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The ISEE Upper Level Reading section assesses your child’s abilities in the skills required for reading comprehension. It is an important test for those seeking to enter a private high school. They are tested on their ability to interpret linguistics, which are skills that should have developed throughout the lower and middle educational levels. The ISEE Upper Level Reading section uses passages drawn from sciences, humanities, essays, contemporary life, and other literature. With such a variety, your child will need to have the general skill for reading comprehension, rather than knowledge of the specific topic at hand. This allows this section of the test to truly assess their reading comprehension skills. With the increased difficulty in Upper Level Reading, it is important to devote some time to preparation ahead of the test by using Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools like the Question of the Day.
The Learning Tools serve as viable study aids to help your child practice the concepts they have learned at school. Your child can use the variety of tools together or individually to create a study plan, and go from there. The Question of the Day is a valuable option that offers your child access to free daily test practice online. The Question of the Day is a timed question that is different each day, allowing you to determine how well your child understands the information that will be tested in the ISEE Upper Level Reading section.
With ISEE Upper Level Reading, your child will need to be able to focus on the key aspects of each passage. There are thematic elements, local organization, and other details that can make the difference in your child’s chosen answer. They will need to pay attention to each supporting idea, interaction between ideas, textual relationships, and other ideas that are less straightforward than in lower levels. You can help your child to prepare for these by encouraging them to study regularly and determinedly. Through ongoing practice, these skills can become second nature, readily accessed as they are needed. Your child can use the Learning Tools for precisely this level of practice.
The Learning Tools offer free ISEE Upper Level Reading section practice tests that your child can use to review information, practice concepts, and evaluate their preparation level. Through this, your child can further customize their study plan by addressing the areas that they need to work on most. In addition, they can use the flashcards to work on quick refresh, study in their free time, and identify any weak points. There are also full-length practice tests that are built to be similar to the real exam, and Learn by Concept, which offers a thorough review on each concept.
The Question of the Day uses passages pulled from contemporary life, history, science, and humanities essays. Your child may be asked to identify the supporting ideas, the main theme, the general idea behind the passage, any figurative language, infer the meanings behind conclusions, or draw a conclusion, as well as compare and contrast, make predictions, and discuss textual relationships. Further, they may need to compare the different themes for contradictions, or rewrite the summary in their own words. No matter what, your child can take their time, and answer the question when they are confident.
When it comes to studying for ISEE Upper Level Reading section, your child can use Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools to strengthen their grasp on the concepts they will be tested on.
Question of the Day: ISEE Upper Level Reading
Adapted from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters, then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash, 'till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said "Bother!" and "O blow!" and also "Hang spring cleaning!" and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gaveled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, "Up we go! Up we go!" 'till at last, pop! His snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.
"This is fine!" he said to himself. "This is better than whitewashing!" The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long, the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow 'till he reached the hedge on the further side.
"Hold up!" said an elderly rabbit at the gap. "Sixpence for the privilege of passing by the private road!" He was bowled over in an instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly from their holes to see what the row was about. "Onion-sauce! Onion-sauce!" he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then they all started grumbling at each other. "How STUPID you are! Why didn't you tell him—" "Well, why didn't YOU say—" "You might have reminded him—" and so on, in the usual way; but, of course, it was then much too late, as is always the case.
Which of the following can we infer based on the information provided in the passage?
The mole pays great attention to what the rabbits say to him.
It's very unusual that the rabbits should argue with each other.
The mole has black fur.
The mole lives above ground.
Whitewashing is something the mole does when cleaning his house in the summer.
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All ISEE Middle Level Reading Resources
