ISeB exam confusion

[DearBiscuit]

Hello!
My son is giving ISeB exam this autumn term. My confusion is that what’s the best way to prepare for it ? Atom what SAS score is considered good enough for secondary schools like Eton/ Winchester/ St Paul’s/ latymer/ city.
Many Thanks

It's a bit of a black box. I did some digging and found some useful mumsnet threads and people also said that Atom will help you if you ask. But I found in a few places people saying that a 120 SAS score was needed for the top schools. But the ISEB is a difficult one to judge because (from what I understand having supported my dd with it last year, but don't take as gospel!) as they answer questions correctly the test keeps giving them harder and harder ones. So your child always feels it's hard, rather than getting to a point of thinking 'right, I'm nailing this', but that is apparently to be expected. And it means that your results on atom practice tests will always look a little concerning as they are being fed questions just at the edge of their ability, and therefore inevitably getting some wrong. For example, I felt we were struggling with so many math questions on the practice iseb tests but then her tutor said that if she was getting set questions like that it meant she was doing super well. The schools she sat the exam at also said that it's designed to always feel hard.

@Himawarigirl appreciate for your input. Why I feel confused is because Atom after a while start giving repeated questions. Very recently the atom has standardised its average (not sure on what scale) it has become harder than before. However as we continue to challenge, is Atom all you need to do for The ISeB?
secondly, the real ISeb is harder than atom tests or easier.
Thank you for sharing your view.

I don’t really know the answers to your questions I’m afraid. The atom customer service should be able to help you. But purely from our own experience I’d say that the real ISEB was a bit easier. My dd never got to the level of 120 sas and also showed as being below the average of other children interested in her school. So I was prepared for her to potentially not get in. But it turned out that she excelled and they pulled her out for an academic scholarship assessment, which she secured. So it is hard to know just from atom and scores on there how well they will actually do.

@Himawarigirl first of all, many congratulations to you and your dd on getting her choice of school.
May I ask which school? It seems like a bit out of hand to gauge how to handle this ISeb. We are particularly worried about English. Maths is fine and reasoning can be volatile.
many thanks,