OLSAT

Otis- Lennon School

Ability Test
Seventh Edition
Arthur S. Otis & Roger T. Lennon
Designed to measure those verbal,
quantitative, and figural reasoning skills
that are most closely related to scholastic
achievement.

This complex of abilities is assessed

through performance on such tasks as
detecting similarities and differences,
solving analogies and matrixes, classifying
and determining sequence.
 History
The first Otis series of ability test was
published in 1918.
Otis Group Intelligence Scale
Otis Self-Administering Tests of Mental
Ability
Otis Quick -Scoring Mental Ability
Tests
Otis- Lennon Mental Ability Test
Otis-Lennon School Ability Test
Uses
To assess examinees’ ability to cope
with school learning tasks, to suggest
their possible placement for school
learning functions, and to evaluate
their achievement in relation to the
talents they bring to school learning
situations.
Structure

Comprises seven levels that collectively

assess the range of ability of students
from Kindergarten through Grade 12.

The levels are designated A through G.

 Test Level
Cluster A B C D E F G
/ Item Kinder Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade
Type garten 1 2 3 4-5 6-8 9-12

Verbal
Verbal Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Sentence
Completion, Antonyms
Nonverbal
Pictorial Reasoning, Figural Reasoning, Pattern Matrix,
Quantitative Reasoning, Number Series
Theoretical Basis
Spearman’s g factor
( General Cognitive Ability)

Two broad factors

1. verbal-educational
2. practical- mechanical
Items

The seventh edition contains a

compilation of items
from the fifth and sixth editions
Psychometric Properties

Reliability

Correlation coefficients within a

range of .30 -. 70
Validity
All items were reviewed and edited
by editorial staff, measurement
specialists, and psychologists for
clarity, appropriateness of content,
accuracy of correct answers,
plausibility of answer options,
appropriateness of vocabulary,
absence of stereotyping or bias of
any kind, and general overall
quality.
Norms
Spring Standardization - 250, 000
students
Fall Standardization – 200,000
students
Equating of Levels
 Demographic Characteristics of
the OLSAT Standardization
Samples
1.Geographic Regions
2.SES Status
3.Urbanicity
4.Ethnicity
5.Handicapped Condition
6.Nonpublic Schools
Practice Test was
administered to
all students
taking Level A
through Level F
of OLSAT prior
to the actual test
administration.
Sample Questions

Which word does not go with the

other four?
A. walk B. run C. skip
D. trot E. stand
What number comes next in this
series? 124 235 346 457 ?

A. 458 B. 558 C. 568

D. 668 E. 678
Interpreting Test Results

The Otis-Lennon School Ability

Test provides in addition to raw
scores, derived scores based upon
age and derived scores based upon
grade level in school.
RAW SCORES
- the number of questions answered
correctly

SCALED SCORES
- Links together all of the levels of the
test.

SCHOOL ABILITY INDEXES

- Is a normalized standard score a mean of
100 and a standard deviation of 16.
OLSAT SAI

Provided for three-month intervals of

chronological age for Total, Verbal
and Nonverbal scores.
Percentile Ranks

Percentile ranks corresponding to

SAIs show the relative standing of a
student in comparison with other
students of the same age.
Stanines
Stanines are normalized standard
scores with a range of 1 to 9 and a
mean of 5.
Stanines 1, 2,3 reflect below-average
performance
Stanines 4, 5, 6 are average
Stanines 7, 8,9 are above average