When preparing to take the Upper Level ISEE, it may be temptingly easy to skip studying for the test’s Reading Comprehension section. “I can read well enough already,” you might think to yourself before concentrating on the Mathematics Achievement, Quantitative Reasoning, and Verbal Reasoning sections; however, you may be surprised to learn that of all the sections on the ISEE, the Reading Comprehension section is often considered the most difficult, due to the degree to which it requires students to manage their time wisely. When reading a book for fun or as a school assignment, no strict restrictions on time are usually imposed upon you; no one says, “Finish this chapter in a half an hour, or your grade will suffer!” Out of the context of a standardized test, that would be a ridiculous demand; however, the ISEE is a standardized test, and in order to be standardized, it must give every student the same amount of time to answer questions. It also must be challenging, so that not everyone who takes it gets the top score. With all of these factors combined, you may be beginning to realize that the Reading Comprehension section on the Upper Level ISEE can be very challenging indeed. If you arm yourself with knowledge of how the section is formatted and organized, and make use of some great free online resources this guide will introduce, you can prepare yourself adequately for the ISEE’s Upper Level Reading Comprehension section and feel calm and confident when sitting down to take the exam.

The Upper Level ISEE contains four different types of scored sections, as well as an Essay. The Reading Comprehension section in particular consists of six relatively short passages, and six questions are asked about the content of each passage. The Reading Comprehension section does not test you on any information that isn’t suggested by or presented in the passage. ISEE Upper Level Reading Comprehension questions focus on a few specific topics: identifying the main idea and supporting ideas, making inferences based on information presented in the passage, defining vocabulary from its use in the passage’s context, identifying the passage’s organization or logic, and understanding the tone, style, or figurative language at work in the passage. Students are only given a half hour during which to both read the passages and answer their corresponding questions, so time is of the essence.

If it’s the timing of the Upper Level ISEE’s Reading Comprehension section that has you apprehensive about your potential performance, use Varsity Tutors’ free Upper Level ISEE Practice Tests to prepare yourself and practice the reading skills necessary to doing well on this particular part of the exam. Each Practice Test contains about a dozen problems about included passages of the sort that you might encounter on the Upper Level ISEE’s Reading Comprehension section. You can elect to answer questions drawn from the various types that appear on the Upper Level ISEE, or one specific type. After answering each of these questions, you can view detailed data about your performance on the Practice Test, including how long it took you to answer each question. Full explanations are also provided demonstrating how each question’s correct answer was arrived at.

You can also complete a Full-Length Upper Level ISEE Reading Comprehension Practice Test. The format of the longer practice tests is designed to simulate the exam experience, which gives you valuable insight and can help you work on increasing your test-taking speed and your mastery of relevant concepts. Each of the results pages for the full-length practice tests include all of the helpful insights provided by the concept-specific practice tests, like detailed explanations and links to more review on important concepts. All of the complete practice tests can assist you in formulating a customized ISEE study plan by revealing the skills on which you should spend more time reviewing. You can use this feedback to build a study plan that incorporates any of the other free Learning Tools. Follow up by taking another Full-Length Upper Level ISEE Reading Comprehension Practice Test to evaluate your development.

By making use of these free tools provided by Varsity Tutors, you can not only make sure you’re prepared the questions that you might encounter on the Upper Level ISEE’s Reading Comprehension section, but you can also make sure that you’re reading at an appropriate speed—quick enough to get through the entire section, but not so speedy that you miss crucial information.