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Exams
The Tests
Discover the range of tests we offer, designed to assess different skill sets and academic levels.
Our tests include the SCAT (School and College Ability Test) and STB (Spatial Test Battery) tailored to measure students’ verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning abilities.
In order for students to be eligible to participate in the CTY Greece Programs, they need to pass the Center’s exams that take place every year in different cities around Greece and Cyprus. CTY Greece uses two tests, developed and scored by the Center for Talented Youth of Johns Hopkins University: the School and College Ability Test (SCAT) for 2nd – 9th Grade students and the Spatial Test Battery (STB) for 6th – 9th grade students. These tests measure verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning abilities and are available in Greek and English (for students taught in English and attending international schools in Greece and Cyprus). For foreign students, this qualification can be acquired through the CTY JHU Center.
No preparation is needed for these tests. Each student can take either or both tests, but only once per academic year for the SCAT and only once overall for the STB.
SCAT (The School and College Ability Test)
The SCAT is designed for students in grades 2 through 9 and is divided into three levels:
- Elementary (Grades 2-3)
- Intermediate (Grades 4-5)
- Advanced (Grades 6-9)
The SCAT consists of two sections:
- Verbal: 50 questions, 20 minutes (22 minutes for Elementary Level)
- Quantitative: 50 questions, 20 minutes (22 minutes for Elementary Level)
The Verbal section measures a student’s understanding of the meaning of words and verbal reasoning ability through multiple-choice analogies. The Quantitative section assesses a student’s understanding of fundamental number operations through multiple-choice comparisons, measuring mathematical reasoning ability without requiring computation.
The entire testing process takes approximately 60 minutes from start to finish, including time for distributing and collecting test materials, reading instructions, and providing clarifications.
STB (Spatial Test Battery)
The STB is an alternative for students in grades 6-9 who wish to enroll in a CTY Greece math or science course. It is not applicable for students intending to enroll in humanities courses. For students that take both the SCAT and STB tests, their highest score between the SCAT Quantitative section and the STB test will be taken into account. The STB assesses spatial reasoning abilities through four sections:
- Visual Memory Learning – Memorization: 20 shapes to memorize, 8 minutes
- Surface Development: 35 questions, 14 minutes • Block Rotations: 24 questions, 15 minutes
- Visual Memory Learning – Recall: 20 questions, 8 minutes
The Visual Memory Learning section is split into two phases: memorization and recall. Surface Development assesses two- and three-dimensional reasoning by asking students to identify which shapes can be folded into a box. Block Rotation evaluates three-dimensional rotational reasoning by asking students to mentally rotate shapes and find matching ones. The recall phase requires students to identify shapes by their contours and interiors.
The total testing process takes approximately 75 minutes, including time for distributing and collecting test materials, reading instructions, and answering questions.
For more detailed information and sample questions, students and parents can download the following resources:
- SCAT Elementary Sample Test (Grades 2-3)
- SCAT Intermediate Sample Test (Grades 4-5)
- SCAT Advanced Sample Test (Grades 6-9)
- STB Sample Test (Grades 6-9)
What is above-grade-level testing
Above-grade-level testing is what makes CTY’s Talent Search and testing different from the testing that students usually encounter. Typically, students take a test designed for their age or grade. This is true even for admission into a school’s gifted and talented program.
Above-grade-level testing is useful for these reasons:
Very bright students often perform at the top percentiles on grade-level tests. When students score at the top percentiles, the tests may be imprecise measures of true ability. Why? Βecause students with these scores have “hit the ceiling” of the test. The test cannot discern if the student has reached their level of ability, or if they could correctly answer even more difficult questions.
When students at the top percentiles take an above-grade-level test, the resulting scores spread out into an (approximately) normal distribution. In other words, a curve develops, with most students performing at the middle, and fewer at the low and high ends. This result highlights that students who originally scored at the top percentiles on grade-level tests were not all the same with respect to their abilities (or their academic needs).
Good standardized test scores are objective measures of a child’s ability. They are not influenced by a teacher’s individual perception of a student, the “good student” bias, or parental aspirations for their child. With respect to above-grade-level tests, research done by CTY shows that strong scores on such tests are highly predictive of a student’s ability to succeed in advanced-level courses.
By Carol Mills, Ph.D., Director of Research for the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins
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