ISEE Verbal Reasoning: Synonyms and Sentence Completions
What the section tests
ISEE Verbal Reasoning (Upper and Middle Levels: 40 questions in 20 minutes) has two formats. Synonyms ask for the answer choice closest in meaning to a capitalized word. Sentence completions present a sentence with one or two blanks; you choose the word or word pair that makes it logically and grammatically whole. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave a blank.
Core rules
- Match meaning and connotation: a choice can be thematically related yet wrong in tone, as when frugal is paired with poor.
- Use signal words. Although, despite, but, yet signal contrast; because, since, therefore, thus signal cause and effect; a colon, dash, or that is signals a definition restated in the sentence.
- For two-blank items, test the blank you find easier first, then confirm the other. Both words must fit.
- Check part of speech: a noun answer for a verb blank is wrong even if the meaning is close.
Worked example
“The scientist’s prose, once praised as ______, had become so dense with jargon that even specialists found it ______.” The phrase “once praised” against “had become” marks a change over time, so the blanks are opposites: the writing was clear and became unclear. Lucid fits the first blank (clear, intelligible) and impenetrable fits the second (impossible to understand). A pair such as simple / complex is weaker because “simple” praises brevity rather than clarity, and the sentence credits the prose for being readable, not minimal.
Traps that cost marks
- Picking a word associated with the prompt word rather than synonymous with it.
- Solving one blank and ignoring the second.
- Missing a contrast signal and choosing two words that agree in meaning.
- Over-trusting roots: benevolent and benign share a root but are not interchangeable.