ISEE Reading Comprehension study guide
ISEE Reading Comprehension · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
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 ISEE Reading Comprehension study guide has 7 sections and about 2,345 words.
01Main Idea and Theme
Main-idea and theme questions ask you to state, in one sentence, what a whole passage is about (main idea) or what general truth about life or human behavior it implies (theme). This is the highest-yield domain in ISEE Reading Comprehension: at the Middle and Upper Levels the section gives 36 questions in 35 minutes, and at the Lower Level 25 questions in 25 minutes, so you cannot afford to re-read a passage hunting for a topic sentence.
375 words, about 2 min02Supporting Details and Explicit Information
Detail questions begin "According to the passage," "The author states that," or "The passage indicates that." The answer is printed on the page; your job is location and paraphrase matching, not interpretation. These are the fastest points in the section if you resist the urge to reason beyond the text.
334 words, about 2 min03Inference and Implication
Inference questions ask what the passage suggests, implies, or allows you to conclude. The answer is not written down, but it must be forced by the text: you should be able to defend it by pointing to a specific sentence and explaining the logical step.
322 words, about 2 min04Vocabulary in Context
Vocabulary-in-context items ask what a word means "as used in the passage." The tested word is usually familiar - the difficulty is that it appears in a secondary sense, or that the surrounding sentence supplies a meaning you must read carefully. You are not expected to know rare words; you are expected to use context.
317 words, about 2 min05Author's Purpose, Tone, and Attitude
These questions ask why the author wrote the passage and how the author feels about the subject. Purpose is a verb (to inform, explain, persuade, analyze, describe, entertain, criticize); tone and attitude are precise adjectives supported by diction.
338 words, about 2 min06Text Structure, Organization, and Rhetorical Devices
Structure questions ask how a passage is built and what a particular paragraph, sentence, or quotation is doing. Function questions - "the third paragraph serves mainly to..." - require you to describe a job, not a topic.
301 words, about 2 min07Integration of Ideas Across and Within Passages
This domain covers paired-passage questions and questions that require combining details from different parts of one passage. Paired passages sit on the same topic - often a historian and a novelist writing about one event, or two scientists with competing explanations - and the questions ask how the authors' claims, evidence, and attitudes relate.
358 words, about 2 min