← ISEE® Upper Level

Verbal and Reading Section Mechanics

The clock, the guessing rule, the alphabetical answer list, and how a raw Verbal Reasoning count becomes a scaled score, a percentile and a stanine.

4 topics · 14 questions

Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.

No Penalty for a Wrong Answer

  1. How it worksHow does a score built only from correct answers change what a guess actually costs you?
  2. Worked exampleFind the expected gain from guessing on eight unread items with four choices and no penalty.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't leaving an item blank safer than guessing wrong?
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about a guess once you have eliminated one of the four choices?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A student reaches the end of Verbal Reasoning with 11 items unread and 36 seconds on the clock. Every item offers four choices and nothing is subtracted for a wrong answer. What is the best use of those 36 seconds?

The Twenty-Minute Verbal Clock

  1. How it worksHow do you budget thirty seconds a question and still bank time for the two-blank items?
  2. Worked exampleFind the per-question budget when 19 synonyms and 21 completions must fit inside 20 minutes.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't finishing every question the same as scoring your best?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Verbal Reasoning gives 40 questions in 20 minutes. A student spends 120 seconds on one hard synonym before moving on. What has that decision cost?

Alphabetical Answer Choices

  1. How it worksHow does alphabetical ordering make the position of a choice carry no information at all?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't the third choice more likely to be right than the first?
  3. Going furtherWhat changes for a two-word pair, which is alphabetised by its first word only?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A student tracks 30 consecutive synonym items and finds the second choice was the key 8 times. Every one of those items printed its four choices in alphabetical order. What does the tally tell the student?

Unscored Items, Scaled Scores and Stanines

  1. How it worksHow does a raw count of correct answers become a scaled score, a percentile and then a stanine?
  2. Worked exampleFind the stanine for a percentile rank of 85 using the published bands running one to nine.
  3. Going furtherWhat shows up when a report deliberately sets Verbal Reasoning beside Reading Comprehension?
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't an ISEE percentile comparable to a national percentile from an ordinary school test?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Of the 40 Verbal Reasoning items a student sees, 35 are scored and 5 are unscored pretest items. The student got 30 of the 40 right. What can be said about the raw score?

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