The ISEE: 160 scored questions, four sections, one unscored essay

As of October 2026. Every number below is sourced; the list is at the end.

The ISEE is the entrance exam that independent private schools use, and the Upper Level, the high school version, has 160 scored questions in four sections plus an essay that is not scored. The test comes from E3n, the nonprofit created when the ERB and the EMA joined, and by E3n's own count more than 1,200 independent schools take it. The level is set by the grade a student is applying to, not the grade they are in now. So an eighth grader in the 2026-27 school year, who starts high school in fall 2027, takes the Upper Level this fall or this winter. Of the 154 schools in our set, private and Catholic, 67 name the ISEE on their exam list, and 23 of those require it outright.

What is on the ISEE

The Upper Level is for anyone applying to grade 9, 10, 11 or 12. Its five sections, in the order they are given:

SectionQuestionsMinutesScored
Verbal Reasoning4020Yes
Quantitative Reasoning3735Yes
Reading Comprehension3635Yes
Mathematics Achievement4740Yes
Essay1 prompt30No

The Upper Level ISEE has 160 scored questions in four sections plus an essay that is not scored, and the clock runs 2 hours and 40 minutes of testing, with two 10-minute breaks on top. Verbal Reasoning tests vocabulary two ways, through synonyms and through sentence completions. Quantitative Reasoning asks how well a student thinks in math, and E3n says those questions need little or no calculation. Reading Comprehension asks for main ideas, inferences, vocabulary in context and tone. Mathematics Achievement covers the math a student has actually been taught, and some of it takes real calculation.

Each test date gets its own essay prompt, chosen at random, and E3n leaves it unscored. It goes to every school the family lists, and for security the family never gets a copy.

How the ISEE is scored

Each of the four scored sections gets three numbers. The first is a scaled score, somewhere between 760 and 940. The second is a percentile rank, 1 through 99. The third is a stanine, a single digit from 1 to 9. The percentile says what share of the comparison group scored the same or lower. Stanines 4, 5 and 6 cover the middle 54 percentile points, and E3n's free guide calls 1 to 3 below average, 4 to 6 average, and 7 to 9 above average.

Two rules shape test day. There is no penalty for a wrong answer; the score counts correct answers only. And no calculator comes into the room unless the student holds an approved accommodation for one.

What is a good ISEE score

There are no good or bad scores. There are only scores that will help you reach your goals. Each school decides how to read the report, and E3n is plain that the ISEE has no passing mark and no cutoff. The percentile does not compare your child with every eighth grader in the country. It compares them with the other students who applied to independent schools for the same grade across the last three years. As we say on our own ISEE page, those students are a self-selecting group, and a strong one, which is why a percentile rank or stanine so often lands below what a family expected. In its free Upper Level guide, a 2021 document, E3n says a student can land 10 to 40 percentile points lower on the ISEE than on a test with national norms.

Which schools name it, and when it is given

We track 154 private and Catholic high schools across 14 metros in California, North Texas, the New York area and North Jersey, and 67 of them name the ISEE on their exam list, 23 as the one required test and 44 alongside the SSAT or another exam. New York has 30 of them, Texas 18, California 15 and New Jersey 4. In the Dallas area (DFW), 18 of the 33 schools in our set name the ISEE, the Catholic schools among them, and the HSPT appears at none of them. Our school-by-school lookup at highschoolreach.com/entrance-exams shows the exam list each school names. Our set is not every school in the country that uses the ISEE.

A good share of the 67 schools post no sitting date of their own; the family books the test with E3n directly and the school just receives the scores. E3n divides the year into three testing seasons. Fall runs August through November, Winter runs December through March, and Spring/Summer runs April through July. Once per season is the rule, so a student can sit the ISEE up to three times in one school year, and the score report never shows how many times they tested. Online scores usually post in three to five days; paper scores take five to ten.

How to prepare: our tips

These are our positions at Test Prep Gurus, for the HSPT as much as the ISEE.

  • Start six to twelve weeks out. Steady work, a session or two each week with practice in between, beats a cram. E3n says the same thing: students perform best when they prepare over a period of time.
  • Prepare for the whole test every time. A student who drills only math walks in with three weaker sections.
  • Take timed practice tests under real conditions. Forty Verbal Reasoning questions in 20 minutes is half a minute each. E3n's free What to Expect guide includes a paper practice test, and every registrant gets a free Test Innovators practice test with feedback.
  • Learn every section's directions ahead of time. A minute spent reading them on the day is a minute lost.
  • Answer every question. A wrong answer costs nothing, and E3n says there is no advantage to leaving one blank. Make an educated guess, move on, and return to skipped questions within the section if time allows.
  • Practice arithmetic by hand. No calculator is allowed, so fractions, decimals and long division need to be quick on paper again.
  • Read every day. E3n's guide asks parents to make it part of the daily routine; the Verbal and Reading sections reward it.
  • Build the calendar backward. Pick the test date that lands before the earliest application deadline on your list and still leaves prep time ahead of it. Register on time: online tests close three days before the date, and paper tests need 21 days.

We can move these scores

As our own site puts it, "At Test Prep Gurus we teach students how to raise their grades and scores on the ACT, SAT, ISEE, HSPT, APs so they can reach their goals for college and beyond." Our ISEE prep is 1-on-1. The first step is a free diagnostic ISEE, scored by us, and then a short consultation to go over the results and map the plan. We do not promise a number. What we can say is that ISEE scores move with the right work, and the way a family starts is that free diagnostic. Details are on our ISEE page.

The move

This month, do three things. Look up each school on your list in the entrance-exam lookup and write down its application deadline. Pick an ISEE date that lands before the earliest one, with six to twelve weeks of prep ahead of it, and register. Then have your student sit one full, timed practice test so you know the starting point.

To have us run that diagnostic and map the plan, reach us at prepgurus.com/take-the-next-step or call us at 949.229.5359.

Questions parents ask

How many questions are on the ISEE and how long does it take?

The Upper Level ISEE has 160 scored questions in four sections plus an essay that is not scored, and the clock runs 2 hours and 40 minutes of testing, with two 10-minute breaks on top.

What is a good ISEE score?

There are no good or bad scores. There are only scores that will help you reach your goals.

How many times can a student take the ISEE?

Once per season is the rule, so a student can sit the ISEE up to three times in one school year, and the score report never shows how many times they tested.

Written by Nick Standlea, founder of Test Prep Gurus. Updated October 2026.

Sources

At Test Prep Gurus we teach students how to raise their grades and scores on the ACT, SAT, ISEE, HSPT, APs so they can reach their goals for college and beyond.

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