Critical Thinking Tests

Developing critical thinking is one of the main goals of most educational institutions around the world. But testing critical thinking is a significant challenge especially if we consider the debate that is still ongoing around the issue of what is critical thinking.

As such, the list below presents an inventory of the current critical thinking tests (in English) used around the world by educational institutions or businesses.

The list is organized in an alphabetical order by the organization owning it, as some tests are owned by the same institution and are in this way displayed together.

CRITICAL THINKING TESTS DETAILS

Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) Oxford

First created in: 1996

Created by: Alec Fisher

Owned/ Used by: Cambridge Assessment

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•currently used for entry to a wide range of undergraduate courses, including Economics, Engineering, Politics, and Psychology

Test Details:

2 Sections:

90 minute 50 multiple choice items:

•numerical and spatial reasoning

•understanding arguments

•reasoning using everyday language

Candidates must answer one essay question from a choice of four. Skills evaluated:

•ability to organise ideas in a clear and concise manner

•communicate ideas effectively in writing

More information here.

Preparation resources:

Resource 1

Resource 2

Resource 3

Critical Thinking Assessment Test

Owned/ Used by: Center for Assessment and Improvement of Learning

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•no specific target

Test Details:

1 hour essay

•targets the elements from Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation and synthesis

•evaluation of information (facts vs inferences, numerical relationships in graphs, limits of correlational data, evidence evaluation, incorrect conclusions)

•critical thinking (alternative data interpretation, finding new information that supports or contradicts a given hypothesis, describe how new information can change a problem)

•problem solving (relevant vs irrelevant information, information integration for problem solving, learning and application of new information, usage of math to solve real world problems) 

•effective communication of ideas

More information here.

CEU Lopez Critical Thinking Test

Created by: Marcos Y. Lopez

Owned/ Used by: Centro Escolar University, Philippines

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•students in tertiary level

Test Details:

87 multiple choice items which can be taken between 90 and 120 minutes:

•deduction

•induction

•assumption identification

•meanings and fallacies

•credibility/ observation judgment

More information here.

Assessment of Reasoning and Communication

Owned/ Used by: College Outcome Measures Program, The American College Testing Program (ACT)

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•students finishing college

Test Details:

32 Item, 40 minute multiple choice consisting of:

•clarifying arguments

•analysing arguments

•extending arguments

Includes 4 passages that are representative of the kinds of issues encountered in a post secondary curriculum. Each passage presents one or more arguments in a variety of formats, including case studies, debates, dialogues, overlapping positions, statistical arguments, experimental results or editorial.

Test participants will be required to:

•identify conclusions, inconsistencies and loose implications

•judge direction of support, strength of reasons and representativeness of data

•make predictions

•notice alternatives

•hypothesize about what a person thinks.

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

ACT Science Reasoning

Owned/ Used by: College Outcome Measures Program, The American College Testing Program (ACT)

Test Type: Subject Specific, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•students finishing college

Test Details:

40 multiple-choice items, 35 minutes

Natural science content

Includes reading graphs, interpreting data on tables, diagrams, figures and scatterplots

Pre-requisite: familiarity with scientific vocabulary and concepts

•reading with comprehension

•identifying conclusions

•interpreting data

•evaluating experiments

•drawing probably conclusions from data

•hypothesizing best explanations

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

Cornell Class Reasoning Test

Created by: Robert H. Ennis, William L. Gardiner, Richard Morrow, Dieter Paulus, Lucille Ringel

Owned/ Used by: Cornell University

Test Type: General Content, Aspect Specific

Test Target:

•grades 4-14

•developed for research purposes, but usable in standard classrooms

Test Details:

Offered free of charge

Multiple choice

•assesses a variety of forms of (deductive) class reasoning (the elementary predicate calculus without material implication and its associated concepts

More information here.

Cornell Conditioning Reasoning Test

Created by: Robert H. Ennis, William L. Gardiner, Richard Morrow, Dieter Paulus, Lucille Ringel

Owned/ Used by: Cornell University

Test Type: General Content, Aspect Specific

Test Target:

•grades 4-14

•developed for research purposes, but usable in standard classrooms

Test Details:

Offered free of charge

Multiple choice

•assesses a variety of forms of (deductive) class reasoning (the elementary predicate calculus without material implication and its associated concepts

More information here.

Ennis Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test

Created by: Robert H. Ennis and Eric Weir

Owned/ Used by: Critical Thinking Press and Software

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•7th grade through college students

Test Details:

Offered free of charge

Constructed-response test:

•getting the point

•identifying reasons and assumptions

•stating one’s point

•offering good reasons

•seeing other possibilities(including other possible explanations)

•responding to and avoiding equivocation

•irrelevance

•circularity

•reversal of “if-then” conditional relationship

•overgeneralization

•credibility

•emotive language used for persuasion

More information here and here.

ETS Proficiency Profile

Owned/ Used by: Educational Testing Service

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•college students

Test Details:

Assesses four core skill areas — reading, writing, mathematics and critical thinking for students of humanities, natural sciences and social sciences.

The critical thinking section is a 2 hour or 40 minute multiple choice based on a non-fiction excerpt:

•distinguish between rhetoric and argumentation

•recognize assumptions

•recognize best hypothesis to account for information presented

•infer and interpret relationship between variables

•draw conclusions

More information here.

Online Critical Thinking Basic Concepts Test

Created by: Linda Elder, Richard Paul, Rush Cosgrove

Owned/ Used by: Foundation for Critical Thinking

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•high school

•college

•university

•graduate

Test Details:

3 part, 100 item, multi-choice test, duration- 45 minutes:

•The analysis of thought

•The assessment of thought

•The dispositions of thought

•The skills and abilities of thought

•The obstacles or barriers to critical thought

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

International Critical Thinking Essay Test

Owned/ Used by: Foundation for Critical Thinking

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•high school

•college

Test Details:

Essay writing on a given theme

Each student exam must be graded individually by a person competent to assess the critical thinking of the test taker and trained in the grading called for in this examination. In evaluating student exams the grader is attempting to answer two questions:

•Did the student clearly understand the key components in the thinking of the author, as exhibited in the writing sample? (Identifying Purpose, Question at Issue, Information, Conclusions, Assumptions, Concepts, Implications, Point of View) .

•Was the student able to effectively evaluate the reasoning, as appropriate, in the original text and present his/her assessment effectively? (Pointing out strengths and possible limitations and/or weaknesses of the reasoning in the writing sample).

Grading done by checking the understanding and correct inclusion of the following elements:

•Question

•Purpose

•Information

•Ideas (concepts)

•Assumptions

•Conclusions

•Point of View

•Implications

More information here.

The California Critical Thinking Skills Test: College Level

First created in: 1990

Created by: Peter Facione

Owned/ Used by: Insight Assessment

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•college students

Test Details:

35 item, multiple choice:

•Overall reasoning skills

•Analysis

•Interpretation

•Evaluation

•Explanation

•Inference

•Deduction

•Induction

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

The California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory

First created in: 1992

Created by: Peter Facione

Owned/ Used by: Insight Assessment

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•college students

•self evaluation

•research and evaluation of groups

Test Details:

Multiple choice:

•Critical thinking dispositions:

    Truth-seeking

    Open-mindedness

    Analyticity

    Systematicity

    Confidence in Reasoning

    Inquisitiveness

    Maturity of Judgment

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

Health Science Reasoning Package

Owned/ Used by: Insight Assessment

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•trainees in undergraduate and graduate health science educational programs

Test Details:

Measures both skills and dispositions:

Skills:

    Analysis

    Interpretation

    Inference

    Evaluation

    Explanation

    Induction

    Deduction

    Numeracy

Dispositions:

    the disposition toward truth-seeking or bias,

    the disposition toward open-mindedness or intolerance,

    the disposition toward anticipating possible consequences or being heedless of them,

    the disposition toward proceeding in a systematic or unsystematic way,

    the disposition toward being confident in the powers of reasoning or mistrustful of thinking,

    the disposition toward being inquisitive or resistant to learning

    the disposition toward mature and nuanced judgment or toward rigid simplistic thinking.

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

Business Critical Thinking Skills Package

Owned/ Used by: Insight Assessment

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•college and graduate level students

Test Details:

Measures both skills and dispositions:

Skills:

    Analysis

    Evaluation

    Inference

    Deduction

    Induction

    Numeracy

    Overall Reasoning

Dispositions:

    the disposition toward truth-seeking or bias,

    the disposition toward open-mindedness or intolerance,

    the disposition toward anticipating possible consequences or being heedless of them,

    the disposition toward proceeding in a systematic or unsystematic way,

    the disposition toward being confident in the powers of reasoning or mistrustful of thinking,

    the disposition toward being inquisitive or resistant to learning

    the disposition toward mature and nuanced judgment or toward rigid simplistic thinking.

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

Everyday Reasoning Package

Owned/ Used by: Insight Assessment

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•high-school students

•community college

•first two years of post- secondary education

Test Details:

2 assessment tools

•the Test of Everyday Reasoning (TER) 35 multiple-choice items, 50 minutes:

    Overall Reasoning Skills

    Analysis

    Interpretation

    Inference

    Evaluation

    Explanation

    Induction

    Deduction

    Numeracy

•the California Measure of Mental Motivation (CM3, Level III)

    Mental Focus

    Learning Orientation

    Creative Problem Solving

    Cognitive Integrity

    Scholarly Rigor

    Technological Orientation.

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric

Created by: Peter Facione and Noreen Facione

Owned/ Used by: Insight Assessment

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•no specific target

Test Details:

Offered free of charge

Rates critical thinking within:

•presentations

•reports

•essays

•projects

•classroom discussions

•panel presentations

•portfolios

•other ratable events or performances

More information here.

Quantitative Reasoning Skills Package

Owned/ Used by: Insight Assessment

Test Type: Subject Specific, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•for students with strength in math and science

•used in colleges and universities as well as in selective college preparatory schools

Test Details:

Measures both skills and dispositions

Skills Assessed by Quant Q (quantitative reasoning integrated with critical thinking)

28 items, 50 minutes:

    Pattern Recognition

    Probability Combinatorics

    Out-of-the-Box Algebra

    Geometry and Optimization

    Quant Q Overall

Dispositions assessed by CCTDI

30 minutes:

    the disposition toward truth-seeking or bias

    the disposition toward open-mindedness or intolerance

    the disposition toward anticipating possible consequences or being heedless of them

    the disposition toward proceeding in a systematic or unsystematic way

    the disposition toward being confident in the powers of reasoning or mistrustful of thinking

    the disposition toward being inquisitive or resistant to learning

    the disposition toward mature and nuanced judgment or toward rigid simplistic thinking

More information here.

Illinois Critical Thinking Essay Test

Created by: Marguerite Finken and Robert H. Ennis

Owned/ Used by: Marguerite Finken and Robert H. Ennis

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•high school students, but can be used above and below this level

Test Details:

Offered free of charge

The test guides the participant through:

•evaluating focus

•supporting reasons

•reasoning

•organization

•argumentative essay

More information here.

OCR AS/A Level GCE Critical Thinking- H052

Owned/ Used by: Oxford, Cambridge and RSA

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•Heads of departments and teachers involved in teaching critical thinking

Test Details:

Requirement for qualification of candidates that completed the first year of study of the GCE course

2* 90 minute units:

•introduction to critical thinking (language of reasoning and credibility)

•assessing and developing an argument (writing arguments in response to given material and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of an argument)

More information here.

OCR AS/A Level GCE Critical Thinking- H452

Owned/ Used by: Oxford, Cambridge and RSA

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•Heads of departments and teachers involved in teaching critical thinking

Test Details:

Requirement for qualification of candidates that completed the second year of study of the GCE course

4* 90 minute units:

•introduction to critical thinking (language of reasoning and credibility)

•assessing and developing an argument (writing arguments in response to given material and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of an argument)

•ethical reasoning and decision making (analysis and evaluation of conflicting ideas and arguments from a range of source material)

•critical reasoning (including analysis and evaluation of materials and typical arguments found in newspapers, journals, books, magazines)

More information here.

Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal

Created by: Goodwin Watson and Edward Maynard Glaser

Owned/ Used by: Pearson

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

Multiple choice

2 formats: standard- 40-60 minutes; short- 30-45 minutes

RED model (recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments, draw conclusions)

•Drawing inferences: Rating the probability of the truth of inferences based on the information given.

•Recognising assumptions: Identifying unstated assumptions or presuppositions underlying given statements.

•Deducing: Determining whether conclusions follow logically from given information.

•Interpreting: Weighing the evidence and deciding if generalizations or conclusions based on data are warranted.

•Evaluating arguments: Evaluating the strength and relevance of arguments with respect to a particular question or issue.

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

Watson-Glaser II Critical Thinking Appraisal

Owned/ Used by: Pearson

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•professionals (both executives and individual contributors)

•college undergraduate

•graduate students

Test Details:

Multiple choice

40 items, 35 minutes

RED model (recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments, draw conclusions)

•Drawing inferences: Rating the probability of the truth of inferences based on the information given.

•Recognising assumptions: Identifying unstated assumptions or presuppositions underlying given statements.

•Deducing: Determining whether conclusions follow logically from given information.

•Interpreting: Weighing the evidence and deciding if generalizations or conclusions based on data are warranted.

•Evaluating arguments: Evaluating the strength and relevance of arguments with respect to a particular question or issue.

More contemporary and business-relevant items than the Watson-Glaser I, higher proportion of difficult items

•Classifies individuals as low, average and high

•Suggests critical thinking based job behaviours

•Separates the “bright ” from the “exceptional”

More information here.

Watson-Glaser III Critical Thinking Appraisal

Owned/ Used by: Pearson

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•professionals (both executives and individual contributors)

•college undergraduate

•graduate students

Test Details:

Multiple choice

40 items, 30 minutes

Large item bank of business-relevant items suitable for international use

Questions are randomly selected from a large pool, making it unlikely that two individuals receive the same test

RED model (recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments, draw conclusions)

•Drawing inferences: Rating the probability of the truth of inferences based on the information given.

•Recognising assumptions: Identifying unstated assumptions or presuppositions underlying given statements.

•Deducing: Determining whether conclusions follow logically from given information.

•Interpreting: Weighing the evidence and deciding if generalizations or conclusions based on data are warranted.

•Evaluating arguments: Evaluating the strength and relevance of arguments with respect to a particular question or issue.

More information here.

Test of Problem Solving 2: Adolescent (TOPS-2:A)

Created by: Linda Bowers, Rosemary Huisignh, Carolyn LoGiudice

Owned/ Used by: PRO-ED, Inc.

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•grades 7-12

Test Details:

40 minutes, 5 subtests (18 written passages)

Serves as basis for an effective therapy program (assessment used for troubled teens)

•Subtest A: Making Inferences

•Subtest B: Determining Solutions

•Subtest C: Problem Solving

•Subtest D: Interpreting Perspectives

•Subtest E: Transferring Insights

Focused on the following cognitive processes:

•understanding/comprehension

•analysis

•interpretation

•self-regulation

•evaluation

•explanation

•inference/insight

•decision-making

•intent/purpose

•problem solving

•acknowledgment

More information here.

Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (HCTA)

Created by: Diane Halpern

Owned/ Used by: Schuhfried Publishing

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•ages 15 through adulthood

•education

•business

•military

Test Details:

4 test formats with a duration between 15 and 50 minutes

20 everyday scenarios. For each scenario, respondents have to first

provide brief constructed responses and then select answers from a list of possible forced choice options.

Both open ended and forced choice questions

The test assesses the five dimension of critical thinking:

•verbal reasoning (recognizing the use of persuasive or misleading language)

•argument analysis (reasons, assumptions and conclusions)

•thinking as hypothesis testing (sample size, generalizations)

•likelihood and uncertainty (applying relevant principles of probability such as base rates)

•decision making and problem solving (identifying the problem goal, generating and selecting solutions among alternatives)

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

The Smith-Sturgeon Conditional Reasoning Test

Created by: Edward Smith and Joanne Sturgeon

Owned/ Used by: State University of New York

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•deductive logic competence of children in grades 1-3

Test Details:

Offered free of charge

•conditional logic ability

•verbal intelligence

More information here.

Texas Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills

Owned/ Used by: The College of Business Administration

Test Type: Subject Specific, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•business students

•business workforce

Test Details:

Multiple choice, 45 minutes:

•applying the rules of probability calculus

•interpreting what inferences can be made from quantitative information presented in a chart or diagram

•distinguishing data showing a correlation from information needed to establish a cause and effect relation

•recognizing the logical components involved in the process of hypothesis testing

•determining logically possible combinations given a set of constraints

•recognizing argument structure and being able to use appropriate concepts such as premise, conclusion, and intermediate conclusions to identify the parts

•distinguishing a successful paraphrase from an idea that does not say the same thing

•identifying an essential unstated premise or conclusion of an argument

•evaluating how strongly a particular set of premises supports a specific conclusion

•evaluating the degree of relevance of particular pieces of evidence to determine the truth or falsity of a conclusion

•evaluating the degree of relevance of particular criticisms to the validity or invalidity of an argument

More information here and here.

Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+)

Owned/ Used by: The Council for Aid to Education (CAE)

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•college students

Test Details:

2 parts, 90 minutes:

•problem and associated documents provided to which a written response containing reasons and consideration of alternatives must be provided

•multiple choice

Evaluating:

•critical thinking

•analytic reasoning and evaluation

•problem solving

•written communication

More information here.

College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA+)

Owned/ Used by: The Council for Aid to Education (CAE)

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•grades 6-12

Test Details:

2 parts, 90 minutes:

•essay

•multiple choice

Evaluating:

•critical thinking

•analytic reasoning and evaluation

•problem solving

•written communication

More information here.

Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X

First created in: 2005

Created by: Robert H. Ennis and Jason Millman

Owned/ Used by: The Critical Thinking Company

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•grades 7-12

Test Details:

50 minute- can be administered timed or untimed

Multiple choice:

•induction

•credibility of sources

•observation

•deduction

•assumption identification

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z

First created in: 2005

Created by: Robert H. Ennis and Jason Millman

Owned/ Used by: The Critical Thinking Company

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•college students

•graduate students

•adults

Test Details:

50 minute- can be administered timed or untimed

Multiple choice:

•induction

•credibility of sources

•prediction and experimental planning

•fallacies (equivocation)

•deduction

•definition

•assumption identification

•prediction in planning experiments

More information here.

Preparation resources here.

James Madison Critical Thinking Test

Owned/ Used by: The Critical Thinking Company

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•Grade 7 through College

Test Details:

50 item, 50 minute test, assessing more than 65 critical thinking skills and concepts, including:

•Evaluating whether an inductive argument is strong or weak

•Assessing the relevance of claims to other claims and to questions, descriptions, representations, procedures, information etc.

•Identifying and avoiding errors in reasoning

•Informal fallacies (begging the question, equivocations, post hoc, ergo propter hoc, false dilemma/ false dichotomy fallacy, smoke screen/ red herring/ rationalizing, hasty generalization, appeal to ridicule/ sarcasm, ad hominem, appeal to illegitimate authority, loaded question, evidence surrogate, stereotyping, appeal to consequences, “wishful thinking”, genetic fallacy, biased generalization, anecdotal evidence

More information here.

Test of Inference Ability in Reading Comprehension

Created by: Linda M. Phillips and Cynthia Patterson

Owned/ Used by: University of Alberta

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•grades 6-8

Test Details:

Multiple choice version and constructed response version

•ability to infer information and interpretations from short passages

More information here and here.

Test on Appraising Observations

Created by: Stephen P. Norris, Ruth King

Owned/ Used by: University of Alberta

Test Type: General Content, Aspect-Specific

Test Target:

•grades 7-14

Test Details:

Multiple choice and constructed response versions

•ability to judge the credibility of statements of observation

More information here and here.

Test of Problem Solving 3:Elementary (TOPS-3:E)

Created by: Linda Bowers, Rosemary Huisignh, Carolyn LoGiudice

Owned/ Used by: WPS

Test Type: General Content, Multi Aspect

Test Target:

•grades 1-7

Test Details:

35 minutes, 6 subtests, students are presented full-colour photos from a Picture Stimuli Book, presenting situations; students are required to offer verbal responses

Used to assess pragmatic competence

•Subtest A: Making Inferences

•Subtest B: Sequencing

•Subtest C: Negative Questions

•Subtest D: Problem Solving

•Subtest E: Predicting

•Subtest F: Determining Causes

More information here.

References: