does their own test, doesnt accept ISEE or SSAT. GDS will take either but they will also take any standardized test scores including those administered in publics (DC CAPE; MAP). Maret does not accept any testing. So for those 3, this is not necessary. My daughter took the ISEE with no prep for NCS - we actually didn't even tell her about it until a few days before and then just said it's a long test that is great practice for the future (she was applying for 7th grade, coming from DCPS). She got all 9s and 8s. Got accepted. So I don't even know if prep is necessary, depending on your kid.