Reasoning Progress Tests - Stage 1 : Specimen set

The Reasoning Progress Tests (RsPT) yield two key measures of general ability - verbal and nonverbal reasoning - against which to view pupils' attainments and identify under-achievement.

These measures are also widely accepted as valid indicators of a child's potential and as predictors of future performance.

The Reasoning Progress Tests are published as two Stages (corresponding to key stages 1 and 2 in England & Wales), and cover the full primary phase.

The series consists of a picture reasoning test, plus five matched pairs of verbal and nonverbal reasoning tests, together covering the age range 5 to 12 years.

The Reasoning Progress Tests allow teachers to choose one or both measures, according to the background and degree of any social/language disadvantage, and any special needs, of the pupils concerned.

In practice, measures of verbal and nonverbal ability tend to correlate highly - but are most informative when they are at variance. When used alongside the Reading Progress Tests and the Numeracy Progress Tests, by the same authors, they bring a valuable new perspective to pupils' performance: where a child's attainment in reading and/or numeracy is found to be significantly at variance with their reasoning ability, this should prompt further investigation.

Child-friendly and attractive, the tests are all standardised group tests, taking just 45-50 minutes to administer to a whole class and designed for use at any time during the school year.

They can help to identify able under-achievers, as well as those pupils most likely to benefit from learning support.

They also enable schools to 'benchmark' successive pupil intakes, and inform target setting and evaluations of class and whole-school performance.

STAGE ONE is for ages 4:8 to 8:0: the questions are presented orally, to minimise the reading demand on younger pupils.

Practice items are incorporated in the tests, allowing the teacher to pace the testing session appropriately.

All questions are objectively marked, making for rapid scoring.

The RsPT have been rigorously trialled, standardised and validated on over 14000 children from schools across the UK. Each test gives an age-standardised score and percentile for each pupil; separate tables relate reasoning test scores to projected national curriculum levels.