Why NYC Families Are Navigating Two Very Different Tests
Every January, admissions offices at Trinity on the Upper West Side and Horace Mann up in Riverdale sift through stacks of applications — and buried inside each one is a set of standardized test scores that can tilt the conversation. The problem is that New York City families routinely choose the wrong test, or prepare for the right test the wrong way, before they have even finalized their school list.
The thesis of this guide is simple: pick the test from your school list, not the other way around.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics Private School Survey, New York State has one of the highest concentrations of private K–12 enrollment in the country, with roughly one in five NYC students attending a private or parochial school. The Independent Schools Admissions Association of Greater New York (ISAAGNY) counts more than 140 member schools across the five boroughs, each with its own testing preferences and application timelines. Prepping for the wrong test is a costly mistake, and this guide is built to help you avoid it.
ISEE vs. SSAT: A Side-by-Side Comparison
The two tests look similar on paper — both are multiple-choice, both measure verbal and math skills, and both report percentiles. But the structural differences matter enough that a student prepping for one is not automatically prepping for the other.
| Feature | ISEE (ERB) | SSAT (EMA) |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | NYC day schools | Boarding schools + NYC day schools |
| Sections | 4 scored + unscored essay | 3 scored + unscored writing sample |
| Scoring | Stanine 1–9 / percentile | Scaled 1,500–2,400 (Upper Level) / percentile |
| Retakes | 3× per year (1 per season) | Unlimited Standard dates; 1 Flex per season |
| Wrong-answer penalty | None — answer every question | Yes — ¼ point deducted per wrong answer |
| Approx. base fee | ~$160–$220 depending on format | ~$184+ Standard; more for Flex/international |
The ISEE is administered by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB), an organization headquartered in Manhattan. That local institutional footprint is a meaningful part of why the ISEE dominates the NYC independent day-school market: most ISAAGNY member schools have decades of experience reading ERB stanine reports.
The SSAT is run by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA) and is the standard for boarding schools — Andover, Exeter, Deerfield — though ssat.org notes that thousands of day schools accept it as well. In NYC, both tests are widely accepted, which is exactly why strategic thinking matters more than habit.
Fee note: Verify all dollar figures in this article against the official ERB and EMA registration pages before you budget, as fees are updated annually.
Which Test Do NYC Schools Actually Require?
Here is the single most important fact in this guide: most ISAAGNY day schools accept either the ISEE or the SSAT and state no preference. The SSAT becomes effectively mandatory only when a boarding school appears on the list.
That said, several NYC schools updated their testing policies after 2020 — some went test-optional, some reverted — so current status must be confirmed on each school's admissions page before you register for anything.
Manhattan
Schools such as Dalton (UES), Brearley (UES), Trinity (UWS), Collegiate (UWS), Spence (UES), Chapin (UES), and Nightingale-Bamford (UES) have historically accepted both tests. Families applying to any of these alongside a New England boarding school should default to the SSAT to avoid taking two separate exams.
The Bronx
Horace Mann, Riverdale Country School, and Ethical Culture Fieldston are clustered in Riverdale and accept both. The Bronx-to-boarding-school pipeline is well established; if your Riverdale school list also includes Exeter or Andover, the SSAT is the practical choice.
Brooklyn
Saint Ann's (Brooklyn Heights), Packer Collegiate (Brooklyn Heights), Berkeley Carroll (Park Slope), and Poly Prep (Dyker Heights) accept both tests. Park Slope families applying to boarding schools alongside Brooklyn day schools should use the SSAT's unlimited retake flexibility to their advantage.
Queens and Staten Island
Kew-Forest (Forest Hills), Garden School (Jackson Heights), and Staten Island Academy all accept both. Confirm current policies directly — smaller schools sometimes update quietly. The NYC Department of Education site provides useful citywide enrollment context but does not track independent school testing requirements, so go directly to each school.
Levels, Structure, and What Scores Actually Mean
Both tests are level-specific, and the version your child takes depends on the grade they are entering, not the grade they are currently in.
ISEE Levels
- Primary: entering grades 2–4
- Lower: entering grades 5–6
- Middle: entering grades 7–8
- Upper: entering grades 9–12
SSAT Levels
- Elementary: entering grades 4–5
- Middle: entering grades 6–8
- Upper: entering grades 9–12
How Schools Read the Scores
For the ISEE, admissions officers look first at stanines — a 1-to-9 scale on which 5 is average for that grade nationally. Competitive applicants at selective NYC day schools generally present stanines of 7–9 in the sections most relevant to their application. The stanine condenses the percentile into a single digestible number, which is why schools rely on it over the raw percentile.
For the SSAT Upper Level, scores are reported on a 500–800 scale per section, yielding a 1,500–2,400 composite. Percentiles compare the student against same-grade, same-gender test-takers over the prior three years — a narrower reference group than most families expect, which means SSAT percentiles can read higher than equivalent ISEE percentiles for strong students in underrepresented demographics.
Retakes, Flexibility, and the Guessing-Penalty Decision
These two factors carry real strategic weight and should influence which test a risk-averse family chooses.
ISEE retake rule: Students may test up to three times per admissions year, once per testing season:
- Fall: August 1 – November 30
- Winter: December 1 – March 31
- Spring: April 1 – July 31
SSAT retake rule: Students may take the test on as many Standard test dates as they want in a given year. Only the Flex (at-home proctored) format is capped at one per season. This flexibility is the SSAT's most cited advantage and matters most for families who want multiple data points without hitting a ceiling.
Guessing strategy — this is not a minor detail:
- ISEE: No wrong-answer penalty. Students should answer every question, including educated guesses. Leaving anything blank is a guaranteed zero; guessing gives a chance at a point.
- SSAT: A quarter-point is deducted for each incorrect answer. Students should answer when they can eliminate at least one option and skip when they cannot. Teaching a student the wrong guessing strategy for the wrong test is one of the most common prep errors seen in NYC tutoring.
8-Step Prep Framework for NYC Applicants
This is the sequence that produces consistent results for families targeting selective day schools and boarding programs.
Build the school list first, then pick the test. Pull each target school's current admissions page and confirm its testing requirement. If any boarding school is on the list, plan on the SSAT. For an all-day-school list, either test is fine — let structure and schedule decide.
Identify the correct test level by entry grade, not current grade. A student finishing 7th grade and applying to enter 8th grade takes the Middle Level exam, not Upper Level — a mistake that triggers a full re-registration.
Take a full-length, timed diagnostic six to nine months before the target test date. The diagnostic reveals which sections have the largest stanine gap and which testing season is realistic. GeniusPrep's diagnostic session replicates real test conditions and delivers a section-by-section gap analysis for $150.
Map your test date to the right season. Most ISAAGNY day-school applications are due in early-to-mid January. Testing in the Fall window (August–November) puts a real score on record with time to spare and preserves the Winter window as a retake if needed. Do not test for the first time in December.
Run a focused 8–12 week study plan weighted toward the sections with the largest gap to the target stanine. For most ISEE students that is Quantitative Reasoning; for SSAT students it is often Verbal, where synonym and analogy work requires sustained vocabulary-building over weeks.
Drill the correct guessing strategy for your specific test. ISEE students answer everything; SSAT students skip when uncertain. Students who switch tests mid-cycle need to consciously re-train this behavior — it does not transfer automatically.
Register early and confirm score recipients. Manhattan Prometric center seats and ERB group-session slots fill up well before the Fall window closes. Know which schools need scores, and in what format, before you sit.
Evaluate and decide on a retake after scores are released. If stanines land below target, use the Winter window — or, for SSAT students, the next available Standard date — rather than waiting until Spring, when application deadlines have already passed.
For a complete level-by-level breakdown of ISEE content and question types, see our ISEE prep guide. If your child is also exploring the NYC public specialized high school track, our SHSAT prep guide covers that separate path in full.
NYC Timeline and Deadlines for the 2026–27 Admissions Cycle
Verify exact ISAAGNY dates for the current cycle at isaagny.org — deadlines shift slightly each year.
| Period | Action |
|---|---|
| Summer 2026 | Finalize school list; confirm testing policies; schedule diagnostic |
| August–October 2026 | Diagnostic complete; 8–12 week prep plan underway |
| October–November 2026 | Target Fall test date (ISEE or SSAT Standard) |
| December 2026 | Scores released; evaluate; decide on Winter retake if needed |
| Early January 2027 | Most ISAAGNY applications due; scores submitted to schools |
| January–March 2027 | Winter retake window (ISEE) or continued Standard dates (SSAT) |
Costs and Where to Test in NYC
ISEE fee tiers (verify current amounts at erblearn.org before registering):
- Test-site administration: approximately $160
- At-Home (online proctored): approximately $200
- Prometric center: approximately $220
Prometric has locations in Midtown Manhattan, accessible by subway from all five boroughs. ERB also runs some group sessions directly, which tend to fill early in the Fall window.
SSAT fees (verify at ssat.org):
- Standard (US/Canada): approximately $184
- Flex (at-home proctored): additional fee on top of Standard registration
- International: approximately $300 or more
For families comparing overall prep investment, see our full pricing page for tutoring packages designed around specific test seasons.
Actionable Advice Before You Register
Confirm before you commit. Test-optional policies are still in flux at a number of NYC schools. A single email to an admissions office can save months of misdirected prep.
Budget for one planned retake. Families who treat the first test as a data-collection exercise are better prepared than those treating it as a singular, high-stakes event. Plan for two sittings; hope to need only one.
Take the unscored writing components seriously. Both tests include an essay or writing sample that is not factored into the score — but some admissions readers do look at it as a window into the applicant's voice and organizational instincts. A clear, reasoned paragraph at the end of a long test is a quiet differentiator.
Know when tutoring is worth the investment. If the gap between a child's diagnostic stanine and their target stanine is two or more points in any section, structured one-on-one work is almost always more efficient than self-study. GeniusPrep tutors, available from $125/hour, specialize in exactly this kind of gap-closing for NYC day-school and boarding-school applicants. Visit our about page to learn more about our team.
Do not neglect verbal sections. NYC families tend to over-index on math prep. Verbal Reasoning and Reading Comprehension move stanines quickly with the right approach and are frequently where competitive applicants separate themselves at schools like Brearley, Spence, and Saint Ann's.
Students who may later need standardized test support for college admissions will find our SAT prep and ACT prep resources useful for planning ahead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do NYC private schools prefer the ISEE or the SSAT? Most ISAAGNY member schools — including schools across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx — accept both tests and state no preference between them. The SSAT becomes the practical requirement only when a boarding school (Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, and similar institutions) appears on the list. Always verify directly with each school's admissions office, since policies can and do change year to year. Some NYC schools that went test-optional after 2020 have since reverted; others have not.
Can my child take the ISEE more than once? Yes. The ISEE allows up to three administrations per admissions year, with a limit of one per testing season (Fall, Winter, and Spring). Students cannot sit for the exam twice within the same season. Verify the current season windows and exact calendar dates at erblearn.org before registering.
Is there a guessing penalty on these tests? The ISEE has no wrong-answer penalty — students should answer every question, including educated guesses. The SSAT deducts one-quarter of a point for each incorrect response, so students taking the SSAT should answer when they can eliminate at least one answer choice and skip when they genuinely cannot. Mixing up these strategies across tests is one of the most common and easily avoided prep errors.
When should we start testing for fall entry to a NYC school? Target a test date in the Fall window (August through November) so scores are available well ahead of the early-to-mid January application deadlines that cluster for most ISAAGNY schools. This also preserves the Winter window as a retake option without the pressure of an approaching deadline.
What is a "good" ISEE score for a competitive NYC school? Schools do not publish score cutoffs, but competitive applicants at selective Manhattan day schools generally present stanines of 7, 8, or 9 in the sections most relevant to their grade level and program. A stanine of 5 is average for that grade nationally; anything below 5 is likely to be a meaningful obstacle at highly selective schools, though no single section is evaluated in isolation.
How much does each test cost? Approximately $160–$220 for the ISEE depending on test format, and approximately $184 or more for the SSAT Standard. Fees are updated annually — verify current amounts at erblearn.org and ssat.org before finalizing your budget.
Do we still need to test if a school went test-optional? Not necessarily, but "test-optional" means different things at different institutions. Some NYC schools have reverted to requiring scores; others accept them as one input among many. Before investing in months of prep, confirm the exact current policy on each school's admissions page or by calling the admissions office directly. Do not rely on third-party summaries for this — policies change mid-cycle.
How long should we prepare? A focused 8–12 week study plan, following an initial diagnostic, is the standard framework for NYC applicants working toward the Fall testing window. The diagnostic should happen six to nine months before the target test date to allow time to build a realistic plan and course-correct if needed. Students with larger gaps to their target stanine may benefit from a longer runway or more intensive weekly sessions.
Sources
- Educational Records Bureau (ERB) — ISEE test structure, levels, retake policy, and registration fees: https://www.erblearn.org/families/isee-by-erb/
- Enrollment Management Association (EMA) — SSAT structure, Flex format, scoring scales, and registration: https://www.ssat.org/
- National Center for Education Statistics — Private School Survey, New York State enrollment data: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/
- New York City Department of Education — Citywide enrollment data and school resources: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/
- Independent Schools Admissions Association of Greater New York — Member school list and application timeline norms: https://www.isaagny.org/
Reviewed by the GeniusPrep Tutoring Team — last updated 2026-06-27.
