Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, 2nd ed. (WIAT-II), The Psychological Corporation, 2001. The WIAT-II presents one item at a time without time limits, except for the Written Expression subtest. It offers standard scores, percentile ranks, stanines, and other scores, based either on the student’s age (four-month intervals for ages 4 through 13, one-year intervals for ages 14 through 16, and one interval for ages 17 through 19) or the student’s grade (fall, winter, and spring norms for grades Pre-K through 8, full-year norms for grades 9 through 12, and separate college norms), compared to a random, stratified, nationwide sample of 3600 students.
Achievement scores predicted from intelligence tests fall closer to the mean (standard score 100, percentile rank 50) than the intelligence scores from which they are predicted. Word Reading: naming letters, phonological skills (working with sounds in words), and reading words aloud from lists. Only the accuracy of the pronunciation (not comprehension) is scored. Pseudoword Decoding: reading nonsense words aloud from a list (phonetic word attack). Reading Comprehension: matching words to pictures, reading sentences aloud, and orally answering oral questions about reading passages. Silent reading speed is also assessed. Spelling: written spelling of dictated letters and sounds and words that are dictated and read in sentences. Written Expression: writing letters and words as quickly as possible, writing sentences, and writing a paragraph or essay.
Numerical Operations: identifying and writing numbers, counting, and solving paper-and-pencil computation examples with only a few items for each computational skill. Math Reasoning: counting, identifying shapes, and solving verbally framed “word problems” presented both orally and in writing or with illustrations. Paper and pencil are allowed. Listening Comprehension: multiple-choice matching of pictures to spoken words or sentences and replying with one word to a picture and a dictated clue. Oral Expression: repeating sentences, generating lists of specific kinds of words, describing pictured scenes, and describing pictured activities. Content of answers is scored, but quality of spoken language is not for most items.