Iowa Test of Basic Skills

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills test essential academic skills. The test is given grades k-8. The reading, language, and mathematics tests are given in fourth, sixth, and eight grades. Those three areas plus social studies, science, and sources of information are tested in third, fifth, and seventh grades. The reading portion of the ITBS includes two sections: vocabulary and comprehension. The vocabulary portion of the reading test requires the student to read a target word and match it with a word which has similar meaning. The reading comprehension test includes factual, inferential, and evaluative levels. Factual test questions ask the student to identify main ideas presented in the written material. The inferential meaning includes processes like deducing, concluding, predicting, hypothesizing, estimating and applying. The evaluative level requires the reader to analytical skills and to synthesize information to form judgments regarding the main idea, paragraph purpose, the author’s point of view, the author’s purpose, and style. The whole reading portion of the ITBS requires forty-five minutes for the reading comprehension section and thirty minutes for the vocabulary portion. The language arts is divided into four subcategories: spelling (12 min.), capitalization (12 min.), punctuation (12 min.), usage and expression (24 min.). The math portion of ITBS involves five sub-tests. They are as follows: math concepts (30 min.), problems and data interpretation (30 min.), math computation (20 min.), estimation, and problem solving. The social studies portion has three sections: science (30 min.), reference materials (25 min.), and maps/diagrams (30 min.).