About Us

Additional information included in the Gifted and Talented Information Handbooks. 
The New York City Department of Education provides challenging standards-based instructional practices and highly engaging learning opportunities to children with exceptional capacity or creative talent.Gifted and talented programs are district-based and begin in kindergarten and first grade in every borough. There are five citywide gifted and talented schools, which accept students from all boroughs.

Gifted and talented students are identified after a rigorous testing process and are placed in gifted and talented programs located in various schools throughout New York City. The DOE offers the self-contained classroom model in which gifted students receive appropriate instruction as a group for the entire day.  These students receive a variety of enrichment and acceleration experiences that meet their advanced learning needs. The regular curriculum is modified or changed to meet students' needs.  

 Exams for Pre-K - 1st Grade in New York

At Another Young Scholar Tutoring, we understand that many parents are unaware that in some private pre-schools there are two exams administered to your child at the end of February or March. These two exams are called the OLSAT and the BSRA. "OLSAT" stands for Otis-Lennon School Ability Test. The "BSRA" is called the Bracken School Readiness Assessment. 
At Another Young Scholar Tutoring, LLC we have a test preparation program geared towards pre-school age children that will fully prepare them for the OLSAT and the BSRA exams. We continuously communicate with the Board of Education to access information that we can pass along to parents. Some of these questions and answers from the BOE, Pearson, and other sources should help give you some helpful insight.

What does the OLSAT measure?

The OLSAT is designed to measure verbal, quantitative and figural reasoning skills that are most closely related to scholastic achievement. Tasks such as detecting likenesses and differences, recalling words and numbers, defining words, following directions, classifying, establishing sequence,solving arithmetic problems and completing analogies are included because they have been shown to be valid measures of an individual’s ability to reason logically. The OLSAT measures the cognitive abilities related to a child’s aptitude. This test assesses children’s thinking skills (abstract thinking and reasoning) and provides an understanding of children’s relative strengths and weaknesses in performing a variety of reasoning tasks. On the OLSAT, children will be tested in four clusters: Verbal Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Pictorial Reasoning and Figural Reasoning. Verbal reasoning does not correspond to speaking ability. All questions are presented in a multiple-choice format. For the OLSAT we will expose your children to verbal and non-verbal reasoning activities.  At Another Young Scholar Tutoring, LLC. Our tutors are familiar with different activities and strategies to help your child achieve academic success on these exams. 

What specifically does the BSRA measure?

The BSRA is designed to assess a child’s concept knowledge and receptive language skills for school readiness. The BSRAcontains the first six subtests of the Bracken Basic Concept Scale (BBCS). Since a high correlation exists between total scores on the BBCS (11subtests) and the BSRA (six subtests), the DOE will administer the shorter BSRA in conjunction with the OLSAT. At Another Young Scholar Tutoring, we are ready, willing, and able to get your child fully pre-pared for the OLSAT and the BSRA exams. Call us at 1-877-3-TEACH-ME and find out about our "Exclusive" one-on-one analysis.

Here is more useful information about the OLSAT

The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test is a multiple-choice test.  Your child will pick their answers by shading the circle underneath the picture they choose on test sheet. There is no reading.  The administer of the test will read the instructions, questions and answers once only.  Listening is very important.  At Another Young Scholar Tutoring, we expose your child to verbal, aural, arithmetic, pictorial and figural reasoning activities.  Then we assess what areas they are proficient in versus the areas they need reinforcement in. There seven different levels of the OLSAT designed for use from Kindergarten to 12th grade.  Whether parents agree or disagree, some school districts test preschoolers. In New York City 3 year olds are tested using 40 of the questions from the Level AOLSAT test. 4 year olds are tested using the entire Level A test which has 60 questions. Younger children do not have to answer as many questions correctly to be identified as gifted. For 1st graders, If you are in New York your child will be taking the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (BSRA) in addition to the OLSAT. The OLSAT is completely different from tests like the SAT® where there is a history of released tests that you can use to prepare. That is why at Another Young Scholar we hand select our NYS Certified Tutors that will come to your home and properly prepare your student for the OLSAT and BSRA exams. 

We have a 96% success rate and we strive to keep it that way.
OLSAT 8 assesses students’ thinking skills and provides an understanding of a student’s relative strengths and weaknesses in performing a variety of reasoning tasks. This information allows educators to design educational programs that will enhance students’ strengths while supporting their learning needs. To learn new things, students must be able to perceive accurately, to recognize and recall what has been perceived, to think logically, to perceive relationships, to abstract from a set of particulars, and to apply a generalization to new and different contexts.  By evaluating a student's performance on a variety of tasks, OLSAT assesses those abilities that are related to success in school. Tasks such as detecting likenesses and differences, recalling words and numbers, defining words, following directions,classifying, establishing sequence, solving arithmetic problems, andcompleting analogies are included in OLSAT since they have been shown to be valid measures of an individual's ability to reason logically. Another Young Scholar Tutoring, has successfully prepared students from Pre-K to 6th grade for the OLSAT exam. 

 General Test Prep Suggestions

• Go to bed early; eat wisely.
• Bring at least two pens to the exam room.
• Bring your favorite good luck charm/jewelry to the exam.
• Once you are in the exam room, arrange things, get comfortable, be relaxed, attend to personal needs (the bathroom).
• Keep your eyes on your own paper; do not let them wander over to anyone else's paper.
• Be polite in making any reasonable requests of the exam room proctor, such as changing your seat or having window shades raised or lowered.
• Take class notes carefully.
• Practice good study habits.
• Know that there are answers for every question.
• Be aware that the people who made up the exam want you to pass.
• Remember that thousands of students over the last few years have taken and passed Regents exams. You can pass too!
• On the night prior to the exam day: lay out all the things you will need, such as clothing, pens, and admission cards.
• Review previous tests.
• Use a clock or watch, and take previous exams at home under examination conditions, (i.e., don't have the radio or television on.)
• Get a review book. (The preferred book is one from Barron's Let's Review series.)
• Talk over the answers to questions on these tests with someone else, such as another student in your class or someone at home.
• Finish all your homework assignments.
• Look over classroom exams that your teacher gave during the term. 

Written in conjunction with Barrons Suggestions