I'm not very surprised, in fact I'd have been more surprised had I passed the first time. I saw a post on their boards by somebody who'd been in the stock photography business for 30 years, yet had an 80% rejection rate with iStockPhoto. They're tough, much tougher than the more expensive Alamy. No wonder I haven't had a sale through Alamy yet.
On the bright side, they give pointers to very useful advice along with the rejection, which was on grounds of composition and subject matter rather than technical matters. I am aware that those are my weaker points, I have technical matters pretty well under control.
