TestMasters ISEE Upper Level Classroom Course

Ninth grade is the largest entry point at most independent schools, which makes the Upper Level ISEE the most competitive of the three levels: a bigger applicant pool, and committees comparing your stanines with everyone else applying to the same class. This course is built for that field, with seven three-hour verbal and math sessions, a three-hour essay workshop, and four full-length practice exams.

Watch a sample class

How the course is taught

Instructors specialize. The person teaching algebra teaches nothing else and has taught it to this exam often enough to know which wrong answer a student will be tempted by before they choose it. Sessions run strategy, worked examples, then timed drilling, because a technique never used against a clock is not yet a technique.

Practice exams are given in class under test conditions and returned as a computer-scored breakdown by question type. Students see their own pattern of loss, which is rarely the one they assumed.

What the course covers

Verbal Reasoning. Synonyms and sentence completion at the level eighth and ninth graders actually face, with vocabulary taught by root.
Reading Comprehension. Allocating time across six passages so the hardest one costs you one question rather than five.
Algebra. Functions, systems, exponents and rates, at exam speed.
Geometry. Coordinate geometry, solids and the trigonometric basics the Upper Level reaches for.
Quantitative comparison. Comparison logic and the traps built into it.
Essay workshop. A persuasive, organized essay in thirty minutes; admission officers read it as unassisted writing.

Materials

Every student receives the Test Masters ISEE Upper Level manual at the second meeting and all teaching is drawn from it.

Enrolling

Register online or call (281) 276-7777. See the session-by-session format or the Upper Level ISEE FAQs, including how stanines are read by admission committees.