ISEE Test Scores

Does anyone know the average ISEE scores for people accepted into Exeter, Andover or Choate? I’ve heard that the average SSAT score is low 90’s but I don’t know how to convert that into stanines for the ISEE. Thank you!

bump, do you guys know what PA and PEA want for ISEE scores?

I’m not sure if the ISEE’s stanine follows the regular stanine method, but if it does, it follows the baseline on a normal curve. To achieve a stanine 9, you’d have to be top 4 percentile, and to achieve an 8, top 11. So assuming these schools are in the low 90’s, I’m going to go ahead and guess that would translate into 8’s or 9’s.

(You’d be better off taking this with a grain of salt)

Don’t all the top schools prefer the ssat to the isee?

Eg St Paul’s says:

"If for some reason you cannot take the SSAT, we will accept ISEE scores. "

Will presenting isee scores count against you?

@Nomad001, When I asked AO’s and my school counselor, they all said that schools had no preference. I personally took the ISEE because it is the norm for NYC private day schools, and I am applying to more of the day schools than boarding.

Some of the top schools say they prefer ssat but they’ll accept isee. So I do wonder how they view isee results. Would they view 90% in isee as being equivalent to 90% ssat?

“Would they view 90% in isee as being equivalent to 90% ssat?”

Probably yes. I wouldn’t stress too much about it, and just go ahead and submit your ISEE scores.

As a very technical matter, people who have looked closely at this believe that the SSAT is a slightly better indicator of innate intelligence than the ISEE. The ISEE has traditionally been looked at as more akin to an “achievement” rather than an “aptitude” test. Sort of like the debate that used to go on between the SAT and the ACT. For some time, however, all tests have been moving more towards an achievement ACT-type model, and so I’d imagine that the differences between what the tests are measuring are becoming less meaningful.

Still, though, having looked at SSAT and ISEE questions closely, I would characterize the ISEE as being slightly more a test of knowledge (easier questions on a broader base of topics) than of innate reasoning ability.

Hi, @rukthecook
I do not know the answer. Just check your school’s placement for past 3-5 years. If your school is well respected from top BSs, then your counselors are right. They are special and will handle this on behalf of you. I do not think you do get any disadvantages on this.
p.s. I know your school is good at math. My DD goes there every Saturday. Do you know what I mean?
Good luck!

SSAT and ISEE have similar predictive abilities in terms of high school academic performance. Some research presented below.

SSAT
The company that puts on the SSAT, the Enrollment Management Association, does analytics on its test. They looked at the correlation of the SSAT (total and individual sub tests) to first year grades. They found that the most predictive individual test is the Quantitative one. The Verbal sub test was least correlated to academic performance. The overall composite score was the best predictor.

https://enrollment.org/theyield/item/52-data-helps-predict-student-success-outcomes

ISEE
A PhD student at Pepperdine researched the correlation of the ISEE to high school grades. In this case, the study focused on a particular SoCal school. The findings were remarkably similar to the SSAT analysis. The top predictive individual tests were the two Math ones. The least predictive (although still predictive) was the Verbal test. And a composite score of the four ISEE tests outperformed all of the individual tests.

https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1647451470.html?FMT=ABS

Extremely useful, @sfSTEM. It is no surprise that the mathematics portions of either test are more predictive of subsequent academic performance, as the math sections of either the SSAT or ISEE will be most closely correlated with general intelligence (-g in the literature). It would be interesting to see if verbal subscores on highly g-loaded tasks like analogies, as opposed to less valuable vocabulary or sentence fill-in tasks, similarly correlated with subsequent academic outcomes. I suspect that they would be just as predictive, although perhaps subject to more variance due to the presence of a large cohort of high scorers for whom English is not native.

All very interesting, question is though how do the top schools view the results of ssat vs isee?

@Nomad001 My general thought is that they’re viewed equivalently. However, I’d pay attention to what the schools say. Out here in the San Francisco Bay Area, three top 40 private high schools, The College Preparatory School, Branson and Lick-Wilmerding, do not specify any preference. They’ll equally consider SSAT or ISEE.

Another solid school in SF, Urban School, expressly states a preference for the SSAT. Why? Not because it has greater predictive power. Rather, Urban has a desire to have a single test that makes comparisons easier. That said, they will accept the ISEE if you want to provide it.

sfSTEM - that’s my point, if Urban School expressly states a preference for the ssat but an isee is presented how is that going to be viewed? That the applicant either scored poorly on the ssat or wasn’t motivated enough for the school to do the ssat?

If a school is telling you their preference, you should abide by that. Unless there are legitimate reasons you can’t.

Here’s what we did for Urban School for my 8th grade son. We sent them his SSAT, which was pretty strong. He also took the ISEE, and the math and verbal scores were similar to the SSAT. He picked up 12 percentile points on the reading comprehension.

So we sent his ISEE to Urban School as well. Now they have the preferred SSAT in hand, as well as the ISEE which provides additional perspective.