The SAT-10 or Stanford Achievement Test, Tenth Edition is a group assessment of academic achievement. This means that the test is administered in a group setting with students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. The SAT-10 tests students' achievement in Mathematics, Science, Reading, Social Studies, Language, Listening and Spelling. The SAT-10 is both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced. Norm-referencing means that students scores can be compared to the scores of other students of the same age or grade level. This is helpful for seeing how students perform in comparison to their peers. Criterion-referencing means the assessment is aligned to the curriculum standards for each subject area. The test scores reflect the student's mastery of those performance standards.
The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, or OLSAT, is a group assessment of school-related abilities. The OLSAT is often referred to as a group IQ or intelligence quotient test. While it is not an IQ test, the OLSAT can help give an idea of children's reasoning skills and critical thinking abilities. The OLSAT measures both verbal and nonverbal ability of students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. The verbal portion measures verbal comprehension and reasoning skills. The non-verbal section of the test measures pictorial reasoning, figural reasoning and quantitative reasoning skills. The OLSAT is a norm-referenced test, meaning a student's results can be compared to those of his same-age peers nationwide. The OLSAT is not criterion-referenced, because it is not concerned with how students perform on standards. The OLSAT is more concerned with how students think and solve problems.
In general, the purposes of the test are complementary. The OLSAT is generally given to determine a child's potential for school success. The test measures the critical thinking skills the child possesses that will help her achieve in school. The SAT-10 is administered to see how the child applies that ability. The SAT-10 measures how well the child uses her natural abilities to perform in academic subjects. The two tests are given and the results are compared to see how well a child achieves on the SAT-10 in comparison to her expected ability from the OLSAT. In the case of a gifted child, the tests are administered to see if a child has high ability according to the OLSAT, and if her ability is applied consistently through academic achievement, as measured by the SAT-10.
The OLSAT is a multiple-choice format test that requires about one hour to administer. The SAT-10 is an untimed test that includes short answer, multiple choice and extended response questions.