The Otis–Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT), published by the successor of Harcourt Assessment—Pearson Education, Inc., a subsidiary of Pearson PLC—is, according to the publisher, a test of abstract thinking and reasoning ability of children pre-K to 18. The Otis-Lennon is group-administered (except preschool), multiple choice, taken with pencil and paper, measures verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning ability. The test yields verbal and nonverbal scores, from which a total score is derived, called a School Ability Index (SAI). The SAI is a normalized standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 16. With the exception of pre-K, the test is administered in groups.

Test components

The test has twenty-one subtests that are organized into five areas—verbal comprehension, verbal reasoning, pictorial reasoning, figural reasoning, and quantitative reasoning—each with equal numbers of verbal and non-verbal items: The number of questions and the time limit varies accordingly:

Uses in primary and secondary education

In 2012 the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) adjusted its criteria for inferring gifted and talented needs of students in kindergarten through the third grade. Citing a disproportionate number of students scoring in the 99th percentile — the far right tail of the distribution curve — the NYC DOE replaced the Bracken (BSRA) with the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT), and changed the weighting, lowering the OLSAT from two-thirds to one-third and giving the NNAT two-thirds. A local news source reported that many parents were unhappy about the decrease in the weighting of the OLSAT and the implementation of the NNAT. The objective, according to the NYC DOE, was to combat the advantages of children receiving pretest tutoring. The NYC DOE avers that the OLSAT is more preppable and the NNAT is less preppable.

Uses by high-IQ societies

High scores on the OLSAT are accepted by high IQ societies such as American Mensa (requiring a total SAI ≥ 132) and Intertel (requiring a total SAI ≥ 138), the latter also accepting scores on this test's historical predecessor, the OLMAT.

Criticisms

Accuracy Test environment Test format for preschoolers Preparing for the test

Editions