<p>Another post about sending ISEE scores prompted me to start this thread</p>
<p>Most applicants to most of the boarding schools discussed on cc submit the SSAT as their standardized test. You can take the SSAT multiple times and for a small fee wait to decide after you get your scores which score reports (along with essays from those tests) you want to send to your schools. You don't have to choose any tests ahead of time. If you take the test more than once in 6 months, the report will say that there are multiple tests on file,but if you take 3 and send 2, it won't say that. So the SSAT is applicant-friendly.</p>
<p>But in many parts of the country, the standard admissions test for local private high schools is the ISEE. So, if you live in one of these places and are applying to local schools too, you will take the ISEE and most or all bs's will accept it instead of the SSAT, but you will probably want to sign up for the SSAT too. Unlike, the SSAT, ISEE makes you select at least one school to send scores/essay to before you take the test and you can only take the test one time in 6 months. So, if you are in this situation, do not sign up your top schools to get your ISEE ahead of time. Choose a local school and see the results before sending them to your bs's, which you can do for a small fee. Increase your chances of getting a good score to send to your bs's by also taking the SSAT.</p>
<p>The two tests are pretty similar so you don't have to study extra. One difference is that the ISEE doesn't penalize for wrong answers, so you can guess if you run out of time. The other is that the ISEE gives percentage scores/stanines for each section, but no overall score, which can feel a little worse. If you get all 7 stanines, you might have been in the 8th stanine overall, but ISEE doesn't calculate that. </p>
<p>If you are an older applicant, in 11th grade (or 10th if you have taken it), the bs's might ask you to send your PSAT because it is a test designed for your age group and they also get results for their current students. The SSAT and ISEE are mostly taken by applicants to 10th grade and below.</p>