What is a good ISEE score? What ERB says, with real medians

Each scored ISEE section comes back with a stanine from 1 to 9. ERB describes stanines 1-3 as generally below average, 4-6 as average and 7-9 as above average, so the stanine is the quickest number to read first.

Start with the stanine

Each scored section comes back with a scaled score from 760 to 940, a percentile rank from 1 to 99 and a stanine from 1 to 9. For what each number means and the full stanine chart, see ISEE scores explained, or convert a percentile with our ISEE stanine tool.

There is no passing ISEE score

ERB, which made the ISEE before merging with EMA in early March 2026 to form the nonprofit E3n, says there is no single good or bad ISEE score. Each school uses the score its own way, alongside grades, recommendations, interviews and activities. Students do not pass or fail, and ERB recommends no cutoff or passing score. Individual schools may still set their own thresholds, so what a given stanine is worth comes from the schools on your list.

A low percentile is not what it looks like

ISEE percentiles compare your child only with independent-school applicants in the same grade, and ERB’s guide notes they generally run 10 to 40 points lower than on nationally normed tests. So judge an ISEE percentile against the schools on your list, not against other tests. The ISEE level is set by the grade your child is applying to; see which ISEE level your child should take.

What the middle looked like for 9th-grade applicants

ERB’s official Upper Level guide publishes scaled-score quartiles. For students applying to 9th grade, based on 2018-2019 ISEE norms:

Section	25th percentile	50th percentile	75th percentile
Verbal Reasoning	867	879	893
Quantitative Reasoning	867	882	896
Reading Comprehension	874	891	902
Mathematics Achievement	868	882	899

Read these as older reference points, not cutoffs. Norms roll over every three years, so current percentiles may differ. The guide also prints rows for grades 10 through 12.

Five steps to read your child’s report

1. Find the stanine for each section, not just the scaled score.
2. Compare each stanine with the bands in ISEE scores explained.
3. Look at the Stanine Analysis, which shows a band of plus or minus one stanine around each result. A 6 and a 7 are closer than they look.
4. Ask each school on your list what it does with ISEE scores. Use each school’s explanation to interpret the scores for that application.
5. If you are weighing a retest, check the calendar first: a student may take the ISEE once per testing season, Fall (August-November), Winter (December-March) and Spring/Summer (April-July). Details are on how many times you can take the ISEE.

Two things that do not affect the score

The essay is not scored. A copy goes to the schools that receive the scores, and families do not get a copy.

There is no deduction for wrong answers, so a guess offers a chance of credit without a wrong-answer penalty. See which admissions tests penalize wrong answers for how the ISEE compares with the SHSAT, TACHS, HSPT and SSAT.

Where to see a real score report

E3n’s free “What to Expect on the ISEE” guides for the Lower, Middle and Upper Levels each include sample questions, a full paper practice test and the scoring tables. The Upper Level guide is where the quartile numbers above come from.

For the mechanics of how the scaled score, percentile and stanine relate to each other, read ISEE scores explained. For the test itself, start with what the ISEE is. If your child may sit the SSAT instead, SSAT vs ISEE covers the differences, and what is a good SSAT score handles that test’s own scale.