OLSAT^® preparation with Kindergarten Test Study System

For what age and tests is Kindergarten Test Study System (KTSS) intended?

KTSS prepares children ages 4 - 5 to take the OLSAT^® (Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, OLSAT 8 Level A) for placement in kindergarten or first grade programs.

Because KTSS does not "teach the test," but rather, covers basic critical thinking skills, KTSS is also good preparation for other tests administered to children this age, including those administered as part of GATE or ERB testing.  The type of thinking assessed is similar and so the preparation need not be substantially different.

To meet the varying developmental needs of children this age, KTSS can be tailored to be somewhat difficult or significantly easier. Children will learn the same important concepts, regardless of whether they are able to answer the difficult versions of the questions or whether they require additional help.

Is test preparation ethical? 

In general, anyone who is being tested has a right to prepare for, or at least be informed about, that test.  However, anyone who provides test preparation is responsible for protecting the integrity of that test.  To develop and provide appropriate and ethical test preparation, guidelines from professional organizations that govern psychological and educational testing should be followed, and members of those organizations’ ethics committees should be consulted.  These efforts ensure that test preparation doesn’t invalidate a test and create inflated and spurious test scores. 

KTSS was developed in consultation with members of the ethics committees of The American Psychological Association and the National Council on Measurement in Education. Prior to commercial release, KTSS was shared with the company that publishes the OLSAT and WPPSI to ensure that the tests remain secure.  These efforts resulted in KTSS providing familiarity with typical test formats, and more important, providing practice in the broad content areas- the critical thinking skills- that children’s cognitive assessments measure.

Adherence to these ethical guidelines ensures that children prepared with KTSS will be familiarized with test formats and will have the opportunity to become better critical thinkers, but they will not have been prepared in any way that's inappropriate.     

Does KTSS cover the skills in the Bracken School Readiness Assessment^® (BSRA)?

BSRA^® testing assesses children's knowledge of basic sizes and comparisons, and also basic counting skills.  KTSS reviews these concepts.  The BSRA^® also assesses whether or not children are at the developmental stage where they know specific letters, colors, numbers, and shapes.  KTSS doesn't cover these concepts, because unlike other critical thinking skills covered in tests, children tend to learn, for example, specific letters, when they're developmentally ready, and so they don't easily learn them as part of test preparation.

How does KTSS encourage children to persist when faced with difficult questions?

Unless children have been familiarized with difficult questions, they sometimes give random, silly, or hasty answers even if they otherwise could work through difficult questions and give correct answers.  KTSS can be tailored to be as difficult as is required to give children practice handling difficult questions.  Also, research shows that, for children, persistence on tests can be increased by the type of feedback an adult gives a child while they're working through a challenging problem. The typical things that parents may say to encourage their child (e.g., "that's right," "you're doing so well") are okay but they don't encourage persistence. The adult's script in KTSS is very specific in giving feedback that's been found to encourage persistence and help children do their best.

Do you make any guarantee about my child's test performance if I use KTSS?

The truth about test preparation-- all test preparation-- is that there’s no worthwhile evidence that it can significantly “get results,” or “gets kids in” to programs (Wall Street Journal, 5/20/09).  Making these claims is inherently misleading because it’s difficult to collect accurate data. 

What test preparation can do, if it’s done right, is overcome barriers that can prevent children from doing their best on a test.  In other words, you can think of test preparation as practice that can rid your child of handicaps that can mask his or her true ability.  

 Is it necessary to prepare my child for testing?

No. Without any preparation a child can perform extremely well. Test preparation is not necessary, but it may be useful. KTSS can prevent children from being held back from giving their best performance due to lack of familiarity with key critical thinking skills or due to lack of persistence when confronting difficult material. Although preparation may be useful, no amount of preparation will make a child with average-range ability appear to have superior ability. 

There is some opinion that no preparation should be done because it invalidates the results of testing. This, however, does not result from proper preparation, but happens when children are given actual test material, or material that is so purposefully similar to test material, that test results are meaningless. KTSS was shared with the company that publishes the OLSAT^® to ensure that the test remain secure.  

How accurate are tests for kids this age anyway? 

Kids this age are not prime candidates for ability testing.  Although testing can help identify some bright young children who may benefit from accelerated academic programs, cognition is still in development and test results are to be taken with a grain of salt.  In fact, descriptions of the childhoods of Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill suggest that they would have done poorly on such testing, and wouldn't have done well in any sort of accelerated academic program in their younger years.  If your child doesn't do well on this test, it may leave you with some practical problems of where to go to school next year, but just know that your child is in very good company. 

When is the best time to start using KTSS to prepare for testing?

It's usually good to start 2-6 weeks prior to the test date. Some complete KTSS in one week, but if you have less time or don't want to complete the whole system, alternative "time crunch" instructions are also provided.  

You shouldn't worry about starting KTSS too far in advance, because skills learned with KTSS will be reinforced (not lost) with intervening experiences, and also because the practice test, which reinforces skills already learned, can be given just before the test date.

Does my child need to be able to read to be tested?

No. Reading ability is not assumed or required for the versions of the tests that are used to assess children entering kindergarten and first grade. Similarly, KTSS assumes no reading ability.

Is my child at a disadvantage if he is a "young 4" (e.g., will turn 4 in December) when compared with "older 4's" (e.g., turned 4 last January and soon will be turning 5)?

This is an understandable concern, because at this age, a year can make a big difference in a child's cognitive development. However, the OLSAT^®, and most other tests administered to young children, have extensive normative data, and the normative groups are based on age in MONTHS, not years. A child who is 4 years and 0 months can be placed in a different normative group than a child who is 4 years and 11 months. In other words, children are compared with others who are very close in age.

Because children of different ages with different levels of cognitive development prepare for these tests, KTSS can be tailored to meet the needs of children in varying stages of cognitive development.