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ISEE sample questions with answers, section by section

These are 10 sample questions from the four scored ISEE sections, each with its answer and a short explanation. They are original practice questions at Upper Level, written by us from the published description of the format, and are not from the real test. The real Upper Level has 160 questions; so do our full practice tests. Seven more questions, at Middle Level, follow the Upper Level ones; the Middle Level also has 160 questions. Eight more, at Lower Level, follow those; the Lower Level has 127 questions, and so do our full Lower Level tests.

Updated October 31, 2026 · by AdmitTest

The sections and question types below follow E3n's Quick Facts Guide and its Upper Level guide. Try each question first, then read the answer. For the method behind each type, every section has its own guide. Each question has four answer choices, as on the real test.

Verbal Reasoning (40 questions, 20 minutes at Upper Level)

Synonyms and sentence completions. More in the Verbal Reasoning guide.

Sample · Synonyms · written by AdmitTest

INDUCE

  1. cause
  2. delay
  3. excuse
  4. inspect

Answer: A. To induce a reaction is to bring it about, to cause it. Delay means to put it off, and excuse means to forgive it.

Sample · Sentence completion · written by AdmitTest

The first draft was ____ with errors, but careful revision made the final essay ____.

  1. riddled; ruined
  2. riddled; polished
  3. free; polished
  4. riddled; careless

Answer: B. “But” and “careful revision” show an improvement. Riddled with errors, then polished. “Free with errors” is not a phrase that works, and a revision does not ruin an essay.

Quantitative Reasoning (37 questions, 35 minutes at Upper Level)

Word problems and quantitative comparisons, with more reasoning than computing. More in the Quantitative Reasoning guide.

Sample · Word problems · written by AdmitTest

In a class of 36 students, 16 students are in swimming, 18 are in drama, and 10 are in neither. How many students are in both?

  1. 34
  2. 26
  3. 8
  4. 2

Answer: C. 36 − 10 = 26 students are in at least one activity. Adding the groups counts the overlap twice: 16 + 18 − 26 = 8. Answering 2 comes from subtracting the two groups.

Sample · Quantitative comparison · written by AdmitTest

x and y are positive integers and x + y = 14.

  1. The quantity in Column A is greater.
  2. The quantity in Column B is greater.
  3. The two quantities are equal.
  4. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.

Answer: A. Every allowed value gives the same result: for x = 1 and y = 13, Column A is 170 and Column B is 24; for x = 2 and y = 12, Column A is 148 and Column B is 24. So Column A is greater for every allowed value.

Reading Comprehension (36 questions, 35 minutes at Upper Level)

Passages followed by questions. More in the Reading Comprehension guide.

Sample · Reading · written by AdmitTest

Passage: You Climb to Reach It

You climb to reach Vanasoo, as the nearby villagers call their bog. This surprises everyone who arrives with the idea that a bog lies at the bottom of things. The path from the village runs through spruce and birch on level ground and then rises, gently but unmistakably, for a few hundred meters, and the trees shrink as it rises. By the time the boards begin, you are standing on a low dome of wet moss several kilometers across, a few meters higher than the forest it grew out of. No stream feeds it. None could, since water does not run uphill. Everything that wets this place has fallen from the sky, and what drains from it trickles off the edge into a dark, ditch-like moat that circles the dome.

The color is the next thing to adjust to. From a distance the surface reads as rust and olive. Up close it breaks into cushions of sphagnum moss, crimson and ochre and acid green, each one a crowded mass of small stems with no roots. Lift a handful and squeeze, and it wrings out like a bath sponge, for it can hold many times its own weight in water. The moss makes its own conditions. It pulls what few minerals the rain carries and gives back acid, until the water around it is sourer than tomato juice. Little else can live on those terms.

What does manage to live here looks stunted or strange. The pines along the boardwalk are barely as tall as a child, with trunks no thicker than a wrist, and a forester who cuts one and counts its rings may find a hundred years. At your feet the sundews, plants no wider than a coin, hold out red leaves beaded with glue. The beads are no ornament. Insects stuck there supply the nitrogen the rain does not. Among the cushions, pools lie black as coffee and perfectly still, looking as though they must be full of fish. They hold none.

Underfoot is the real reason Vanasoo matters. The moss grows at the top and dies below, and in that sour, airless dark, decay nearly stops, so the dead stems pile up as peat. The pile rises about a millimeter a year. A corer pushed down at the center of the dome travels seven meters before it grates on the clay of an old lake floor, the floor of a lake that this entire dome began by filling. Every grain of pollen that ever drifted here is down there, in order.

Late in the day, when the wind drops, the boards stop creaking and the place sounds like nothing at all. A crane calls once from the far edge. You feel the boards tremble slightly as someone a long way off walks toward you, the whole wet skin carrying a footfall across hundreds of meters, and you understand that you are standing on something nearer to a soaked quilt than to land. It took seven thousand years to make. A few good ditches could kill it.

In paragraph 4, the word "grates" most nearly means

  1. scrapes
  2. shreds
  3. annoys
  4. drains

Answer: A. Paragraph 4 says the corer travels seven meters before it grates on the clay of an old lake floor, so it scrapes against something hard. Nothing there is shredded or annoyed.

Sample · Reading · written by AdmitTest

Passage: You Climb to Reach It

You climb to reach Vanasoo, as the nearby villagers call their bog. This surprises everyone who arrives with the idea that a bog lies at the bottom of things. The path from the village runs through spruce and birch on level ground and then rises, gently but unmistakably, for a few hundred meters, and the trees shrink as it rises. By the time the boards begin, you are standing on a low dome of wet moss several kilometers across, a few meters higher than the forest it grew out of. No stream feeds it. None could, since water does not run uphill. Everything that wets this place has fallen from the sky, and what drains from it trickles off the edge into a dark, ditch-like moat that circles the dome.

The color is the next thing to adjust to. From a distance the surface reads as rust and olive. Up close it breaks into cushions of sphagnum moss, crimson and ochre and acid green, each one a crowded mass of small stems with no roots. Lift a handful and squeeze, and it wrings out like a bath sponge, for it can hold many times its own weight in water. The moss makes its own conditions. It pulls what few minerals the rain carries and gives back acid, until the water around it is sourer than tomato juice. Little else can live on those terms.

What does manage to live here looks stunted or strange. The pines along the boardwalk are barely as tall as a child, with trunks no thicker than a wrist, and a forester who cuts one and counts its rings may find a hundred years. At your feet the sundews, plants no wider than a coin, hold out red leaves beaded with glue. The beads are no ornament. Insects stuck there supply the nitrogen the rain does not. Among the cushions, pools lie black as coffee and perfectly still, looking as though they must be full of fish. They hold none.

Underfoot is the real reason Vanasoo matters. The moss grows at the top and dies below, and in that sour, airless dark, decay nearly stops, so the dead stems pile up as peat. The pile rises about a millimeter a year. A corer pushed down at the center of the dome travels seven meters before it grates on the clay of an old lake floor, the floor of a lake that this entire dome began by filling. Every grain of pollen that ever drifted here is down there, in order.

Late in the day, when the wind drops, the boards stop creaking and the place sounds like nothing at all. A crane calls once from the far edge. You feel the boards tremble slightly as someone a long way off walks toward you, the whole wet skin carrying a footfall across hundreds of meters, and you understand that you are standing on something nearer to a soaked quilt than to land. It took seven thousand years to make. A few good ditches could kill it.

If the peat kept to the rate in paragraph 4, about how far above the old lake clay at the center would the peat from 2,500 years ago lie?

  1. 2.5 meters
  2. 4.5 meters
  3. 25 centimeters
  4. 7 meters

Answer: B. At about a millimeter a year, 2,500 years is 2.5 meters of peat on top of that layer. Paragraph 4 puts the clay seven meters down, and 7 − 2.5 = 4.5. The 2.5 meters is the layer's depth below the surface, not its height above the clay.

Mathematics Achievement (47 questions, 40 minutes at Upper Level, no calculator)

Traditional math problems in one or more steps. More in the Mathematics Achievement guide.

Sample · Numbers, decimals, percents, fractions · written by AdmitTest

Simplify: 8 + 2 × 9 − 3

  1. 16
  2. 23
  3. 25
  4. 87

Answer: B. Multiply before adding or subtracting: 2 × 9 = 18, so 8 + 18 − 3 = 23. Answering 16 comes from adding instead of multiplying.

Sample · Algebra · written by AdmitTest

5 times a number decreased by 10 equals 65. What is the number?

  1. 375
  2. 75
  3. 16
  4. 15

Answer: D. Undo the decrease: 65 + 10 = 75. Then divide by 5: 15. Answering 375 comes from multiplying instead of dividing.

Sample · Geometry · written by AdmitTest

A rectangle has an area of 115 square feet and a length of 23 feet. What is its width?

  1. 2,645 feet
  2. 92 feet
  3. 56 feet
  4. 5 feet

Answer: D. Area = length × width, so width = 115 ÷ 23 = 5 feet. Answering 56 feet comes from finding a perimeter.

Sample · Data and probability · written by AdmitTest

The table shows the number of pens each store sold in one week. What percent of the total is North?

  1. 25%
  2. 50%
  3. 75%
  4. 400%

Answer: A. The total is 40. North is 10/40 = 25%. Answering 75% comes from finding the percent that is left.

Middle Level samples (students applying to grades 7-8)

Original questions written for the Middle Level, with the same four answer choices. There is one for each type that has a spare question: verbal, quantitative and math.

Sample · Synonyms · written by AdmitTest

SINCERE

  1. fake
  2. honest
  3. serene
  4. shy

Answer: B. A sincere apology is honest and truly meant. Fake is the opposite, and serene only sounds similar.

Sample · Sentence completion · written by AdmitTest

Visitors spoke in whispers amid the ____ of the old castle, with its crumbling walls and empty halls.

  1. splendor
  2. comfort
  3. bustle
  4. desolation

Answer: D. Crumbling walls and empty halls show desolation. Splendor, comfort and bustle do not hush visitors.

Sample · Word problems · written by AdmitTest

Nina is older than Elena. Owen is younger than Elena. Luis is younger than Owen. Who is the youngest?

  1. Luis
  2. Owen
  3. Nina
  4. Elena

Answer: A. Link the statements: Nina > Elena > Owen > Luis (from oldest to youngest). So Luis is the youngest. The answer "Elena" comes from choosing someone in the middle of the order.

Sample · Quantitative comparison · written by AdmitTest

x is an integer and 3 < x < 10.

  1. The quantity in Column A is greater.
  2. The quantity in Column B is greater.
  3. The two quantities are equal.
  4. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.

Answer: D. If x = 4, Column A is 6 and Column B is 4, so Column A is greater. If x = 7, Column A is 7 and Column B is 7, so the two columns are equal. The results differ, so the relationship cannot be determined.

Sample · Numbers, decimals, percents, fractions · written by AdmitTest

What is 4³ + 2³?

  1. 72
  2. 70
  3. 20
  4. 18

Answer: A. 4³ = 64 and 2³ = 8, so the sum is 72. Answering 18 comes from multiplying base by exponent.

Sample · Algebra · written by AdmitTest

3 times a number increased by 3 equals 42. What is the number?

  1. 13
  2. 15
  3. 39
  4. 117

Answer: A. Undo the increase: 42 − 3 = 39. Then divide by 3: 13. Answering 117 comes from multiplying instead of dividing.

Sample · Data and probability · written by AdmitTest

A lunch special has 5 choices of sandwich, 2 choices of drink, and 2 choices of dessert. How many different lunches can be made with one of each?

  1. 9
  2. 10
  3. 20
  4. 40

Answer: C. Multiply the choices: 5 × 2 × 2 = 20. Answering 9 comes from adding the choices.

Lower Level samples (students applying to grades 5-6)

Original questions written for the Lower Level, with the same four answer choices. There is one for each type that has a spare question: verbal, quantitative and math. There is no Lower Level reading sample, because the spare reading questions are kept for the practice drills, and Lower Level has no quantitative comparisons to sample.

Sample · Synonyms · written by AdmitTest

BEG

  1. begin
  2. offer
  3. plead
  4. refuse

Answer: C. To beg is to ask for something in an urgent, pleading way. Begin only looks like beg, and refuse is the opposite of what a person who begs wants.

Sample · Sentence completion · written by AdmitTest

The treasure map was so old and ____ that the words were hard to read.

  1. faded
  2. sharp
  3. colorful
  4. heavy

Answer: A. Old paper often fades, which makes writing hard to read. Sharp and colorful words would be easy to read.

Sample · Word problems · written by AdmitTest

Ella has 73 stickers. Each tray holds 6. How many trays does Ella need to hold all the stickers?

  1. 67
  2. 14
  3. 13
  4. 438

Answer: C. 73 ÷ 6 = 12 with 1 left over. The leftover stickers still need one more tray, so 12 + 1 = 13.

Sample · Numbers, decimals, percents, fractions · written by AdmitTest

Simplify: 1/4 − 1/10

  1. 1/5
  2. 3/20
  3. 1/10
  4. 0

Answer: B. Make both fractions twentieths: 1/4 = 5/20 and 1/10 = 2/20. Then 5/20 − 2/20 = 3/20. The answer 0 comes from taking 1 − 1 on top and ignoring the bottoms.

Sample · Algebra · written by AdmitTest

What is the value of 3(n + 4) when n = 5?

  1. 19
  2. 9
  3. 27
  4. 60

Answer: C. Do the brackets first: 5 + 4 = 9. Then multiply by 3: 3 × 9 = 27. The answer 19 multiplies only the 5 by 3 and then adds 4, and 9 forgets to multiply by 3. The answer 60 multiplies all three numbers.

Sample · Geometry · written by AdmitTest

A square has an area of 121 square feet. What is its perimeter?

  1. 121 feet
  2. 484 feet
  3. 22 feet
  4. 44 feet

Answer: D. A square with area 121 has a side of 11, because 11 × 11 = 121. The perimeter is 4 × 11 = 44 feet. The answer 484 multiplies the area by 4 instead of the side.

Sample · Measurement · written by AdmitTest

A science show starts at 8:50 AM and lasts 3 hours 20 minutes. At what time does it end?

  1. 5:30 AM
  2. 11:10 AM
  3. 12:02 PM
  4. 12:10 PM

Answer: D. Add the hours first: 8:50 AM + 3 hours = 11:50 AM. Then 20 more minutes: 10 minutes gets to noon, and 10 more makes 12:10 PM.

Sample · Data and probability · written by AdmitTest

Here are the numbers of books checked out on 4 days: 29, 22, 23, 22. What is the mean of the numbers?

  1. 96
  2. 32
  3. 25
  4. 24

Answer: D. Add the numbers: 29 + 22 + 23 + 22 = 96. Divide by the 4 days: 96 ÷ 4 = 24. The answer 96 is only the sum.

After the samples

Ten questions show the types; they do not show the pace. The tightest clock is Verbal Reasoning, 30 seconds a question at Middle and Upper Level. To find out where the points go, take one full timed test, then practice the weakest skills (see how to prepare).

Free ISEE practice tests, no sign-up. Every test is timed section by section and ends with the score of each section and skill.

Choose your level and start

Common questions

Are these real ISEE questions?

No. We wrote every question here from E3n's published description of the format. The real ISEE is a secure test, and we do not copy or paraphrase its questions.

Does E3n publish ISEE sample questions?

Yes. E3n has a free online sample test for each level and a free What to Expect guide per level with a full paper practice test. That is the test organization's own practice, and it is worth using.

How are Lower and Middle Level questions different?

The question types are close, but the content is easier at lower levels. The main differences: Lower Level has no quantitative comparisons, its sentence completions include some phrase answers, and paired-word completions are listed only for Upper Level.

How many sample questions should my child do?

Samples show the question types; they do not show the pace. One full timed test does that: 160 questions at Middle and Upper Level, 127 at Lower.

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