ISEE Upper Level preparation in New York City and online. One-on-one tutoring, full-length mock exams, and a stanine your target schools will take seriously.

ISEE Prep in New York City: Private Tutoring and Mock Exams

What the ISEE is.

The Independent School Entrance Exam, administered by the ERB, is the admissions test most New York independent day schools use. Upper Level is the version 8th graders sit for 9th grade entry. Four scored sections, Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension and Mathematics Achievement, plus a writing sample that goes to schools unscored.

How it is scored.

Each section produces a scaled score from 760 to 940, which is then converted to a percentile and a stanine from 1 to 9. The stanine is what admissions reads first. It compares your child against students who applied to the same grade over the past three years, and that norm group is private school applicants only, so a stanine 5 sits near the 70th to 80th percentile of students nationally. Stanine 5 is the midpoint of that applicant pool and 7 through 9 is roughly the top quarter. Strong schools admit students across the 4 to 6 range every year, which is why the useful question is not “how high” but “where does this child sit against the schools on your list.”
There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so every question should be answered.

So we teach it one-on-one,

because the useful question is rarely how to raise every section. It is which sections are costing stanines and which are already fine. specialized high school matters as much as the offer itself.

How Our ISEE Tutoring Works

Start with a mock. Your student sits a full-length proctored ISEE Upper Level exam before any instruction. We score it and convert it to stanines.
Then a consultation. We go through the report with you section by section, compare it against the schools on your list, and tell you honestly how much work is ahead. If the gap is small, we will say so.

Then a plan. One-on-one sessions scheduled around your child’s calendar, in person at 230 Park Avenue or live online. Frequency depends on the gap and the test date, not on a package we are trying to sell.

Season strategy. The ERB allows one sitting per season, Fall, Winter and Spring, up to three a year. Most families use one and never learn they had three. We choose deliberately, working backward from your deadlines.

Every hour includes instruction, materials, and counseling from a Kent counselor on school targeting, test timing, and whether a retake is worth it. Tutoring is $250 per hour.

Interested? Fill out the form below.

Kent Pre-High School Prep: Admissions Test Preparation for 7th Graders

FALL 2026 – SPRING 2027 · SHSAT, ISEE, SSAT, TACHS, HSPT

For 7th graders a year out from high school admissions testing. New York runs four separate admissions systems with five exams between them, and most families we meet have no idea yet which one their child will end up taking. That’s normal. This course prepares for all of them.

Interested? Fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

SHSAT, ISEE, SSAT and TACHS Content in One Curriculum

Each week covers a single topic, and every question that week comes from a real admissions exam. A week on fractions runs the same concept as the SHSAT asks it, then the ISEE, then the TACHS, then the HSPT.
Students start noticing the pattern fairly quickly. The math doesn’t change. The reading skill doesn’t change. What changes is the wrapping, and once a student has seen the same idea dressed four different ways, none of the four is unfamiliar anymore.
By spring they know the content cold and recognize the shape of every exam on the list.
Preparing for a specific exam? See our SHSAT, SSAT, and Hunter preparation.

Two Formats, Same Four Hours

Choose one. Both tracks cover the same curriculum in the same weekly sequence, and both run four hours a week. The only difference is when and where.

Live Online

  • Tuesdays and Thursday, 6:00 to 8:00 pm

In Person

  • Saturdays, 10:00 am to 2:15 pm
  • 230 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor

Fall 2026: 12 weeks, September 29 to December 19
Spring 2027: 14 weeks, January 26 to May 15

Same tuition either way.

How to begin

1. Complete the interest form below.
2. Hear from a Kent counselor. We will reach out to schedule a call, and if it would help, a diagnostic exam to see where your student currently stands.
3. Meet for a consultation. We review the results together and recommend the right path, whether that is one of our classes or private tutoring.