ISEE Verbal Reasoning:
synonyms and sentence completion

Verbal Reasoning is the first section of every ISEE and the one students most often run out of time in. It is two question types in one section, and they reward opposite habits.

Synonyms

A single word in capitals and four candidates. No sentence, no context, nothing to reason from except whether you know the word. This is the only part of the ISEE that is pure vocabulary, and it is also the fastest to answer: you either have the word or you do not, and staring at it does not change that. Mark your best guess and move.

Sentence completion

A sentence with a blank in it. These are not vocabulary questions wearing a disguise — the sentence contains the answer, in the form of a signpost word like although, because or so that tells you whether the missing word agrees with the rest of the sentence or contradicts it. A student who reads the sentence, decides what it needs, and only then looks at the options will beat one with a bigger vocabulary who reads the options first.

The clock is the difficulty

Lower Level gives 34 questions in 20 minutes, which is 35 seconds each. Middle and Upper give 40 in the same 20 minutes: 30 seconds each, the tightest ratio on the exam. No other section comes close, and no other section punishes lingering as hard.

How to practice it

Sit the section against its real clock rather than doing twenty questions untimed. Vocabulary lists are worth building for the synonyms, but they will not help with sentence completion at all, and sentence completion is half the section at every level.

Where to practice it

Our ISEE practice exams cover the four scored sections at all three levels, two forms each, with no questions shared between the forms. Every wrong option carries an explanation of why a student would have picked it. The real ISEE also opens with an unscored essay that is sent to schools; we do not set one, so that part needs practicing elsewhere.