BSRA test together with the OLSAT

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - July 31st, 2012

Along with the BSRA test or the Bracken School Readiness Assessment test, the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test or OLSAT, published by Pearson NNC, is also widely used throughout the United States. More so, together with the BSRA test, the OLSAT test has been duly recognized as one of the two tests which determine a child’s admittance to one of New York’s finest schools for gifted children.

Unlike the BSRA test, the OLSAT test is a timed multiple choice test that usually takes an hour to administer. In evaluating the child’s intrinsic abilities, OLSAT assesses recognition of similarities and differences, memory recall, defining words presented, following instructions given, establishing succession or order, and solving mathematical problems, among others.

The OLSAT includes these specific components:

• Verbal comprehension
• Verbal reasoning
• Figural reasoning – makes use of pictograms
• Quantitative reasoning.

In the Bracken School Readiness Assessment Test, the child’s cognitive ability is measured in relation to his readiness for school. The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, on the other hand, deals with the child’s logic and reasoning.