ISEE Scores (2 wrong problems drop percentile to 89% ?)

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

My son took ISEE Lower level last month. His scores are:
VR - 867=72% (24 out of 30 correct)
RC - 863=66% (14 out of 20 correct)
QR - 900=99% (34 out of 35 correct)
MA - 883=89% (23 out of 25 correct)

My only surprise is that in Math Achievement section, only 2 wrong answers would drop his percentile ranking to 89%. Is this normal?

Thanks for any inputs.

2

I seem to recall that the age band cutoffs may affect the scoring like that. Meaning if he is at the very top of the age cutoff he can miss fewer …not sure if that’s the ISEE or ERB

3

My son took the Lower Level ISEE last year. Looking at his scores and comparing them to yours, it seems that the Math section is the one with most precipitous percentile drop per missed answer. It may be that many kids got perfect scores in the Math section. You probably know that the percentiles compare the student to other students of the same grade taking the test at that time, and they can change from cohort to cohort. For example, my son answered correctly the same number of RC questions as your son (14 out of 20) but got lower percentile than him: 64% instead of 66%. I hope this helps.

4

What is his current grade level? Grade 4 or Grade 5?

5

He is 5th grade

6

Thanks for all the replies.

7

My daughter had the same result on the MA section of the test. Given that a couple of questions can move the percentile by 10 points, I doubt schools care about small differences in ISEE scores once you pass a certain threshold (80 or 85?). This is just my assumption - does anyone have any insight on this?

8

Hi hwang11 and bostonparent617, my daughter has the same result on the MA. She had two wrong answers in QR and was still in 99 percentile. I was a little surprised that only two answers dropped her MA percentile to 89%. I guess it’s not difficult for kids to get perfect score on MA section. You just need to grasp more concepts on a advanced level.

Anyway I guess a balance score on each section is very important. Hwang11, where are you located?

9

BTW, my daugher’s age is on the younger side of 5th grade as she skipped a grade. I don’t think the score is adusted for age. They are compared on the same grade.