The Upper Level covers four grades in one test.
Take a free full-length diagnosticFour scored sections plus an unscored essay. Total testing time is about 2 hours 40 minutes with two short breaks between sections.
| Section | Questions / Time | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Verbal Reasoning | 40 Q / 20 min (30 sec/Q) |
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| Quantitative Reasoning | 37 Q / 35 min (~57 sec/Q) |
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| Reading Comprehension | 36 Q / 35 min (~58 sec/Q) |
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| Mathematics Achievement | 47 Q / 40 min (~51 sec/Q) |
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| Essay | 1 prompt / 30 min |
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The ISEE Upper Level is administered to students applying to grades 9 through 12 at selective private high schools and boarding schools. For many families, this is the pipeline into college-prep education: day schools and boarding programs like Choate, Deerfield, Groton, Andover, and Exeter. The applicant pool at this level is the most selective on the ISEE.
The test is identical for every student who takes it, whether they're applying to 9th grade or a postgraduate year at a boarding school. ERB compares your child only against other students in their exact current grade (that's the stanine score), but the questions themselves are the same. That's a four-grade span looking at the same test — the widest range on the ISEE.
That makes the ISEE Upper especially challenging for the youngest test takers.
The good news. Your child doesn't need to answer every question correctly. Stanines only compare your child to other students in their exact current grade, so an 8th grader isn't scored against an 11th grader. Recognizing which questions are calibrated for older applicants — and when to skip them — matters more here than on any other level of the ISEE.
The harder news. For 8th graders specifically, the Upper Level covers three to four years of curriculum they haven't been taught yet. Running into questions on quadratics, function composition, or sequences before those topics have been introduced can throw a strong student off pace. The ISEE Coach diagnostic focuses on teaching kids to recognize what's out of scope and how to keep pace on what isn't.
A note on our benchmark. This gap analysis assumes your child is coming from a public school on the Common Core standards. States and schools differ, and private, parochial, and homeschool curricula vary widely. Your child's specific case may look different depending on their school, but in broad strokes, Common Core is a reasonable baseline for typical grade-level exposure.
Common Core progression for the years covered by the Upper Level:
The Upper ISEE reaches into Algebra 2 content routinely. Here's where the typical gaps lie by grade.
Their baseline. They've completed 7th grade Common Core, and in the fall they're starting 8th grade material. They know ratios, proportional reasoning, operations with negative rationals, basic percentages, one-step equations, and basic probability.
For 8th graders, the Upper Level covers up to four years of curriculum they haven't been taught yet. Most of the test's math comes from 8th grade, Algebra 1, Geometry, or Algebra 2. Prep isn't about cramming three years of high school math into a summer — it's about identifying which questions are in reach and which are safely skipped.
| Concept area | What an 8th grader knows | What the ISEE tests |
|---|---|---|
| Slope & linear equations | Coordinate plane in all four quadrants | Slope-intercept form y = mx + b, finding slope from two points, parallel and perpendicular lines. 8th grade CC. |
| Systems of equations | Single-variable equations | Solving 2×2 linear systems by substitution or elimination, interpreting intersections graphically. 8th grade CC. |
| Functions | Basic input-output tables | Function notation f(x) = 3x + 2, evaluating at specific inputs. 8th grade CC. |
| Exponents & radicals | Basic squares and cubes | Rules of exponents (product, quotient, negative), simplifying radicals like √48 = 4√3. 8th grade CC. |
| Pythagorean theorem | Basic triangle properties | Applying a² + b² = c² to find missing sides. 8th grade CC. |
| Coordinate transformations | Basic shapes on a grid | Reflections, rotations, and translations across the X and Y axes. 8th grade CC. |
| Quadratics | Linear equations | Factoring, quadratic formula, graphing parabolas. Algebra 1. |
| Function composition | Nothing yet | Composing (f(g(x))), inverse functions, piecewise functions. Algebra 2. |
| Rational expressions | Basic fractions with variables | Simplifying and combining rational expressions with restrictions. Algebra 1. |
| Sequences & series | Basic number patterns | Arithmetic and geometric sequences, explicit and recursive formulas, sum formulas. Algebra 2. |
| Advanced statistics | Mean, median, mode | Weighted averages, comparing distributions, interpreting standard deviation. |
| Compound probability | Basic single-event probability | Compound and conditional probability across multiple events. |
Most of this table is content your student will learn across 8th grade, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. The strategic play is to skip these on test day and focus study time on subskills that are in reach.
Their baseline. They've completed 8th grade Common Core, and in the fall they're starting Algebra 1 (or in some schools, Geometry). They know slope, linear equations, systems of equations, function basics, exponent rules, radicals, transformations, and the Pythagorean theorem.
9th graders are in a much better position than 8th graders. Most of 8th grade Common Core content is done. The remaining gap is Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 topics — which is still substantial, since most take the test in the fall before their 9th grade curriculum has caught up.
| Concept area | What a 9th grader knows | What the ISEE tests |
|---|---|---|
| Quadratics | Linear equations, systems, simple exponents | Factoring, quadratic formula, graphing parabolas, discriminant. Algebra 1. |
| Function composition | Function notation basics f(x) = 3x |
Composing (f(g(x))), inverse functions, piecewise functions. Algebra 2. |
| Rational expressions | Basic fractions with variables | Simplifying and combining complex rational expressions, identifying domain restrictions. Algebra 1. |
| Sequences & series | Basic number patterns | Arithmetic and geometric sequences, explicit and recursive formulas, sums. Algebra 2. |
| Advanced statistics | Mean, median, mode | Weighted averages, comparing distributions, interpreting standard deviation. |
| Compound probability | Basic single-event probability | Compound and conditional probability across multiple events. |
Their baseline. They've completed Algebra 1 (and possibly Geometry). They know quadratics, function basics, coordinate geometry with slope and distance formulas, and the Pythagorean theorem in depth.
These students face a much narrower gap. The remaining challenge is Algebra 2 depth (logarithms, exponentials, sequences), light trigonometry, and the vocabulary section.
The Upper Level verbal section is where many prep tools disappoint. It tests a level of academic vocabulary that isn't taught in most high school English classes, and reading passages drawn from primary sources that require serious focus.
Upper Level ISEE synonyms and sentence completions pull from academic and literary vocabulary rarely encountered outside of college-prep reading lists.
reluctant, ambitious, sincere, persistent, humble
obsequious, truculent, equivocate, parsimonious, sanguine, laconic, trenchant
Reading passages on the Upper Level often come from 18th- and 19th-century essays, opinion pieces from mid-20th-century periodicals, or specialized scientific writing (evolutionary biology, cognitive science, historical geology). These passages test comprehension along with the ability to hold competing arguments in mind and identify implicit tone.
Take a full-length, timed ISEE Upper Level diagnostic and get a personalized report on which subskills need work and which questions to skip on test day.
Or head straight into section-by-section practice. The full question bank at your student's level is entirely free.
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