Cracking the SSAT & ISEE, 2015 Edition Author: Princeton Review | Language: English | ISBN:
0804125104 | Format: EPUB
Cracking the SSAT & ISEE, 2015 Edition Description
The Princeton Review realizes that acing the SSAT and ISEE exams is very different from getting straight A’s in school. We don’t try to teach you everything there is to know about English and math–only what you’ll need to score higher on the exam. There’s a big difference. In Cracking the SSAT & ISEE, we’ll teach you how to think like the test writers and
·Correctly answer analogy and synonym questions even when you’re
not sure what all of the words mean
·Ace the reading comprehension section by learning to spot main ideas,
topic sentences, and key words
·Crack the general math section by learning to avoid wrong answer
choices that look right but are planted to fool you
·Learn how to turn complicated algebra problems into simple word problems
·Simplify the SSAT writing sample and the ISEE essay using a sure-fire,
step-by-step approach
This book includes five full-length practice tests, with questions like the ones you’ll see on the actual SSAT and ISEE.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Series: Professional Test Preparation
- Paperback: 704 pages
- Publisher: Princeton Review (August 5, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0804125104
- ISBN-13: 978-0804125109
- Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I am a tutor and I have many students each year who need to take the SSAT and the ISEE. Once my students have acquired each test's official book (Preparing & Applying for the SSAT and What to Expect on the ISEE, both of which are currently available only from the websites administered by the test-makers themselves), this book is the book I recommend first for my students -- followed closely by the Kaplan book.
In fact, as I say in the book review episode of my SSAT and ISEE podcast, the PR and Kaplan books are really the *only* books worth using outside of the official books. All the other publishers get something seriously wrong, but these books get almost everything right. For the Princeton Review in particular, the breakdown is as follows:
Pros:
- Spectacular vocab and word roots practice
- Great practice with hard synonyms & analogies
- Good balance of "lessons" and practice with actual test problems
Cons:
- The math sections are complete, but not as thorough as with Kaplan (but Kaplan's vocab work isn't as good)
- No single student will be able to use more than one practice test in this book (same for Kaplan)
The reason for that last point is that the SSAT has a lower and upper level (2 tests), and the ISEE has a lower, middle, and upper level (3 tests). So the fact that there are five practice tests in this book (and most prep books) really means that there's only one test per level. And any given student is only going to take the test at one level, so at most there is one practice test per student per test.
I am an ISEE, SSAT, SAT, and ACT tutor and founder of ISEEpracticetest.com and SSATpracticetest.com.
I recommend Princeton Review over the other SSAT/ISEE texts out there. However,the text definitely has its shortcomings.
As compared to the 2013 text: The 2014 text has improved the SSAT and ISEE essay topics and the formatting and look of the ISEE practice tests.
However, the Lower Level ISEE reading passages are now way too easy!! Please warn your students that parts of this text may not be representative of the official test's difficulty. I also noticed in the Lower Level ISEE practice test that some of the same errors in the VR section that were in the 2013 test have not been corrected.
Here is my review of Princeton Review's 2013 text:
ISEE
The passages in Princeton Review's 2013 ISEE practice tests are much more boring and difficult that the ERB's (they look more like SAT than ISEE passages).
Also in the Lower Level ISEE sentence completions, there are no sentence completions with blank phrases (only missing word sentence completions- whereas the ERB presents the ISEE as having 1/3 of the sentence completions end with blank phrases).
Additionally, in the 2-blank UL sentence completions the Princeton Review uses synonyms to make tricky wrong answers (in line with the SAT) -However, on the ERB's ISEE there are no tricky synonyms.
And is it the UL ISEE essay question that asks whether the driving age should be raised to 21?! That is an ACT-like question! I don't expect such a question on an ISEE.
I actually recently co-wrote 6 new ISEE practice test that are just now available at iseepracticetest.com.
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