Congratulations to Hammer's 2008 ISEE Students

Unless you live under a rock, you've read--or overheard some mother in line at Starbucks--that college acceptance rates are at an all time low. What you probably haven't heard is that the same is true for selective private schools. Out highest achieving students tend to aim for one of the BIG THREE: Bishop's, Francis Parker, and La Jolla Country Day.

Hammer's students applying for Fall of 2008:
Bishop's
* 6 of 7 Accepted
* 3 Waitlisted


La Jolla Country Day
* 13 of 13 Accepted

Francis Parker
* 6 of 6 Accepted
* 1 Waitlisted

A student's ISEE score, obviously, is only one part of an application. However, there is no denying the importance of high ISEE scores in order to earn admission to one of the highly selective private schools. If you're interested in learning more about our private coaching for the ISEE, phone us at 858-793-7737.

How to read ISEE scores

It's January and the ISEE Buzz is building. Parents are either checking their mailboxes for score reports or calling the score report hotline. Of course, a call in to ERB will cost you extra.

ERB graciously supplies a sample score report on its website. I suggest having a look.

How should you interpret scores?

Testing companies, such as ERB, provide too many numbers. While I don't think there intention is to confuse parents (& students), it inevitably does. On an ISEE score report, you'll see a scaled score, percentile score, and stanine score. Do yourself a favor and ignore the scaled score.

Percentile scores are more important than stanine scores. Although most parents speak "STANINES", the percentile scores tell us more about a student's performance. Stanine scores are a scaled scoring system which translates percentile scores (1-99) to a number scale, 1 through 9. It's very easy to get lost in translation. Here's an example to illustrate my argument. Two students in grade 6 take the Middle Level ISEE. Student A scores in the 88th percentile in the reading section; Student B scores in the 77th percentile. Both student A and B receive Stanine scores of 7. In the Quantitative Comparison section, Student B scores in the 59th percentile; student A scores in the 40th percentile. Both students receive Stanine scores of 5.

SO, while STANINE scores may seem easier to interpret, please realize that percentile scores are more informative. Don't get LOST IN TRANSLATION.

What is a "GOOD" ISEE score?
Scoring above the 50th percentile is important, but it's impossible to say what a student needs to score in order to land a spot at elite schools such as Bishop's and Francis Parker. There are many other factors a school will consider. Instead, as a helpless pragmatic, I view your test results as an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses within standardized tests. If you follow the academic road, you need to learn how to ACE these tests.

Congratulations to Hammer's ISEE Students

Once again, 100 percent of Hammer's students who used our ISEE program were admitted to their first choice private high school. Check out our students acceptance rates to the highly selective private schools in San Diego:

• Bishop's - 100 percent admitted
• Francis Parker - 90 percent admitted
• La Jolla Country Day - 100 percent admitted

Hammer's ISEE program mirrors our highly successful one-on-one SAT program, and addresses all content areas of the ISEE: math, reading, vocabulary, and writing. In addition to covering all the content tested, we teach students to maximize their score with expert test taking strategies- skills that students do not learn in school. Our students, on average, meet with a tutor for 15 hours, complete 5 practice tests, a student workbook, and vocabulary program.

Contact us at 858-7WE-PREP for more information.