Does Roxbury Latin give an IQ exam to applicants?

Answer 1

They don't give an IQ test per se, but their catalogue states that during the required admissions visit, "a member of the Admission Committee interviews the applicant and his parents separately, a student gives them a tour, and the applicant takes a short appitude test." The appitude test is a version of the Otis-Lennon (OLSAT), which is essentially a group (as opposed to individually) administered IQ test. The test has a mean of 100 and a ceiling of 150, like most IQ tests. The test is not very sensitive in discriminating among the highly gifted (which would characterize most boys who attend Roxbury Latin), so I imagine they just use it as a screening device to confirm the applicant falls in the gifted range. Keep in mind that most boys accepted by Roxbury Latin score around the 99th percentile on the ISEE (another test required for admission), which is normed on the population of students applying to private schools (a more select sample than the general school population on which the OLSAT is normed). So taking the OLSAT is probably the easiest step in applying to Roxbury Latin for those boys who ultimately gain admission. Roxbury Latin also, I believe, requires applicants and their schools to reports the results of all standardized tests and IQ exams (i.e., the WISC or Stanford-Binet) that applicants may have taken in recent years. Keep in mind that assessments like these only play a role--and certainly not the most important one--in determining who gets in. They really do care About a Boy's character. A genius who's a complete jerk or misfit isn't any more likely to be accepted by Roxbury Latin than he is by Harvard a few years down the road. Most boys who apply to Roxbury Latin find the OLSAT incredibly easy, so it's nothing to be concerned about. Besides, there's no specific way to prepare for it.