The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test ® (OLSAT) is the most commonly utilized cognitive assessment used to measure a student’s school placement and/or eligibility for gifted and talented programs.  The OLSAT has proven to be a valuable tool in measuring verbal, aural, arithmetic, pictorial and figural reasoning abilities. The Department of Education eligibility requirements are as follows: students are eligible for placement in District Gifted and Talented Programs require a score of at or above the 90th percentile.  Those students who score at or above the 97th percentile will be eligible for placement to citywide G and T Programs as well as district programs.

The OLSAT Level A test consist of 10 subtests which include following directions, aural and arithmetic reasoning; picture and figural classification, analogies and series; and pattern matrices.  This OLSAT is an untimed test that is administered individually with a proctor and consists of 40-60 multiple choice questions depending on the child’s age. The questions and answers are read to them only once by the examination proctor; therefore, listening is very important.  Current Kindergarten students are asked to shade in a bubble that is located beneath their chosen answer. Pre-K students are not expected to bubble in answers in the test booklet; however, they must be able to clearly indicate with a pencil their answer choice for each item Alternate language assessments are available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Urdu.

The OLSAT yields both a verbal and non verbal score. The scores are reported using the School Ability Index (SAI) which consists of scaled scores, percentiles ranks and overall scores. The average SAI score is 100. Scores are calculated and compared to the performance of other students’ in the same three-month age range. Schools will look for the consistency of a student’s score across the subtests, their percentile rank as well as it how the score compares to other students in the same age range.

The Bracken School Readiness Assessment® (BSRA) is also a cognitive test that is designed to assess a student’s receptive language and concept knowledge necessary for school readiness. The BSRA assesses the student’s knowledge of concepts that are traditionally taught to them prior to entering into formal education.

The BSRA consists of six basic skills: colors, letter recognition, numbers and counting, sizes, comparisons and shapes. This assessment is administered individually and is in a multiple choice format.

Because the Bracken School Readiness Assessment is a standardized test it is administered and scored using professional guidelines. The hand scored test results are converted to percentile rank scores and standard scores. The scores are also further explained using descriptive classifications, such as “advanced” or “average.”

The two assessments will be given on the same day. Pre K students will answer 40 questions on the OLSAT; Kindergarten students will answer 60 questions. The BSRA will take an additional 10-15 minutes. There will be bathroom or water breaks as needed, so count on the assessments lasting between 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. Both the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test ® (OLSAT) and the Bracken School Readiness Assessment ® (BSRA) are used for admittance to the New York City Gifted and Talented Program. Whereas the OSLAT counts as 75%, the BSRA counts for the remainder 25% of the test score.