Are teacher recommendations, grades, or test scores more important for your overall application? In this clip from our CEO’s chat with placement expert Neal Kamsler, Neal talks about the different ways that schools might look at your ISEE & SSAT scores, and how those scores fit into the final decision.
For 21 years, Neal Kamsler was Head of Upper School at Allen-Stevenson School in New York City. He now serves as Senior Director of Placement at Oliver Scholars, a non-profit educational access organization. Listen to the full school admissions conversation here.
The Quantitative Reasoning section of the ISEE tests mathematical reasoning abilities, which means that the questions often don’t require significant calculation and instead can be solved with numerical and logical reasoning.
Fast Facts
Second section of the ISEE
Lower Level: 35 minutes with 38 questions
all word problems
Middle and Upper...
For the first section of the SSAT, you will have 25 minutes to produce a sample of your best writing. For the writing sample, you will choose from two prompts: one is a creative prompt in the form of a partial sentence.
Every year, there are increasing numbers of international applicants to private high schools and boarding schools in the U.S. and Canada. A North American high school education has a number of benefits, including a greater understanding of the college application process, academic readiness for a college education, and immersion in...
With only 25 minutes to write, managing your limited time effectively is incredibly important. Start by spending the first 2-5 minutes outlining your ideas to clarify and structure your thoughts. After you have a plan, go ahead and get writing! This is where you will spend the bulk of your...
Across our platform, students exhibit statistically significant increases in test percentile after every practice test. We see that our students don’t just improve by using our platform, but they improve consistently over time, further reinforcing that practice makes perfect. Students who use the Test Innovators platform see a 20% increase...
Happy New Year! As we enter 2025, it’s time to focus on finishing and submitting your applications. Make sure you’ve completed all application items, and don’t forget to double-check the deadlines for each school that you’re applying to. Here’s your January To Do List:Finish and submit your applications.Submit financial aid applications...
Josh’s daughter, Ellie, took the Secondary School Admissions Test (SSAT) in the hopes of gaining admission to an independent school for 9th grade. When Ellie initially took the test, one of the biggest struggles she faced was effectively managing her time on unfamiliar questions. She unknowingly spent too much time...
