What is on the
ISEE Lower Level?

Who sits it

The ISEE Lower Level is for applicants to grades 5 and 6, which in practice means a child in fourth or fifth grade. A fourth or fifth-grader sitting a two-hour admissions test, often the first formal test of their life.

Four sections, in this order

127 questions in 110 minutes of testing time.

Quantitative Reasoning

Quantitative Reasoning here is word problems from beginning to end. Not one item asks a child to compare Column A with Column B, and that is not our simplification — the real Lower Level does not use the format. A tutor who drills Column A questions with a fourth-grader is teaching a question type that child will never be shown.

Mathematics Achievement

Mathematics Achievement is arithmetic, fractions, decimals, time, measurement and simple geometry. There is no algebra anywhere: across both our Lower Level forms, zero of 136 mathematics and quantitative items solve for an unknown.

Verbal Reasoning and Reading

Verbal Reasoning splits almost evenly: 17 synonym questions and 17 sentence completions, and it is the tightest clock on the paper at 35 seconds a question. Reading Comprehension is 5 passages carrying 25 questions between them.

What catches families out

The clock is the thing to rehearse, not the content. Most children of this age have met every topic on it. What they have not met is a section that stops when it stops.

The essay

One more thing the real Lower Level has and our practice exam does not: it ends with an essay. A prompt, lined paper and thirty minutes. The ERB does not mark it — it is copied and sent to the schools your child applies to, and a person there reads it. We set the four scored sections and no essay, so treat handwriting practice as a separate job from this one.

Two forms, no shared questions

We sell two full ISEE Lower Level forms and they have no questions in common, so a second sitting measures learning rather than recall. Every wrong option carries its own explanation saying what a student who picked it was probably thinking. A free ten-question sample is on the samples page if you want to see the format before paying for anything.