The Hardest ISEE Verbal Problem

STUMPERS Volume 1: To choose or not to choose.

For this installment of STUMPERS, in which we dissect the most difficult practice questions across our SSAT and ISEE offerings, we’ll take a look at the ISEE Verbal question with the lowest correct rate out of more than 4,000 practice questions on our tests.

The question comes from one of our Middle Level practice exams. See if you can fill in the blank with the correct word:

In contrast to San Diego’s downtown cityscape, the upscale —— of Rancho Santa Fe enchants with sprawling estates, lush foliage, and mature equestrian trails.

A) asylum

B) hamlet

C) monarch

D) metropolis

Think you know it?

Okay, now check your answer. If you answered B) hamlet, then you are smarter than quite a few fifth graders. Believe it or not, only 7% of our test takers answered this question correctly. That’s far below the expected value of 25% for a question on which all students randomly guessed an answer. So, let’s delve into this question and explore what makes it such a stumper.

Why This Question Is So Difficult: 

Before we go into exactly why so many students  were stumped, let’s look at how they were stumped. It turns out that a whopping 62% of testers selected D) metropolis as their answer, while 15% selected A) asylum, and 16% selected C) monarch. As you can see,  each incorrect  answer received far  more bites than the correct one.

Metropolis is the most tantalizing option, but why is this? One possibility is that students  aren’t  parsing through the entire sentence. Perhaps they were focusing mostly on the first six words in the sentence rather than picking up on the more relevant last eight words—words that really don’t hint to or describe  a metropolis. The key to understanding this question is recognizing that “sprawling estates, lush foliage, and mature equestrian trails” are not typical features of a “downtown cityscape”. Compounding this is the fact that it’s easier for many students  to recognize a synonym than an antonym. Once you’ve attached yourself to the “San Diego cityscape” part of the question, it would be a natural step to look for another word describing this same environment (i.e., metropolis).

As for the low rate of hamlet as a guess, we chalk this up to the pure difficulty of the word. This is a test taken by students applying to seventh and eighth grade. Some well-read kids might actually be more acquainted with the Shakespearean connotation of the word rather than the “village” or “rural community” definition.

How to Avoid Making This Mistake: 

The key to correctly answering this question is threefold: 1) carefully reading the entire sentence before selecting an answer, 2) eliminating answers that won’t work, and 3) thinking about how well your selected answer fits into the sentence as a whole. 

1. As seemed to be the case with this question, carefully reading every word of the sentence is critical. The sentence completion questions on the ISEE are designed to test your mastery of context clues. You need to be the Sherlock Holmes of the ISEE and find all of these clues before coming to your ultimate conclusion.
2. Process of elimination is your best friend with this type of question. When you see words such as “contrasts,” “although,” or “but,” you should typically look for words that would describe the opposite of other thoughts in the sentence. An imaginary red flag should wave in your head when you spot a word that actually describes the part of the sentence covered by those contrary words—this answer choice is probably there to trick you.
3. Once you’ve eliminated words that definitely won’t work (like metropolis in this example), you need to re-read the sentence with your word included. Does it make sense? Are there any contradictions? If not, you’ve probably nailed it!

In the case of this problem, many middle schoolers may be less sure of the word asylum. However, many may know the word monarch from studying history in school. Even if a student can only eliminate two answer choices, they will have significantly raised their likelihood of selecting the correct answer. In this problem, if a student pays attention and knows the word metropolis, they will have saved themselves from the most tempting of wrong answers.

Find all of our ISEE preparation materials at ISEEpracticetest.com!