ISEE as a complement to SSAT?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

<p>My son is applying to 9th grade boarding schools with decent grades and good letters.</p>

<p>His scores for the SSAT were Verbal 79, Quantitative 92, and Reading 56. We were hoping that his reading score would be better on the ISEE, but they are right in line with the SSAT. His ISEE scores were Verbal: 6 (60%), Reading 5 (54%), Quantitative 9 (96%), Math 7 (87%).</p>

<p>I am inclined to simply ignore the ISEE scores and just submit the SSAT scores as they appear to be equal to or better than these. In fact, since the ISEE scores confirm his weakness in reading, it takes away any potential forgiveness of the weak score since he has an A in his English class through hard work.</p>

<p>Is there any benefit to giving the schools the ISEE scores knowing that they are a little weaker than the SSAT?</p>

2

<p>I wouldn’t submit them. It just seems to bolster the sense that the SSAT scores are “correct.” And the fact that you had him take both tests suggests that you were hoping for a better result in one or the other. If you’d gotten that, then certainly you would have just submitted that result, but since you didn’t, I think it just seems to suggest some anxiety to submit both.</p>

3

<p>Exactly right soxmom. We were trying to game the testing piece to see if we could piece together the best scores for someone who could advocate for him. Didn’t work and I think that submitting both would actually be detrimental for a variety of reasons.</p>

4

<p>Many schools aren’t interested in the ISEE for 9th grade (at least that was our experience) so I would check that. I would only submit one type of test to any specific school. </p>

5

<p>We are planning to submit both (sight unseen for the ISEE). At the last minute, a Day school was added as an option, which takes only ISEE. We are sending in the January 11 sitting- I figured “why not?” If SSAT is OK, is there a downside to also sending along the ISEE? SSAT was OK, but we are going for the Jan 10 sitting (again sight unseen) since the schools we are looking at superscore. DD is doing a bit of studying this time (wish it were more!), so the PSAT and the ISEE should both float up a bit. Comments? @MA2012, what is the downside?</p>

6

<p>I do we find out which schools “superscore?”</p>

7

<p>I know from making a phone call to admissions that (at least) Phillips Exeter Academy and Saint Paul’s School superscore.</p>