ISEE Reading Comprehension case studies
ISEE Reading Comprehension · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The ISEE Reading Comprehension section is one of the four multiple-choice sections of the Independent School Entrance Exam, used by many independent and private schools as part of their admissions file. It is taken by students applying to grades 5 through 12, with different levels of the test offered for different entry grades, so the passages and question difficulty you meet depend on the level you sit. The section asks you to read short passages - literary, informational, and argumentative - and answer multiple-choice questions about them. Questions probe main idea and theme, explicit details, inference, vocabulary in context, author's purpose and tone, structure and rhetorical devices, and connections between ideas. The ISEE Reading Comprehension case studies are 5 cases and about 2,696 words.
1The Tool Library: Main Idea vs. Central Detail
Priya is practicing main-idea questions on a passage she wrote about a neighborhood tool library. Within eight months, 210 residents had borrowed a drill, ladder, or saw.
603 words, about 3 min2The Bus Route Clue
Andre is working on an inference question about a passage he read in class. Okafor arrives twenty minutes before his route begins.
548 words, about 3 min3The Committee’s “Economy”
During a vocabulary-in-context drill, Mei reads this sentence from a fictional committee report: “The chair praised the proposal’s economy: it required no new staff, reused the existing print shop, and finished the brochure two weeks early.” The question asks what “economy” most nearly means. Mei chooses “the system by which a country produces and trades goods” because that is the definition she memorized.
509 words, about 3 min4The Bike-Lane Letter
A student, Tomas, is analyzing a letter to the editor about a proposed three-block bike lane. Supporters gathered 200 signatures, which is impressive until you recall that the city has 48,000 residents.
502 words, about 3 min5Two Views on a Later School Start
Nia is answering a paired-passage question. Tardies fell by a third.
534 words, about 3 min