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Learn to recognize who is speaking and how they see the world in any passage.
Every story, article, or essay is told from someone's perspective. That someone might be a character inside the story or an outside observer watching events unfold. Understanding point of view (the lens through which a reader experiences the text) has been a key part of reading for centuries.
Writers and thinkers have long understood that who tells a story changes what you know and how you feel. A detective telling her own story is very different from a reporter describing the same case. On the ISEE, you will be asked to figure out who is speaking and what attitude they bring to the topic.
Here's the big question this lesson answers: How do you figure out who is telling the story and what they think about it? Let's find out.
Before you can spot point of view on the ISEE, you need to know the main types. Think of point of view as a camera angle in a movie. The camera can sit on a character's shoulder, hover above the scene, or zoom around to different people. Each angle gives you different information.
The diagram below shows how much information each point of view gives you. Notice that first person is the most limited — you are stuck inside one character's head. As you move toward omniscient, the narrator sees and knows more.
When you see an ISEE passage, start by checking the pronouns. If you see "I" or "my", you're in first person. If you see "he" or "she" with the narrator revealing one person's thoughts, that's third-person limited. If the narrator seems to know what everyone is thinking, that's omniscient.
On the ISEE, point-of-view questions usually sound like: "From whose perspective is the passage told?" or "What is the author's attitude toward the subject?" Here is a reliable process you can follow every time.
Remember, in nonfiction passages on the ISEE, the "narrator" is actually the author. Authors of science or social studies passages may seem neutral, but they often slip in opinion words. A phrase like "this remarkable discovery" tells you the author admires the discovery. A phrase like "this costly mistake" tells you the author disapproves.
Certain words are like neon signs pointing to the narrator's viewpoint. The diagram below groups these clue words into categories so you can spot them quickly during the test.
| Question Type | What to Look For | Example Question Stem |
|---|---|---|
| Narrator Type | Pronouns (I, he, she, they) | "From whose point of view is the passage told?" |
| Author's Attitude | Loaded or emotional word choices | "What is the author's attitude toward…?" |
| Bias or Perspective | One-sided arguments, missing viewpoints | "The author would most likely agree that…" |
| Narrator's Feelings | Emotional language, internal thoughts | "How does the narrator feel about…?" |
Let's walk through a sample ISEE-style passage and question together. Read the short passage, then follow each step.
Question: From what point of view is this passage told?
Each point of view has strengths, and each one creates traps that ISEE test-makers love to set. Knowing these traps helps you avoid wrong answers.
| Point of View | Strength for the Reader | Common ISEE Trap |
|---|---|---|
| First Person | You feel very close to the narrator's emotions and thoughts. | A wrong answer claims the narrator knows what other characters think. First-person narrators can only guess about others. |
| Third-Person Limited | You get an outside view but still connect deeply to one character. | A wrong answer confuses limited with omniscient. If only one character's thoughts are shown, it is limited. |
| Third-Person Omniscient | You can understand multiple characters and the full picture. | A wrong answer says the narrator only follows one character. If the narrator reveals several characters' thoughts, it is omniscient. |
| Author's POV (Nonfiction) | You learn facts and the author's opinion on a topic. | A wrong answer picks the wrong emotion. "Concerned" is different from "angry." Match the intensity of the author's words. |
Once you master identifying point of view, you can tackle trickier concepts that sometimes appear on harder ISEE questions. These involve narrators or authors who might not be giving you the whole truth.
| Basic Concept | Advanced Concept |
|---|---|
| The narrator tells the truth. | An unreliable narrator may exaggerate, forget details, or have limited understanding. |
| The author states an opinion directly. | The author may hide their opinion behind facts, revealing bias only through word choice. |
| You identify one point of view per passage. | Some passages shift point of view between sections or paragraphs. |
Don't worry — you won't need to write an essay about unreliable narrators on the ISEE! But being aware that narrators can be biased helps you answer questions like "Which statement would the narrator most likely agree with?" If the narrator only sees one side of a conflict, the correct answer will reflect that limited view.
Try these five ISEE-style problems. They get harder as you go. For each one, use the P-C-A method: check Pronouns, Character Access, and Attitude. Remember — there is no penalty for guessing on the ISEE, so always pick an answer!
To identify point of view on the ISEE, use the P-C-A method. First, check pronouns: "I" and "my" mean first person; "he," "she," or "they" mean third person. Next, check character access: if the narrator reveals only one character's thoughts, it is third-person limited; if the narrator reveals multiple characters' thoughts, it is third-person omniscient.
Finally, check attitude by looking for loaded words — words with strong positive or negative meaning. In nonfiction, these reveal the author's opinion. Always use process of elimination to cross out answers that contradict the pronouns or tone you found. Since there is no penalty for guessing on the ISEE, never leave a question blank!