Choosing Books for the ISEE

What to Avoid while Choosing a Book for ISEE Prep?

The ISEE, which stands for the Independent School Entrance Exam, is a standardized entrance test that is given at three levels: Lower Level for grades for 4 and 5, Middle Level for grades 6 and 7, and Upper Level for grades 9 to 12. Each level has five sections, including a thirty-minute section on Essay writing skills. The official website, http://erblearn.org, contains a lot of valuable information pertaining to this test for students and parents alike. This article reviews the three best books for preparation that are available in the market.

Review of 3 Common ISEE Books

  1. Cracking the SSAT and ISEE, 2013 Edition

    This book is published by The Princeton Review and is available online for purchase at http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-SSAT-Edition-Private-Preparation/dp/030794493X/ref=pd_sim_b_3/182-8545259-0407262. The price for purchasing this book through the link mentioned above is $12.74. This is one of the books that cover all the three levels of the test. In addition to the comprehensive practice material, this book also contains three full-length practice tests, one for each of the three levels. The book is divided into chapters. A striking feature of this book is that it is also divided into various sessions i.e. you can use these sessions in case you want to study a part of each section every day. In this way, one can receive class-like tutoring from this book. You are provided with a combination of concepts and strategies to learn and master the various concepts in each session. The tests can be taken at any point of time; however, it is suggested that these should be taken at the end of your preparation, when just a few days are left for the test.

  2. McGraw Hill’s SSAT/ISEE 3rd Edition

    This book has been written by Nicholas Falletta and is available online at http://www.amazon.com/McGraw-Hills-Edition-School-Entrance-Examinations/dp/0071781153/ref=pd_sim_b_4/182-8545259-0407262. The price you need to pay at this link is $12.84. This is one of the books in which each section and question type is explained in detail. There are numerous strategies explained for attempting different types of questions. Each strategy is explained in a step-wise manner and practice exercises are given.

    A separate part of the book is dedicated towards the mathematics section. There are various chapters such as word problems and quantitative comparisons. At the end, there are three practice tests, one each for the three levels of the test: Lower level, Middle level and Upper level. There are some myths that students have regarding this test. As a striking feature of this book, all of these are dispelled in it. In all, this is an excellent source of preparation for the ISEE.

  3. SSAT and ISEE for Dummies

    This book is available at the link http://www.amazon.com/SSAT-ISEE-Dummies-Vince-Kotchian/dp/1118115554/ref=pd_sim_b_2/182-8545259-0407262. You can purchase the book online at a price of just $13.85 although the list price is $19.99. This book is authored by Vince Kotchian and Curt Simmons.

    Just like other study guides, this one also contains a lot of extensive tips to deal with each individual question type and includes many practice exercises. There are test-specific workouts for each section which you can attempt under a fixed time limit. There are three full-length practice tests in this guide. Some of the most commonly tested vocabulary words are included in this book in the form of lists.

Important Things You Need to Avoid while Purchasing an ISEE Book

Along with knowing the important features of the books that you purchase, there are some other important things you need to avoid while purchasing a guide book:

– Firstly, never take price as the biggest factor in consideration as the quality of the material is much more important.
– Secondly, never ignore the reviews that have been provided by the previous users of the book. There may be some flaws in each book and you need to go through the user reviews to know if the flaw is of a minor or major consequence.

Hence, it can be concluded that there are many prep books available for you. However, before making the purchase, keep all these factors in mind. Choose one wisely and start following it from the first day itself.