WPPSI 3 Test
January 13th, 2013

Originally developed in the 1960s, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence has since been revised several times. The WPPSI III is the next-to-latest version of the test, and the version your child will most likely be taking. The very latest version, published in 2012, has not yet been adopted by all testing agents. The test is designed to measure children’s intelligence and has many subsections designed to achieve this end.

The WPPSI 3 is most likely the very first intelligence test your child will ever take. The test can be administered to children as young as 2.5 years, and as old as just over 7 years. There are two main divisions of the Wechsler test; one for younger children and one for older children. The division comes at 3 years, 11 months. This is the division experts feel marks the sharpest difference in a child’s brain development.

Children who take the Wechsler are given a composite score, typically ranging from 70 to 130 or so. Children with higher scores are deemed to have done better on the WPPSI test.

If your child is due to take the Wechsler test soon, you may be wondering what the test actually entails. The WPPSI has 14 subsections, ranging from picture completion to block design to symbol search to receptive vocabulary to object assembly. Each of these sections is a bit different, and it’s helpful for your child to see what questions in each section look like.

You can read about the test in detail at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_Preschool_and_Primary_Scale_of_Intelligence. Very little preparation is required, since the test assesses innate intelligence. However, you may wish to familiarize your child with the test’s format to avoid any confusion. This will reduce anxiety going into the test and give your child the confidence to perform at his best.