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The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test®  (OLSAT®)is published by Pearson NNC (previously Harcourt Assessment Services).  The OLSAT® is widely used throughout the U.S. as a screening test for gifted program entry. It is also used in conjunction with the Stanford 10 Achievement Test® to help ascertain whether or not children are working up to their abiilty level. 
 
Pearson Assessments describe their test as follows:
"OLSAT-8® is a group administered assessment that evaluates students’ thinking skills and provides an understanding of their relative strengths and weaknesses in performing a variety of reasoning tasks. This information allows educators to design educational programs that will enhance students’ strengths while supporting their learning needs.
OLSAT-8® specifically assesses those abilities that are related to success in school. Tasks such as detecting similarities and differences, recalling words and numbers, defining words, following directions, classifying, establishing sequence, solving mathematical problems, and completing analogies are ­included."
 
The table below details the skills tested at each level of the OLSAT-8®.  Our companion page contains recommendations of books and software to develop each of these skills.

 

 

Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® (OLSAT®)

 

Item Type/Test Level

 

 

A

(PreK-K)

 

B

(Gr 1)

 

C

(Gr 2)

 

D

(Gr 3)

 

E

(Gr 4-5)

 

F

(Gr 6-8)

 

G

(Gr 9-12)

Verbal

Verbal Comprehension

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following Directions

*

*

*

 

 

 

 

Antonyms

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Sentence Completion

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Sentence Arrangement

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

 

Verbal Reasoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aural Reasoning

*

*

*

 

 

 

 

Arithmetic Reasoning

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Logical Selection

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Word/Letter Matrix

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Verbal Analogies

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Verbal Classification

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Inference

 

 

 

 

*

*

*

 

Nonverbal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictoral Reasoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture Classification

*

*

*

 

 

 

 

Picture Analogies

*

*

*

 

 

 

 

Picture Series

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figural Reasoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figural Classification

*

*

*

*

 

 

 

Figural Analogies

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Pattern Matrix

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Figural Series

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

 

Quantitative Reasoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number Series

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Numeric Inference

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

Number Matrix

 

 

 

*

*

*

*

 

The most recent version of the test is the OLSAT-8® but some school districts still use the OLSAT-7® and the information here applies to the OLSAT-7® too.   There is only one Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® at each level.  The same test is used throughout the country for many years.  It is a protected test and only those qualified to administer it, or study its administration, can see it.  Pearson Assessments makes a "sample test" available for school districts to purchase but it is designed to illustrate the format used rather than provide an indication of the scope of the questions or the difficulty.  The OLSAT® is completely different from tests like the SAT® taken at the end of high school where a new test is used each testing date so that there is a history of released tests that you can use to prepare. 
 
We've heard the OLSAT® referred to as a school ability test, a cognitive ability test or an IQ test.  Your child's OLSAT® test score will give you an idea of how smart they are but it isn't an IQ score.  An IQ test, such as the WISC® or Stanford-Binet®, done one on one with a psychologist is a much more comprehensive, and accurate, test of cognitive ability.
 
The OLSAT® is completely different from achievement tests like the ITBS, CAT/6, MAT etc.  These later tests are designed to measure how well a child has learned what they should have been taught.  Can they read and do mathematics at grade level, for example?  The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test®, in contrast, is intended to provide an indication of intrinsic ability.  How well can your child problem solve in different contexts?
 
There are seven different levels of the OLSAT® designed for use from Kindergarten to 12th grade.  Some school districts test preschoolers.  Pre K students take the A level of the test designed for K students but their score is compared with that of their age peers meaning that a 3 year old wouldn't need as high a raw score as a 5 year old to achieve the same percentile ranking.  In New York City 3 year olds are tested using 40 of the questions from the Level A OLSAT® test.  4 year olds are tested using the entire Level A test which has 60 questions.  The performance of children is compared with that of their age peers in 3 month bands (so, as an example, children born Oct 04 - Dec 04 are compared with each other and children born Jan 04 - Mar 04 with each other).  Younger children do not have to answer as many questions correctly to be identified as gifted.
 
The OLSAT® is a timed multiple choice test taking approximately one hour to administer.
 

Sometimes we're asked if children should guess when they don't know the answer.  Scoring of the the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® doesn't penalize for incorrect answers so your child's score can only go up if they guess the answers to questions they don't know.  If they guess the correct answer their score will go up.  If they guess the incorrect answer their score will be the same as if they left that question blank.  If the objective is to get the highest score possible to give your child the best chance of being selected for entry to a gifted program then guessing is a sensible strategy.  If the OLSAT® is being used to get an idea of how your child's classroom performance (in subjects such as reading and math) compares with their cognitive ability then your child should be instructed not to guess unless they're pretty certain they know the answer.  Correct guesses may lead to the conclusion that your child is not working up to their ability level.

 
If you have a child who will be taking the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® we've made some suggestions to help with preparation.  Try not to get overwhelmed by the length of the list of recommendations.  You don't need everything.  Building Thinking Skills is the place to start and what you choose to do in addition to that will depend on your child's strengths and weaknesses.  Read the list of skills tested, browse the product descriptions and sample pages and, if that isn't sufficient for you to decide, contact us with some information about your child and I'll make some recommendations specific to your situation.