<p>I have noticed that a lot of people have chosen the SSAT over the ISEE. I personally have decided to take the ISEE. Is it because the SAT is easier? Will taking the ISEE hurt my chances?</p>
<p>I am applying to Andover and Hotchkiss.</p>
<p>Honey, do you mean the SSAT, not the SAT?</p>
<p>I don't think it will hurt your chances if you study for it. The schools will not discriminate you over whether or not you take which test - that is why both of them exist. They will know the standards for which the tests are judged, and it won't be hard to determine your caliber from that of a student who took the SSAT.</p>
<p>If you buy a prep book and study, then I'm sure you'll be able to do fine on the ISEE.</p>
<p>You will have to call the particular school's you're applying to, to determine if the isee is treated the same. We came across one particular school (SGS), that stated that although they accept the isee they discourage it. As per the adcom person, they notice that isee test takers have lower grades and they feel that these students take the isee because they perceive as easier. Interestingly, he followed up with "what are your d grades like"? When I told him, he said yes we'll take the isee. SPS only takes the ssat. They also mentioned that it is harder to compare students because much less take the isee. Our issue is that all our local day schools take only the isee. There are some additional differences. The isee does not ding you for a wrong answer, they don't have analogies, and you have 4 choices for the answer versus 5. So for my d,she will take the ssat.</p>
<p>Thanx for correcting me yes I did mean SSAT. I f it doesn't really matter whish test you take then why is the SSAT so popular?</p>
<p>In general,the ISEE is the test required by independent day schools and the SSAT is the test required by boarding schools. They are similar tests. If Andover and Hotchkiss state clearly that they accept the ISEE, then it should not hurt your chances. However, if you are only applying to boarding schools, I think it would be best to take the SSAT using the "when in Rome" standard. The ISEE generally signals that you are applying to day schools as well as boarding schools.</p>
<p>Do you think the fact that the test is taken by fewer people might possibly increase my chances of getting in because I'll have less people to be compared to?</p>
<p>You would be wise to call admissions to be certain that they accept the ISEE. When my son applied last year, a few schools stated that they accept the common application. When we questioned admissions, they said that they preferred their own application.
I don't think that taking the ISEE instead of the SSAT will increase your chances.</p>
<p>I don't think the SSAT is easier--I think it's harder. With the ISEE, you don't get penalized for wrong answers, and you only have four options. With the SSAT, you do get penalized, and you have five options. I took the SSAT because all of the day schools I'm applying accept the SSAT, but a few of the boarding schools I'm applying to won't take the ISEE, so it just made sense to take the SSAT.</p>
<p>One of the schools my daughter applied to last year had the ISEE listed as their required test. However, given where we live, we would have to travel 180 miles just to take the ISEE, they were OK with taking the SSAT.</p>
<p>Honestly, the schools look at the test results to see where you stand academically so they can determine if you are likely to be successful at their school. Since both tests are normed against a national sample, they can use the scores from either test to make that judgement. They have to look a little closer at the scores, but other than that there shouldn't be an issue. Of coures, check with the school first before taking a test not on their list.</p>
<p>Isn't the ISEE a longer test (4 hours) instead of the SSAT (3 hours)</p>
<p>I don't know how long the ISEE is, but when I took the SSAT, it took four hours. Not the actual testing time (which the proctors actually ended up messing up--they got the time wrong on the last test, so we ended up testing a little bit more than were supposed to), but just for everything. Far too long.</p>
<p>Most people choose the SSATs because it's more universal when applying (some boarding schools accept only it... it would suck to find a school that you would like to apply to only to realize you have to take another test).
Then again, at top day schools, the ISEE is more widespread. But ERB only let's you take it once every six months...</p>