What is the OLSAT Test? (2025)

OLSAT Overview

• What is Assessed by the OLSAT 8 Test ?-The OLSAT 8 tests students' verbal, nonverbal, and quantitative skills from kindergarten to 12th grade.
• Who Created the OLSAT Test ?-Arthur Otis, Ph. D. and Roger Lennon, Ph. D.
• Who Publishes the OLSAT ?-Pearson Education
• Who takes the OLSAT-? K-12 Students
• Who can administer an OLSAT test? Schools and Psychologists

The OLSAT presents a variety of question types that require shifting between different modes of thinking (verbal, nonverbal, quantitative). This fosters cognitive flexibility – the ability to adapt one's thinking to different situations and tasks. Doing this test prep during the summer vacation is a great way to keep your mind sharp and ensure you're alert and ready for the start of a new semester.

No, the OLSAT and IQ tests measure different aspects of a person's abilities. IQ tests measure general intelligence. OLSAT tests measure specific abilities related to academic potential. The OLSAT is an achievement test that measures high-level achievements. It also serves as a measure to admit students to gifted programs.

The verbal section includes questions about understanding and reasoning with words, while the nonverbal section includes questions about pictorial, figural, and quantitative reasoning. Here are more details about which question types are found on each level of the OLSAT: 

The number of questions varies by grade level, with younger students typically having fewer questions to complete. Our OLSAT sample questions allow you to see what these questions are like.

The OLSAT is a multiple-choice test on paper or digitally. It has verbal and nonverbal sections with subtests. 

The time limit ranges from 60-77 minutes. 77 minutes for Levels A-C and 60 Minutes for Levels D-G 

As your child progresses through the OLSAT Test, you'll notice that the questions become increasingly challenging and complex. Here's what you can expect: 

Increased Complexity of Question Types 

In the early grades (K-1), the test focuses on basic listening skills, pattern recognition, and simple reasoning. As your child moves up to middle elementary grades (2-3), verbal questions introduce more complex concepts, while nonverbal questions require more advanced spatial reasoning skills. 

In upper elementary grades (4-5), verbal questions become even more challenging, requiring critical thinking and logical deductions. Nonverbal questions also become more complex, involving abstract shapes and sequences. By middle and high school grades (6-12), the test assesses more advanced reasoning abilities, including word and letter matrices, verbal classification, and quantitative reasoning. 

Shift from Concrete to Abstract Thinking 

As your child progresses through the grades, the questions shift from concrete examples to more abstract thinking. In earlier grades, questions are concrete and focus on recognizing simple relationships. By grades 4-5 and above, students need to understand abstract relationships, recognizing patterns or relationships that aren't immediately obvious. 

For example, early questions may involve finding an image that matches others, while later questions involve predicting or inferring relationships between more complex elements. 

Multi-Step Reasoning 

In early grades (K-1), questions are mostly single-step problems, where the answer is based on immediate observation. As your child moves up to grades 3-5, they'll encounter multi-step problems that require a sequence of logical steps or understanding contextual meaning. 

By grades 6-12, questions often require two or more logical steps to determine the correct answer, as well as understanding underlying rules or creating and verifying hypotheses. 

Expansion of Content Scope 

As your child moves up the grades, the test covers a wider range of academic concepts and logical relationships. In lower grades, the test focuses on basic verbal and nonverbal reasoning. By upper elementary to high school grades, the test assesses more advanced reasoning abilities, including word and letter matrices, verbal classification, and quantitative reasoning. 

Increased Complexity in Patterns and Relationships 

In the nonverbal section, younger students work with simple images and straightforward relationships. As your child moves up, the complexity increases with abstract shapes, sequences, and patterns that involve multiple dimensions. Quantitative reasoning questions in higher grades require a strong grasp of numerical logic, sequences, and the ability to infer underlying rules. 

By understanding how the OLSAT Test questions become more complex, you can better support your child's development and help them prepare for the test. 

Should I prepare my child for gifted testing? 

To help your child do well on tests, it's important to teach them different question types and strategies to manage time, follow instructions, and handle unfamiliar questions. 

TestPrep-Online provides comprehensive preparation resources for the OLSAT. Our comprehensive test prep packs include a range of engaging tools, such as customizable practice sessions, video tutorials, sample questions, and study guides, designed to help students build a strong foundation. 

The OLSAT scoring process is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of a student's abilities. Here's a step-by-step breakdown:

• Raw Score: Students earn points for each correct answer, but there is no penalty for skipping or incorrectly answering a question. The raw score is the number of correct answers out of the total number of questions (e.g., 46/60).
• School Ability Index (SAI) Score: The raw score is then converted to an SAI score, which is a normalized score with an average of 100, a standard deviation of 16, and a maximum score of 150. This score is determined by comparing the raw scores of other children in the same age group.
• Percentile Ranking: The SAI score is used to determine the student's percentile ranking, which shows how they performed compared to other students of the same age. The ranking is on a scale of 0-100% and is calculated separately for the overall test, verbal section, and non-verbal section.

Age-Based and Grade-Based Percentile Rankings: Students receive two types of percentile rankings:

• Age-based percentile ranking: This compares the student to others of the same age.
• Grade-based percentile ranking: This compares the student to others in the same grade.

By providing these two types of percentile rankings, the OLSAT scoring process gives educators a more comprehensive understanding of a student's abilities and how they compare to their peers.

A score of 132 on the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT) is generally considered a typical cutoff score for gifted programs. This means that students who score 132 or higher typically fall within the top 1-3% of test-takers, or above the 97th percentile are considered gifted. Please check with the gifted program you are considering for your child for their requirements.

Get comprehensive preparation for both the OLSAT and NNAT with our complete test prep bundle, designed to help your child build confidence and master key cognitive skills. Save money while preparing for both tests with this great-value package that gives you all the practice materials you need.