When studying to take the Upper Level ISEE, the Verbal section may loom particularly large in your view. Perhaps English isn’t your best subject, and the thought of having to learn so many new words for a single exam makes your head spin; however, with the right approach, studying for the Upper Level ISEE’s Verbal section can be a piece of cake. By learning how the exam is formatted, the types of questions it asks, and new words, as well as prefixes, suffixes, and roots, you can feel more than adequately prepared to take on the Upper Level ISEE Verbal section.

Let’s start with some good news: all of the questions on the ISEE Verbal section are multiple-choice with four answers, of which only one is correct. This means that the correct answer is there in front of you somewhere, and all you have to do is pick it out from the incorrect answers. Also, the ISEE Verbal section does not ask any questions about English grammar, including those that ask you to pinpoint grammatical errors or correct a sentence. The questions that it does ask fall into two categories: Synonym questions and Sentence Completion questions. While seemingly quite different, both of these question types aim to test your verbal reasoning abilities by challenging you to analyze the relationships between words, whether this is between single words (Synonym questions) or a word and the rest of a sentence’s context (Sentence Completion questions). Synonym questions consist of a single word accompanied by four other words, and to answer the question correctly, you need to pick out the answer choice that is the closest synonym of the word specified in the question. Knowledge of the various prefixes, suffixes, and roots of English words can be helpful on this section, allowing you to reverse-engineer an unfamiliar word’s definition from its component parts. Sentence Completion questions present you with a sentence that contains a blank representing a missing a word or phrase, and you need to pick out the answer choice from the four presented that makes logical, grammatical, and stylistic sense when used in the blank. This type of question tests not only your knowledge of words’ meanings, but your ability to analyze the context of a sentence and select an appropriate term based on it.

Now that you’re aware of how the ISEE Upper Level Verbal section is laid out, you can start building your vocabulary and learning the meanings of words’ component parts by taking Varsity Tutors’ free ISEE Upper Level Verbal Practice Tests. Each ISEE Upper Level Verbal Practice Test problem is accompanied by a detailed explanation of the reasoning that was used to reach the correct answer, so if you miss a question, make sure to use the explanation to try to figure out why. If it was because you didn’t know the meaning of a word, the explanations define terms, so it is still helpful to read them.

You can increase the efficiency of your study sessions by taking a free Full-Length Upper Level ISEE Verbal Reasoning Practice Test. These online tests ask you to work with all of the concepts you may be required to demonstrate on the real exam. These exam-simulating format enables you to get a sense of the test’s timing and practice using your skills under pressure. Just like on the results pages for the concept-specific practice tests, each results page for the full-length practice tests provides useful information, including links to relevant concept review and thorough explanations of each answer. These free online ISEE practice tests can also help you put together a personalized study plan by showing you which topics you might want to review. The extensive variety of resources available through Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools can help you study, too. When you feel ready, you can chart your progress by returning to take another free Full-Length Upper Level ISEE Verbal Reasoning Practice Test.

By completing ISEE Upper Level Verbal Practice Tests, you will be studying both comprehensively and efficiently for the exam, and you will be able to prepare yourself for the ISEE Upper Level Verbal section in no time at all!