How is the ISEE Lower Level scored?
On this page
Short answer
Each of the four multiple-choice sections gets a scaled score between 760 and 940, built from the number of correct answers; wrong answers cost nothing. The report then compares your child with recent same-grade applicants, on a 1–99 scale and in nine broad bands. The essay is not scored.
From correct answers to a scaled score
Scoring starts with the number of questions answered correctly in each section. Nothing is subtracted for a wrong answer, so a guess can never lower a score.
That count is converted to a scaled score from 760 to 940. The conversion allows for small differences between versions of the test, so the same scaled score means the same thing whichever version your child took.
The comparison with other applicants
For each section, the report also gives a number from 1 to 99. It shows the share of a comparison group who scored the same as or lower than your child. It is not the percentage of questions answered correctly.
The comparison group is students applying to the same grade who took the ISEE over the past three years, updated each year. Because these are applicants to selective independent schools, the test provider notes that a child can look lower here than on school tests that compare with all students nationally.
Nine broad bands
The 1–99 numbers are also grouped into nine bands, numbered 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest). The middle three bands cover the middle 54 points of the 1–99 scale; the bottom three and the top three each cover 23.
The report shades one band on either side of your child's band. That shading is there because a result can move on a retest even when skill has not changed — small differences between sections or between sittings may not mean much.
How schools use the numbers
Schools see four separate section results, not one total. The test provider's guidance to schools says a school can weight sections differently — for example, more weight on the verbal and reading sections, or on the two math sections — and that scores should be read together with grades, teacher recommendations, interviews and school visits.
Each school decides how to use the results.
What this page does not do
We do not predict scores, and we do not say what number any school looks for. The comparison numbers depend on which group of students your child is compared with, so a figure that circulates online may not apply to your child's year or school.
Where Glentavo fits
Glentavo reports show what your child actually did on each practice test — questions answered correctly by section and question type, time used, and change from the last test. They do not convert practice results into an ISEE score or a comparison with other applicants.