OLSAT Levels A Through G: Which Test Does Your Child Take?

The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT) is widely used by school districts for gifted program screening and general ability testing. One of its most distinctive features is a tiered level structure — the test is tailored to different grade levels, so the question types your child encounters depend entirely on their grade.

OLSAT Levels by Grade

What Makes Each Level Different

All OLSAT levels include both verbal and nonverbal question types, but the balance and complexity shift significantly as levels increase:

• Levels A–B (K–1): Heavily oral. A test administrator reads questions aloud because young children can't read independently. Questions focus on following directions, aural reasoning, and basic classification.
• Levels C–D (Grades 2–3): Children begin reading questions independently. Verbal content includes verbal analogies, sentence completion, and logical selection. Nonverbal content shifts toward figural analogies and pattern completion.
• Levels E–F (Grades 4–7): More complex verbal reasoning (inferential thinking, verbal classification), more abstract nonverbal reasoning (figural series, figural analogies), and quantitative reasoning (number inference).
• Level G (Grades 8–12): Most abstract. Includes complex logical problems, symbolic reasoning, and multi-step figural series.

OLSAT Verbal vs. Nonverbal

Within each level, the OLSAT divides questions into two broad categories:

• Verbal questions (~50%): Verbal comprehension (following directions, sentence completion, word meaning) and verbal reasoning (analogies, logical selection, inference)
• Nonverbal questions (~50%): Pictorial reasoning (picture classification, picture analogies), figural reasoning (figural classification, figural analogies, pattern matrices), and quantitative reasoning (number series, number inference)

OLSAT Scores Explained

The OLSAT produces a School Ability Index (SAI) — similar to an IQ score, with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 16. It also produces a percentile rank comparing your child to others of the same grade in the national standardization sample.

• 90th percentile: SAI approximately 120–122 — qualifies for most district gifted programs
• 95th percentile: SAI approximately 125 — qualifies for more selective programs
• 97th+ percentile: SAI approximately 128+ — required for NYC's citywide programs

Prep Focus by Level

• Levels A–B: Focus on listening comprehension, verbal direction-following, and basic picture analogies. Read to your child daily and ask inferential questions like "why do you think the character did that?"
• Levels C–D: Add verbal analogy practice (category, function, part-to-whole relationships) and figural pattern work (matrix puzzles).
• Levels E–G: Add number series practice, complex logical deduction, and multi-step figural pattern recognition. Speed matters more at these levels — practice pacing.

How OLSAT Levels Affect Score Interpretation

The OLSAT's level system means that a child taking Level A (for pre-K and Kindergarten) is answering different questions than a child taking Level D (for grade 3). This is important because scores are normed within each level — a child's School Ability Index (SAI) reflects how they performed compared to other students taking the same level of the test, not all students in their grade nationwide.

One practical implication: if your child is tested at the beginning of kindergarten (Level A) and then again at the beginning of 2nd grade (Level C), the two scores are not directly comparable in absolute terms. What matters is the percentile rank within the appropriate comparison group. A child who consistently scores at the 90th percentile across different levels is performing consistently regardless of how the absolute SAI number changes between levels.

The transition from Level B to Level C (around 1st to 2nd grade) is where the OLSAT becomes significantly more demanding. Level C introduces more complex verbal reasoning tasks and the full range of nonverbal question types. Children who scored comfortably in the gifted range at Level A or B sometimes perform closer to average at Level C — this is partly a reflection of the increased demands of the higher level test, not necessarily a change in ability.

NYC uses specific OLSAT levels for its Gifted and Talented screening: pre-K through Kindergarten applicants take the age-appropriate level of the OLSAT alongside the NNAT. The combined score determines G&T eligibility. Preparation for NYC G&T should address both the OLSAT and NNAT simultaneously, since both contribute equally to the composite that determines program placement.

Helping Your Child Approach the OLSAT With Confidence

The most effective OLSAT preparation for young children does not feel like studying. For children in the OLSAT's lower levels (A and B, covering pre-K through 1st grade), preparation is most productive when it looks like enriched play: puzzles that develop pattern recognition, word games that build classification and analogy skills, and listening activities that develop the ability to follow multi-step directions. These activities build exactly the reasoning skills the OLSAT measures, without the anxiety that formal "test prep" can create in young children.

For children in the upper OLSAT levels (C through G, covering grades 2 through 6), structured practice with released OLSAT-format questions can be genuinely helpful in the 4-8 weeks before testing. The goal is not to memorize answers but to develop familiarity with the question formats — particularly the figural analogy and number series questions — so that cognitive resources on test day can focus on the reasoning task rather than on understanding what the question is asking.