Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Paving the Way to Private School: Introducing the SSAT and ISEE 3
Part II: Ramping Up for the Verbal, Reading, and Essay Sections 3
Part III: Tackling the Math Sections 3
Part IV: SSAT Practice Exams 3
Part V: ISEE Practice Exams 4
Part VI: The Part of Tens 4
Icons Used in This Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part I: Paving the Way to Private School: Introducing the SSAT and ISEE 5
Chapter 1: Getting to Know the SSAT and ISEE 7
Approaching the SSAT and ISEE 7
Testing your ability 7
Knowing what to expect from test questions 8
Preparing yourself: Practice makes perfect 8
Getting to Know the SSAT 9
Exploring the structure of the SSAT 9
Separating the upper and lower level SSAT 10
Scoring the SSAT 10
How questions are graded 10
What is sent to your school 11
How your school uses the score 11
Registering for the SSAT 12
Knowing what to bring to the SSAT testing center 12
Scoping Out the ISEE 13
Understanding what's on the ISEE 14
Comparing the upper, middle, and lower level ISEE 14
Upper level ISEE 15
Middle level ISEE 15
Lower level ISEE 15
Scoring the ISEE 16
How questions are graded 16
What is sent to your school 16
How your school uses the score 17
Registering for the ISEE 17
Figuring out what to bring to the ISEE testing center 17
Chapter 2: Picking Up Study Skills and Techniques for Testing Success 19
Clocking Your Time 19
Practice, practice, practice 20
Resist the urge to finish 20
Skip questions 20
Using the Process of Elimination 21
Figuring Out a Guessing Strategy 23
Guessing on the ISEE 23
Guessing on the SSAT 24
Part II: Ramping Up for the Verbal, Reading, and Essay Sections 25
Chapter 3: Defining Your Vocabulary Skills 27
Studying Vocabulary 27
Flipping through flashcards 27
Memorizing mnemonic devices 28
Interpreting words in context 28
Using repetition 29
Breaking Down Vocabulary Words 29
Digging up roots 29
Starting with prefixes 31
Ending with suffixes 32
Vocabulary Practice: Lower Level SSAT and Lower and Middle Level ISEE 33
Vocabulary Practice: Upper Level SSAT and ISEE 36
Chapter 4: Talking Up Verbal Reasoning 41
What Verbal Reasoning Looks Like 41
Making Sense of Analogies 42
Mapping out your strategy for analogies 42
Put the words in a sentence that shows the relationship 43
Plug the answer choices in to your sentence 43
When in doubt, refine the sentence 44
When you don't know a word (or several), look for clues 45
When you have trouble establishing the relationship, dig deeper 46
Trying your hand at analogy practice questions 46
Getting the Scoop on Synonyms 48
Planning your synonym attack strategy 48
Checking out a few sample synonym questions 49
Filling in Sentence Completion Questions 50
Building a strategy for sentence completion 50
Working through a few sentence completion questions 51
Chapter 5: Practicing Verbal Reasoning 53
Tackling Guided Lower Level SSAT Analogy Questions 53
Practicing Lower Level SSAT Analogy Questions on Your Own 55
Answers to Lower Level SSAT Analogy Questions 57
Tackling Guided Upper Level SSAT Analogy Questions 58
Practicing Upper Level SSAT Analogy Questions on Your Own 60
Answers to Upper Level SSAT Analogy Questions 62
Tackling Guided Lower and Middle Level Synonym Questions 63
Practicing Lower and Middle Level Synonym Questions on Your Own 64
Answers to Lower and Middle Level Synonym Questions 65
Tackling Guided Upper Level Synonym Questions 66
Practicing Upper Level Synonym Questions on Your Own 67
Answers to Upper Level Synonym Questions 68
Tackling Guided Lower and Middle Level ISEE Sentence Completion Questions 68
Practicing Lower and Middle Level ISEE Sentence Completion Questions on Your Own 70
Answers to Lower and Middle Level ISEE Sentence Completion Questions 71
Tackling Guided Upper Level ISEE Sentence Completion Questions 72
Practicing Upper Level ISEE Sentence Completion Questions on Your Own 73
Answers to Upper Level ISEE Sentence Completion Questions 74
Chapter 6: Comprehending Reading Comprehension 75
Ramping Up on Reading Passages 75
Recognizing the types of reading passages 76
Reading passages on the test 76
Scanning passages instead of reading them 77
Circling key words, phrases, and ideas 77
Creating a mental outline 78
Checking out a sample passage 78
Adopting Strategies for Answering Questions about Passages 79
Getting Familiar with Types of Reading Comprehension Questions 79
Global content questions 80
Specific content questions 81
Word-in-context questions 82
What-is-true questions 83
Elimination questions 84
Inference questions 85
Chapter 7: Practicing Reading Comprehension 87
Tackling Guided Lower and Middle Level Reading Comprehension Questions 87
Practicing Lower and Middle Level Reading Comprehension Questions on Your Own 89
Answers to Lower and Middle Level Reading Comprehension Questions 92
Tackling Guided Upper Level Reading Comprehension Questions 93
Practicing Upper Level Reading Comprehension Questions on Your Own 96
Answers to Upper Level Reading Comprehension Questions 99
Chapter 8: Writing a Winning Essay 101
Exploring Essay Writing and Your Exam 101
What do essay readers want to see? 101
How are essays graded? 102
What Will You Write About? 103
Exploring common topics 103
Figuring out how to approach a topic 104
Organizing Your Essay from Beginning to End 106
Starting with an effective introduction 106
Big idea 106
More specific ideas 106
Thesis statement 107
Developing effective body paragraphs 107
Wrapping up with a well-crafted conclusion 108
Proofing Your Essay 108
Checking for common grammar problems 109
Watching out for sentence trouble 110
Chapter 9: Practicing Writing Essays 111
Upper Level Essay 111
Following the example of sample essays 111
Responding to upper level essay practice prompts 113
Lower Level and Middle Level Essay 113
Following the example of sample essays 114
Responding to lower and middle level essay practice prompts 115
Part III: Tackling the Math Sections 117
Chapter 10: Adding Up Arithmetic 119
Solving Basic Arithmetic Questions 119
Reviewing Arithmetic 120
Rules of zero 120
Order of operations 120
Number lines 121
Negative numbers 122
Fractions 123
Reducing and rewriting fractions 123
Adding and subtracting fractions 124
Multiplying and dividing fractions 124
Comparing fractions 125
Dealing with remainders 125
Decimals 125
Decimal places 125
Adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying decimals 126
Converting fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions 126
Rounding and estimating decimals 127
Percents 127
Factors and multiples 129
Exponents 130
Probability 130
Roots 131
Estimating roots 131
Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing roots 131
Simplifying roots 131
Scientific notation 132
Chapter 11: Practicing Arithmetic 133
Attacking Guided Lower and Middle Level Arithmetic Questions 133
Practicing Lower and Middle Level Arithmetic Questions on Your Own 136
Answers to Lower and Middle Level Arithmetic Questions 138
Tackling Guided Upper Level Arithmetic Questions 139
Practicing Upper Level Arithmetic Questions on Your Own 141
Answers to Upper Level Arithmetic Questions 144
Chapter 12: Acing Algebra 147
Attacking Algebra Questions 147
Battling Basic Algebra 147
Solving equations 148
Knowing the rules of expressions 149
Solving inequalities 150
Determining absolute value 150
Working with Statistics, Percents, and Ratios 151
Exploring mean, median, mode, and range 151
Calculating percentage changes 153
Using ratios and proportions 154
Working with Rules, Patterns, Ordering, and Counting 155
Discovering the purpose of functions 155
Seeing the pattern in sequences 155
Arranging permutations and combinations 156
Permutations 156
Combinations 157
Matching up numbers in matrices 157
Chapter 13: Practicing Algebra 159
Practicing Guided Lower and Middle Level Algebra Questions 160
Attacking Lower and Middle Level Algebra Questions on Your Own 162
Answers to Lower and Middle Level Algebra Questions 164
Practicing Guided Upper Level Algebra Questions 166
Tackling Upper Level Algebra Questions on Your Own 168
Answers to Upper Level Algebra Questions 170
Chapter 14: Jamming with Geometry 173
Gearing Up for Geometry Questions 173
Reviewing Geometry Concepts 174
Lines, angles, and perimeter 174
Triangles 176
Finding the area of a triangle 177
Equilateral triangles 178
Isosceles triangles 178
Right triangles 179
Similar triangles 180
Rectangles, squares, and other polygons 180
Circles 181
Solid geometry 182
Volume 182
Surface area 183
Coordinate geometry 183
Equation of a line 184
Slope of the line 184
Miscellaneous geometry 185
Chapter 15: Practicing Geometry 187
Practicing Guided Lower and Middle Level Geometry Questions 187
Attacking Lower and Middle Level Geometry Questions on Your Own 191
Answers to Lower and Middle Level Geometry Questions 195
Practicing Guided Upper Level Geometry Questions 196
Tackling Upper Level Geometry Questions on Your Own 199
Answers to Upper Level Geometry Questions 203
Chapter 16: Cracking Word Problems and Quantitative Comparisons 205
Checking Out Some Basic Word Problem Strategies 205
Calculating Arithmetic Word Problems 207
Working through Algebra Word Problems 207
Finding the average 207
Discovering the distance, rate, or time 208
Interpreting Graph and Chart Problems 209
x- and y-axis graphs 209
Tables 210
Answering Quantitative Comparison Word Problems 211
Part IV: SSAT Practice Exams 213
Chapter 17: SSAT Upper Level Practice Exam 215
Answer Sheet 217
Section 1: Writing Sample 219
Section 2: Quantitative, Part 1 220
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 226
Section 4: Verbal 234
Section 5: Quantitative, Part 2 240
Chapter 18: Answers to SSAT Upper Level Practice Exam 243
Section 1: Writing Sample 243
Section 2: Quantitative, Part 1 244
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 246
Section 4: Verbal 248
Section 5: Quantitative, Part 2 251
Answers at a Glance 253
Chapter 19: SSAT Lower Level Practice Exam 1 255
Answer Sheet 257
Section 1: Writing Sample 259
Section 2: Quantitative, Part 1 260
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 264
Section 4: Verbal 272
Section 5: Quantitative, Part 2 278
Chapter 20: Answers to SSAT Lower Level Practice Exam 1 283
Section 1: Writing Sample 283
Section 2: Quantitative, Part 1 284
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 285
Section 4: Verbal 288
Section 5: Quantitative, Part 2 291
Answers at a Glance 293
Chapter 21: SSAT Lower Level Practice Exam 2 295
Answer Sheet 297
Section 1: Writing Sample 299
Section 2: Quantitative, Part 1 300
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 306
Section 4: Verbal 314
Section 5: Quantitative, Part 2 320
Chapter 22: Answers to SSAT Lower Level Practice Exam 2 323
Section 1: Writing Sample 323
Section 2: Quantitative, Part 1 324
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 326
Section 4: Verbal 328
Section 5: Quantitative, Part 2 332
Answers at a Glance 334
Part V: ISEE Practice Exams 337
Chapter 23: ISEE Upper Level Practice Exam 339
Answer Sheet 341
Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 343
Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 347
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 354
Section 4: Mathematics Achievement 361
Section 5: Essay 369
Chapter 24: Answers to ISEE Upper Level Practice Exam 371
Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 371
Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 373
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 377
Section 4: Mathematics Achievement 380
Section 5: Essay 384
Answers at a Glance 385
Chapter 25: ISEE Middle Level Practice Exam 387
Answer Sheet 389
Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 391
Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 395
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 403
Section 4: Mathematics Achievement 410
Section 5: Essay 418
Chapter 26: Answers to ISEE Middle Level Practice Exam 419
Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 419
Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 421
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 424
Section 4: Mathematics Achievement 426
Section 5: Essay 429
Answers at a Glance 429
Chapter 27: ISEE Lower Level Practice Exam 431
Answer Sheet 433
Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 435
Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 438
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 445
Section 4: Mathematics Achievement 450
Section 5: Essay 455
Chapter 28: Answers to ISEE Lower Level Practice Exam 457
Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 457
Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 459
Section 3: Reading Comprehension 462
Section 4: Mathematics Achievement 463
Section 5: Writing Sample 465
Answers at a Glance 466
Part VI: The Part of Tens 469
Chapter 29: Ten Tips for Test Day 471
Get Organized 471
Pack a Snack 471
Catch Plenty of Zzz's 472
Rise and Shine 472
Eat a Good Breakfast 472
Resist the Urge to Study 473
Review the Test Order 473
Get out the Door on Time 473
Arrive a Bit Early 473
Take a Deep Breath and Dive In 474
Chapter 30: Ten Ways to Calm Your Nerves 475
Check Your Breathing 475
Do Some Pacing 475
Use the Muscle Tension/Relaxation Technique 476
Sing a Song (To Yourself Anyway!) 476
Use Your Pencil as a Pointer 476
Slow Down 476
Skip a Question 477
Stretch Your Neck 477
Move Your Feet 477
Keep Everything in Perspective 477
Index 479
