New York City children will take the Otis Lennon School Ability Test - 8th Edition (OLSAT-8) and Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - 2nd Edition (NNAT-2) in early 2014 to determine eligibility for district and city wide gifted placement in the 2014-15 school year.

The NNAT measures students' nonverbal abilities, including critical thinking and problem solving through questions that address pattern completion, reasoning by analogy, serial reasoning and spatial visualization. The OLSAT measures verbal reasoning and comprehension skills. Please see our section on Types of Questions on the NNAT and OLSAT for examples showing what this means.

The scoring methodology will be different from last year. In 2013-13 the NNAT score was weighted more highly than the OLSAT. In 2013-14 the two test scores will be given equal weight.

This material is also relevant if your child will be taking the ERB for private school admission. For the ERB there is more that you can do because the ERB/WPPSI is a broader test. We have another section for that.

Unlike tutoring companies who have rushed to put out practice tests, which in many cases look nothing like the real test in either format or coverage of material, we recommend that you use a variety of material to increase your child's skills in the areas that will be tested. This will help them when they are tested and afterwards. You'll pick up on our philosophy if you browse around our website or jump straight to our FAQs and Testimonials Section where we answer some questions commonly asked by New York parents.

We carry a lot of products that can be used to build essential thinking skills. To make it easier for you we have our top picks for the NNAT® (Naglieri Non-Verbal Ability Test) and verbal component of the OLSAT® (Otis-Lennon School Ability Test) gathered together in bundles. You'll find links to these further down the page and if you browse the category corresponding to your child's year of birth above.

If you want to see how your child might do during the actual testing situation we recommend the Thinking Skills for Tests Set. This has a parent/instructor book for the adult administering the test with complete instructions and a student book with pictures just like your child will see on the actual test. Unlike practice tests this set contains a significant amount of additional information for the parent explaining what the skills are which are being tested and how you can build them in your child.

If your child was born in 2009 we recommend comparing the contents of our 2008 and 2009 bundles. If your child was born early in 2009 they may be ready for the more difficult material in the 2008 bundle.

Enjoy the process of building your child's thinking skills.

Please feel free to contact Helen if you have any questions. We like to help.