What is the Boehm-3? The Boehm Test of Basic Concepts explained

The Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, Third Edition (Boehm-3) is a school readiness concept screener, and it is neither an IQ test nor a comprehensive language battery. Published by Pearson in 2001 and authored by Dr. Ann E. Boehm of Teachers College, Columbia University, it measures how well young children understand "basic relational concepts," the small but essential words that describe size, direction, position in space, time, and quantity (words such as top, first, more, and under). The test comes in two levels: the Boehm-3 for kindergarten through second grade and the Boehm-3 Preschool for children ages 3 years 0 months through 5 years 11 months. Teachers, speech-language pathologists, and school psychologists use the results to find gaps in concept knowledge and plan instruction, since a child who does not understand words like "before" or "less" will struggle to follow classroom directions.

According to Pearson's technical report, the basic relational concepts defined by the Boehm-3 fall into the categories of size, direction and position in space, time, quantity, classification, and general concepts. These terms sound simple to adults, yet they carry an unusual cognitive load for young children. As Dr. Boehm explains in the publisher's white paper, relational concepts have no constant referent: the tallest animal in one group may be the shortest in another, so a child has to judge each situation fresh rather than memorize a fixed meaning.

The publisher reports that the 50 concepts on the K-2 level are those most frequently used by teachers in kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms, and that they appear throughout print materials and early reading and mathematics curricula. The test samples the vocabulary of classroom instruction itself: children rely on these words to describe objects and quantities, order events, follow directions, and manage routines. In that respect the Boehm-3 covers similar ground to the Bracken School Readiness Assessment, another widely used measure of early concept knowledge.

The two levels of the test share a purpose but differ in format, and the details matter when interpreting a child's results.

• Boehm-3 (kindergarten through grade 2): Pearson describes this level as a group-administered, paper-and-pencil test of 50 basic concepts that takes about 30 to 45 minutes. Each booklet contains 50 pictorial items presented in two halves with practice items and an optional break point. Two "parallel forms," Forms E and F, cover the same 50 concepts using different pictures, which allows fall and spring testing without children simply remembering the items. The publisher notes it can also be given individually as a criterion-referenced measure for older students with special needs.

• Boehm-3 Preschool (ages 3:0 through 5:11): This level is individually administered and takes about 20 to 30 minutes. It covers 26 concepts at each of two age levels (3 years 0 months to 3 years 11 months, and 4 years 0 months to 5 years 11 months). The child responds to spoken instructions by pointing to one of four options on a picture, so no reading, writing, or spoken answer is required. Each concept is assessed twice in different contexts, which lets the examiner classify a concept as one the child knows, one that is emerging, or one that needs development.

The third edition added a fourth answer choice to every item to reduce the chance that guessing inflates scores, along with color illustrations and more diverse people in the artwork.

The Boehm-3 does not produce an IQ score. According to the technical report, results are expressed as four measures: a raw score, a "percent correct" figure, a "performance range," and a "percentile," which indicates the percentage of same-grade or same-age peers a child scored above. The K-2 level provides percentiles and performance ranges for each of grades K, 1, and 2, with separate norms for fall and spring testing so that a kindergartner tested in October is compared against fall kindergartners rather than children with a half year more schooling. The Preschool level reports percentiles in six-month age bands.

The "norms," the reference data a child's score is compared against, come from large standardization studies. Pearson reports that the K-2 edition was standardized on 6,000 students in fall 1999 and more than 4,000 students in spring 2000, sampled across regions, community types, and socioeconomic levels, while the Preschool edition was normed on a nationally representative sample of 660 children in the United States. Reliability figures are respectable for a screener: the publisher reports internal consistency coefficients of .80 to .91 for the K-2 level, .85 to .92 for the Preschool level, and an alternate-forms correlation of .83.

A Spanish edition was developed concurrently rather than translated after the fact, and it carries its own norms based on more than 1,200 Spanish-speaking students in the fall standardization and more than 400 in the spring. Both language editions come in the same kit.

The stated purpose of the test is practical: identify gaps, then teach to them. In the publisher's white paper, Dr. Boehm describes a cycle in which a teacher screens the whole class in the fall, identifies difficult concepts, embeds them into classroom activities, and retests with the alternate form in the spring to measure progress.

• Instructional planning: The Test Summary and Ongoing Observation and Intervention Planning Form summarizes performance concept by concept, so a teacher can see, for example, that half the class missed "before" and plan lessons accordingly.

• Tiered intervention: The publisher maps the test onto all three tiers of "response to intervention," from whole-class instruction to intensive individual support, and notes that results can help identify students who may be at risk for learning difficulty and need referral for further assessment.

• Parent involvement: A Parent Report Form lists the concepts covered, highlights the ones a child needs to learn, and suggests home activities.

• Test interpretation elsewhere: Dr. Boehm makes a point that examiners of any test should appreciate: directions on other assessments are full of basic concepts, so a child who does not understand "same" or "middle" may underperform on tests measuring something else entirely.

Researchers use the instrument as well. A 2024 longitudinal study of preschoolers in the journal Children used a modified Boehm-3, adapted and validated for use in Estonia, to measure conceptual and verbal skills.

The Boehm-3 has earned a long run in schools, and independent reviewers have been fairly consistent about where it shines and where it does not.

• Strengths: The UK National Deaf Children's Society, which profiles assessments for education professionals, describes the Boehm-3 as well standardized and highlights the group administration option and the ability to test concepts twice to confirm understanding. The content is tied directly to classroom language, results translate into teachable objectives rather than abstract scores, and the format demands no reading or expressive language from the child.

• Limitations: The same reviewer notes the very limited age range and cautions that the norms are based on United States data, which calls for care when comparing children elsewhere. The norms also date from 1999 and 2000 and have not been refreshed in a fourth edition. The Spanish norm sample, while a genuine strength, drew mostly from regions with large Spanish-speaking populations rather than the whole country. Above all, the Boehm-3 is a screener with a narrow target: it tells you whether a child knows a specific set of relational words, and nothing about reasoning, memory, or broader intelligence.

• A screener, never a diagnosis: A low Boehm-3 score is a signal to teach the missing concepts and, if concerns persist, to refer the child for a comprehensive evaluation by qualified professionals. It is not evidence of a disability or of low intelligence, and children who simply have not had exposure to these words at home, including children learning English, can score low for reasons that have nothing to do with ability.

The Boehm-3 Preschool covers ages 3 years 0 months through 5 years 11 months, and the Boehm-3 covers kindergarten through second grade. Both levels can also be used as criterion-referenced measures for older children with special needs.

No. It measures knowledge of about 50 (or 26, at the preschool level) relational concept words and reports percentiles and performance ranges, without producing an IQ score or measuring reasoning ability.

Pearson lists 30 to 45 minutes for the K-2 group test and 20 to 30 minutes for the individually administered Preschool level.

Yes. English and Spanish editions come in one kit, and the Spanish edition has its own norms developed with more than 1,200 Spanish-speaking students in the fall standardization.

Pearson lists it at qualification level A, its least restrictive tier, so classroom teachers can administer it as well as speech-language pathologists and school psychologists.

Typically the teacher targets the missed concepts through classroom instruction and home activities, retests with the alternate form later in the year, and refers the child for a fuller evaluation only if difficulties persist across contexts.

Concept knowledge and cognitive ability travel together statistically; Pearson's validity studies found correlations of roughly .58 to .88 between the Boehm-3 and the Metropolitan Achievement Tests. The instruments still answer different questions. A true preschool intelligence test such as the WPPSI samples reasoning, memory, and processing across many task types to estimate general cognitive ability, while the Boehm-3 checks a defined list of teachable words. Schools rarely administer IQ tests at entry, a point covered in our article on whether schools test for IQ; readiness screeners like the Boehm-3 are what most children actually encounter.

For adults curious about the cognitive side of that distinction, the RIOT IQ test (the Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test), developed by RIOT IQ with psychometrician Dr. Russell T. Warne, measures general cognitive ability in people 18 and older through 15 subtests across six indices, including verbal reasoning, fluid reasoning, spatial ability, working memory, processing speed, and reaction time. It takes about 52 minutes and reports scores on the familiar mean-100, standard-deviation-15 IQ scale, though like any online measure it does not replace an individually administered diagnostic evaluation. You can take the RIOT IQ test at riotiq.com.

1. Boehm, A. E. (2001). Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, Third Edition [Product page]. Pearson Assessments. pearsonassessments.com

2. Boehm, A. E. (2001). Boehm-3 Preschool [Product page]. Pearson Clinical Assessment Canada. pearsonclinical.ca

3. Boehm, A. E. (2013). Basic concepts as building blocks to school success: Assessment to intervention using the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Third Edition [White paper]. Pearson. pearsonassessments.com

4. Pearson. (2011). Boehm-3 technical report. Pearson Education. pearsonassessments.com

5. National Deaf Children's Society. (n.d.). Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, Third Edition (Boehm-3). ndcs.org.uk

6. Reisberg, K., Riso, E.-M., Animägi, L., & Jürimäe, J. (2024). Longitudinal associations of body fatness and physical fitness with cognitive skills in preschoolers. Children, 11(5), 548. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Photo: Fanghong, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0