The score report arrived. Now what does it say?
An ISEE report gives four numbers per section and explains almost none of them. Enter the percentile rank or the stanine and this reads it back: which band the score falls in, the ±1 range the publisher itself says to read it as, and what the comparison group actually is — because it is not all children of that age, and that is where most parents misread the report.
Read my scoreEnter one section to start. You do not need all four — each section is read on its own, and the ISEE does not publish a composite score.
- A percentile is not a mark out of 100. It does not say what share of the questions your child answered correctly. It says what share of the comparison group scored the same or lower.
- The comparison group is other ISEE candidates, specifically the students who have taken the test over the past three years. It is not all children of that age, which is why an ordinarily strong student often lands in the middle band.
- A stanine is a band, not a point. The publisher says an observed stanine of 5 represents a true stanine somewhere between 4 and 6. Read your child’s score as that range, and a one-stanine move between sittings as normal variation rather than progress or decline.
The whole scale, in one table
| Stanine | Percentile rank | Share of the group | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–3 | 4% | Well below the comparison group. |
| 2 | 4–10 | 7% | Below the comparison group. |
| 3 | 11–22 | 12% | Below average for the comparison group. |
| 4 | 23–39 | 17% | The lower part of the middle band. |
| 5 | 40–59 | 20% | The middle of the comparison group. |
| 6 | 60–76 | 17% | The upper part of the middle band. |
| 7 | 77–88 | 12% | Above average for the comparison group. |
| 8 | 89–95 | 7% | Well above the comparison group. |
| 9 | 96–99 | 4% | At the top of the comparison group. |
The publisher states the scale in thirds — Stanines 1–3 are the bottom 23 percentile points, Stanines 4–6 are the middle 54 percentile points and Stanines 7–9 are the top 23 percentile points. The nine bands above are the standard normal-curve widths the stanine scale is built on, and they add back up to exactly those thirds: 4+7+12 at the bottom, 17+20+17 in the middle, 12+7+4 at the top.
Why this tool will not turn a number of correct answers into a scaled score
Because there is no single conversion to use. The publisher writes that it builds a separate conversion for every form of the test, to adjust for small differences in difficulty between forms. Any chart that claims to turn raw answers into a scaled score of 760–940 is a chart for one form, and almost certainly not the one your child sat. The percentile and the stanine on the report already carry the comparison, and those are what schools read.
Scale read from E3n — Understanding ISEE score reports, checked 2026-09-15. GeniusPrep is an independent tutoring company and is not affiliated with or endorsed by E3n, ERB or the Enrollment Management Association.
A stanine tells you where a child stands. It does not tell you which section to work on first, or how far a term of work usually moves it. That is what our ISEE tutoring page sets out, and our ISEE test dates page is where the calendar lives.
Take the next step
What does this score mean for the schools we're applying to?
Send us the stanines and the schools on your list. We’ll write back with where the gap actually is, and whether it is the kind of gap a term of work closes.
Four numbers per section, and what each one is for
Scaled score (760–940)
The score itself, adjusted for the difficulty of the particular form your child sat. It is comparable between forms, which is exactly why no single raw-to-scaled chart can exist.
Percentile rank (1–99)
The share of the comparison group that scored the same or lower. There is no 0 and no 100. It is not a mark out of 100 and says nothing about how many questions were answered correctly.
Stanine (1–9)
The percentile rank collapsed into nine bands. The publisher states the shape of the scale in thirds: Stanines 1–3 are the bottom 23 percentile points, Stanines 4–6 are the middle 54 percentile points, Stanines 7–9 are the top 23 percentile points.
Stanine analysis
The ±1 band. An observed stanine of 5 means a true stanine somewhere between 4 and 6. This is the line most parents skip, and it is the one that stops a one-band change being read as progress.
Read from E3n — Understanding ISEE score reports and E3n — About the ISEE, both checked 2026-09-15.
Questions families actually ask
What is a stanine on the ISEE?
A stanine is a nine-point band that says where a score sits in the comparison group. Stanines 4, 5 and 6 cover the middle 54 percentile points; stanines 1 to 3 cover the bottom 23 and stanines 7 to 9 the top 23. A stanine is deliberately coarse, because a score is not precise enough to justify a finer reading.
What is a good ISEE score?
There is no single answer, because the comparison group is other ISEE candidates rather than all children of that age, and because schools set their own expectations. What the publisher does say is that stanines 4 to 6 are the middle of the group. Competitive independent schools in New York typically look higher than that, and the only reliable guide is what a given school tells you.
Can I convert my child’s number of correct answers into an ISEE score?
No, and nobody honestly can. The publisher builds a separate raw-to-scaled conversion for every form of the test, to adjust for small differences in difficulty between forms. Any chart claiming to turn correct answers into a scaled score of 760 to 940 belongs to one form, and almost certainly not the one your child sat.
My child’s stanine moved by one between two sittings. Did they improve?
Probably not in any meaningful sense. The publisher states that an observed stanine of 5 represents a true stanine somewhere between 4 and 6. A one-band move is inside that normal variation. A two-band move is worth looking at.
Is the ISEE essay scored?
No. The essay is not scored. It is sent to the schools you apply to, unscored, so they can read your child’s writing for themselves.
If the next sitting is the question rather than this one, the registration planner works out what is still open and what it costs, and the free tools hub has the rest.