ISEE Lower Level scores: scaled scores, percentiles, and stanines
The ISEE score report is three numbers deep, and the one most parents fixate on first — the raw-feeling scaled score — is the least useful of the three. Here’s how to read a Lower Level report the way schools do: scaled score, percentile, stanine, in that order of increasing importance.
The three numbers
Each of the four scored sections gets its own set (there’s no single combined score):
| Number | Range | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Scaled score | 760–940 | The section score, adjusted so different test forms are comparable |
| Percentile rank | 1–99 | Your child vs. same-grade applicants from the past three years — 60th percentile = scored better than 60% of them |
| Stanine | 1–9 | The percentile compressed to a 9-point scale — the number schools most often talk in |
The scaled score exists mostly so the other two can be computed fairly. The percentile is the real comparison, and the stanine is the shorthand schools use for it — approximately:
| Stanine | Approx. percentile | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | below ~23rd | Below average for this applicant pool |
| 4–6 | ~23rd–76th | The broad average band — most applicants land here |
| 7–9 | ~77th and up | Above average for this applicant pool |
Why the percentile looks lower than you expect
This is the moment that rattles parents: a child with straight A’s comes home with a 55th percentile and everyone panics. Remember what the comparison group is — not all children, but children applying to independent schools, one of the strongest-testing slices of any grade. Being “average” inside that pool is nothing like average overall. A stanine of 5 means your child is standing in the middle of a fast crowd.
So what's a “good” score?
The honest answer: it depends entirely on the schools on your list. Highly selective schools tend to see mostly stanines of 7 and up; plenty of excellent schools happily admit across the middle band. Two things are true almost everywhere:
First, schools read the whole file — grades, recommendations, the interview, the unscored essay that’s sent along with the scores — and use the ISEE as one data point, not a cutoff (many schools say exactly this on their admissions pages; believe them). Second, an uneven profile draws more attention than a modest one: stanines of 7-7-3-7 invite a question about that third section more than 5s across the board do. That’s worth knowing before test day, because it argues for shoring up the weakest section over polishing the strongest — the logic behind starting from a diagnostic (see how long to prepare).
Should your child retest?
The ISEE allows one sitting per season — Fall, Winter, Spring/Summer — up to three in a 12-month cycle. A retake makes sense when something specific went wrong: a section score far below what practice consistently showed, an illness, a meltdown over pacing. It makes less sense as a fishing expedition; scores are fairly stable when nothing about the preparation changes. If you do retest, change something — targeted practice on the section that underperformed — and mind your application deadlines, since most schools need scores by January (our test-day guide covers the calendar).