Upper Level ISEE: 1500+ Practice Questions

I bought this for my son's high school (9th grade entry) prep, and we literally devoured this book. He felt very prepared as a result and did as well as he could (more on this below). But I'd say it's not necessarily for everyone esp. if the assumption is "this book will prepare the kid to score 100%" (and I don't think any single book would). In summary:Pros:- Plenty of practice questions by categories in a a very diverse fashion. One could choose to focus on particular section (e.g., synonyms for vocab, statistics for math) to work on areas that need development.- Good organization overall - the diagnostic test upfront helps assess the areas the one needs to work on and then choose to work specific sections (as above). One can also take the whole practice test toward the tail end of the book to simulate the time pressure and a mixed set of questions that you'd see in a real test---we tried taking the same practice test a few times and the repetition was still helpful in solidifying learning.Cons:- Answer keys don't come with explanations (except for scant examples at the beginning of each section). This wasn't a problem for us, as I was highly engaged in checking answers and was able to explain why the answers were what they were.- But this means that, if you expect your child/student to be completely independent and to self-learn from the book, some of the questions (esp. in math, like trigonometry, imaginary numbers, etc) may not be digestible as an 8th grader who's only finishing up halfway through her curriculum, as test is taken by January, around when most high school application deadlines seem to fall.Also, vocab practices are great thanks to their volume in this book, but it should be pretty obvious to everyone that to score on vocab well, one needs to read a lot and have a habit of looking up the words (in context) than simply looking up the meaning of the words through practice tests, although *any* practice is still helpful. This is one area that my son couldn't score more than 50-60% simply from this book. (He reads voraciously, but doesn't have a habit of look up words.)And one more note on another review that pointed that the book doesn't compute the actual scaled score from the percentages of correct answers---that is true, but I'm afraid the scaled scores may not be all that relevant, as emphasis on ISEE performance seems to lie more on Stanines (9-level relative distribution, like quartile, except 9 levels instead of 4), and given fluctuation of questions, ISEE report card seems to put more emphasis on the stanines than the 760-940 scale that they do compute.

As a math tutor, the Upper Level ISEE practice book provides me with plenty of tools to help students prepare for their exam. Breaking up the test into its sections allows me to focus not just on "test prep," but actually helping students develop their math skills so they'll be ready for their next experiences in math. That isn't to say that the actual "test prep" work isn't worth it. When it comes time to it, students have the chance to attempt two practice tests so that they can understand the structure and the content of the exam. All in all it is an incredibly useful tool to help students prepare for the next steps in their education.

I purchased the 3 book bundle that included this book, "Five Practice Tests for the Upper Level ISEE" and "ISEE Upper Level Secrets Study Guide". I think I was a little over zealous in loading up on test prep books, and wish I'd only purchased one of these guides. This book is the one my son used the most when preparing for the test. It was a little overwhelming. There were a lot of questions, especially with the math sections, that were more advanced than anything my son has been exposed to yet. So the overall test prep experience had the opposite effect than intended. My son felt less prepared and and more overwhelmed, thinking he should know answers to questions he's never learned before. I ended up searching online whether there different versions of the test based on the grade you are entering. Kids entering 12th grade are taking the same test as kids entering 9th grade. I found one online guide that explained that while it is the same test for all upper level grades, the test aims to push kids outside of their academic depths and measure capability rather than just accumulated knowledge. I wish the book addressed this more. A little more explanation of how to accept and prepare for this academic difference would have made a huge difference. The book itself isn't bad. The sample questions were representative of what to expect in the test. But some of the other books were a little better at preparing the student for the exam, and minimizing test anxiety. If I could go back, I would only purchase the study secrets guide and would have stayed away from this book.

The package came 2 days late so we lost two days of studying which was critical. Book is good but couldn't take advantage of it fully, very dissapointed.

This is a really useful book and the best we found by far (we tried quite a few). It is well-organized, boils down the advice to what actually works rather than getting bogged down in pages and pages of commentary as some of them do, and has the best practice tests. My kid shave worked with The Tutorverse because they really know what they are doing as this book demonstrated. We found it to be essential and it seems to be the one tutors from other places recommend the most. In short, if you are just buying one ISEE book, this is the one to get; if you have a selection, USE THIS ONE!!!

There are so many books out there, but this one is truly the most encompassing and most well laid out and focused. This is the only book that my son needed during his prep for the ISEE exam. We thought we had discovered the Tutorverse book but actually many of the students in his class were using it as a reference for their studies. As your child goes through each chapter and practice test, you will see the improvement in your child's performance. It was also very helpful to have the answer explanations at the end. The answers were succinct and clearly explained. We can't recommend this book enough.