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The Independent School Entrance Examination, or ISEE, and the Secondary School Admission Test, or SSAT, are specific high school entrance exams that many private high schools and middle schools require for acceptance. These high schools test students on their knowledge that they’ve retained in their schooling thus far.

If this sounds familiar, its because there are four main high school entrance exams, the others being the HSPT and the TACHS. We recently wrote a separate article on these two exams, which you can read here: Getting into Catholic High School: How to Ace the Exams.

As you may notice, one of the main differences between these two sets of exams is that the HSPT and TACHS are more geared towards Catholic High Schools, while the ISEE and SSAT are geared towards other independent private schools. Specifically, schools that accept the ISEE and SSAT are independent unaffiliated private day and boarding schools, non-diocesan Catholic schools or Catholic schools operated by religious orders, and non-Catholic religious-affiliated schools. However, according to Holly Young, Peterson’s Editor, the four tests cover many of the same skill sets.

Regardless of similarities, students who are studying for the ISEE and SSAT want to make sure that the information they study will be specific to their test. To aid students in understanding the structure of the tests and the information that is on them, Peterson’s created the infographic below which details each section of both tests. For more information, check out Peterson’s Master the SSAT and ISEE.

Happy testing from your friends at Peterson’s!