About the ISEE Upper Level
The ISEE Upper Level is the ACT of private school admissions for grades 9 through 12. Just as colleges use the SAT and ACT to determine applicant preparedness, many independent schools across the US achieve the same effect with the ISEE.
Because teachers, curriculums, and academic difficulty vary from school to school, a student’s report card is not sufficient enough to accurately compare students from different schools. Therefore they use a standardized test like the ISEE.
ISEE is an acronym that stands for the Independent School Entrance Exam. It is administered by the non-profit group ERB, Educational Records Bureau. You’ve probably heard of ERB before in the context of annual testing, particularly if your school administers the CTP-4, which is somewhat similar to the ISEE.
ISEE Upper Level Research, Analysis, & Adice
ISEE Review – Balancing Algebraic Equations
The idea of the equation shouldn’t be new to you. We’ve already covered several concepts where an action results in a specific value. If you recall, there is always an equal sign between the action and the result, which is a statement that one expression is equal to the other. Since algebraic expressions can have multiple parts, we can manipulate an equation to make several mathematical statements. Generally this means [...]
ISEE Math Review – Absolute Value
Absolute value, represented as a vertical line on either side of the value, refers to a number or variable’s distance from zero on the number line. There are always two numbers that share the same distance from zero: a positive number and its negative counterpart. The absolute value for a variable will usually result in a positive and a negative value as well, but the numbers will not necessarily be [...]
ISEE Math Review – Direct and Inverse Variation
Direct and inverse variation refers to two values that are proportional to one another depending on a particular constant, or k: Direct variation multiplies the constant to one of the values. Inverse variation divides the constant by one of the values. To determine which variation to use, look closely at the words used in the question: If the question states that a value is directly proportional or varies directly with [...]
ISEE Math Review – Inequalities
You know that 2 is a larger number than 1, and you know that ‐2 is a smaller number than ‐1, so how do you show both of these statements to be true? While an equation is a demonstration of two quantities equal to one another, inequalities demonstrate two quantities not equal to one another. This includes algebraic expressions. You can show this relationship of inequality in four ways: The [...]
ISEE Math Review – System of Linear Equations: Elimination and Substitution
So far, you have mostly been solving for a single variable in an equation or placing one variable in terms of the others. However, you will likely face questions asking you to solve for more than one variable, and these questions will likely be about linear equations. A linear equation simply refers to an equation that will result in a single straight line on a graph, such as slope‐intercept y [...]
ISEE Math Review – Linear Equations and their Graphs
A graph, or coordinate plane, can be used to represent the results of equations by plotting their inputs and outputs. Basically, a value is inputted into an equation (with one variable), a series of mathematical actions occur, and a single output is created. A graph is made up of two perpendicular number lines, called the coordinate axes: The x‐axis is the horizontal number line whose values represent the equation’s inputs. The [...]
