Woodcock-Johnson and WIAT
Woodcock-Johnson Tests and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test
The Woodcock-Johnson and the WIAT are achievement tests: they measure what a child can do in reading, writing, math and oral language right now. Psychologists often give one beside an IQ test, to see whether a child's schoolwork matches their ability, or to look for a learning difficulty such as dyslexia.
The Woodcock-Johnson also has a separate set of thinking-skills tests, so some psychologists use it as both the ability test and the achievement test. Both tests are revised every so often, so ask which edition your child will take.
- Ages
- Early childhood to adult (WIAT: 4 to 50)
- How it is given
- One-to-one with a psychologist or educational specialist
- How long
- Depends on how many parts are chosen; often one to two hours
What it measures
- Reading: sounding out words, reading fluently and understanding passages
- Writing: spelling, sentences and short written answers
- Math: calculation, math facts and word problems
- Oral language: listening and explaining (Woodcock-Johnson, WIAT)
- Thinking skills (Woodcock-Johnson cognitive tests): reasoning, memory and speed
What you can do
- This is the one kind of test where ordinary school practice is exactly right: read every day, write a little, and keep math facts fresh.
- Tell your child some questions are for much older students and the examiner will stop when things get hard.
- Bring glasses or hearing aids if your child uses them, and say if your child has had a recent illness or a bad week at school.
Practice for the same skills
None of these is the Woodcock-Johnson and WIAT. Each one builds a general skill it draws on, in a short, friendly format your child can try at home.
- MAP Growth-style practiceMath, reading and language by grade, adapting to each answer: school skills, not puzzles.Try it
- Iowa-style practiceReading, vocabulary, writing and math at Grades 3 to 8: a broad check of school skills.Try it
- Word analogies lessonHow word pairs relate, step by step: a free lesson that builds vocabulary and verbal reasoning.Try it
- CogAT practiceVerbal, number and picture reasoning in three parts. Up to Grade 2, every question is a picture and is read aloud.Try it
Practice the skills, not the test
These tests are given in person by a trained examiner, and their questions are kept private: publishers do not sell them to families, and nobody can lawfully offer the real items. Nothing on this site is taken from them.
Drilling a child on copies of the questions would not help either. A result is only meaningful if the questions are new to your child, so a rehearsed score can place them in a program that does not fit, and a psychologist may set it aside.
Other tests
- WISC-V
- WPPSI
- Stanford-Binet 5
- KABC-II
- KBIT-2
- RIAS-2
- WASI-II
- Bracken (BSRA)
- SAGES-3
- Raven's
- Spatial Test Battery
- Torrance and CAP
Test names belong to their publishers and to the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Scholar Tests is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, and nothing on these pages is taken from a test. Ages and times are the publishers' published ranges; editions change, so check the details with the person giving the test.