What Is the RIAS Test? The Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales Explained

Each index is an age-corrected standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, the same metric used by nearly every major IQ test. Subtests are reported as T scores, and index scores come with percentile ranks and confidence intervals. If you want a refresher on what those numbers mean in practice, our guide to the Stanford-Binet test covers how standard scores became the industry norm.

The original 2015 norms were built on 2,154 people ages 3 to 94 from 32 states, matched to U.S. Census proportions. PAR has since released a Normative Update (the RIAS-2 NU) that renorms the test on 2,793 cases matched to 2023 Census data, so scores are anchored to a current population. PAR reports internal consistency above .90 for the indexes across age groups, and criterion validity studies showing strong correlations with the WISC-IV, WAIS-IV, and WPPSI.

The obvious comparison is with the Wechsler family, since the WISC dominates school-age testing and the WAIS dominates adult testing. The RIAS-2 competes on two design choices. First, speed: the core battery takes about 20 to 25 minutes, and even all eight subtests fit inside an hour. Second, purity: the core intelligence indexes deliberately exclude timed motor tasks, which the authors argue produces a cleaner estimate of general intelligence for people whose hands are slower than their minds. In the Wechsler full-scale score, processing speed is baked in; in the RIAS-2 it is an optional index reported separately.

One caution: no published correlation links the RIAS-2 to the current Stanford-Binet, so comparisons to that test are about shared structure and scale, and nothing more specific.

• Gifted programs: Its short administration time makes it popular for gifted-and-talented screening and identification in schools.

• Disability eligibility: It supports ability-achievement discrepancy analysis for learning disability evaluations, and its low motor demands suit examinees with physical impairments.

• Clinical practice: The standardization sample included twelve clinical groups, among them stroke, dementia, traumatic brain injury, ADHD, and hearing impairment, and the test spans the lifespan to age 94.

There is also a companion screener, the RIST-2, which estimates general ability from two subtests in under 15 minutes, filling the same brief-test role as the KBIT.

Not on your own. The RIAS-2 is a qualification level C instrument, which means only appropriately credentialed professionals can purchase and administer it, and scoring for the current edition runs through PAR's digital platform. If you simply want a rigorous measure of your own reasoning ability without booking a clinical appointment, you can take the RIOT IQ test, the Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test, which was built by psychometricians and normed on the same 100-point scale.

Yes. It is an individually administered, professionally normed intelligence test whose Composite Intelligence Index estimates general intelligence on the standard IQ scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

The core intelligence battery takes about 20 to 25 minutes. Adding the memory and speeded processing subtests still keeps the full eight-subtest battery under an hour.

Ages 3 through 94, one of the widest ranges of any individually administered intelligence test.

Scores follow the normal curve: about two thirds of people land between 85 and 115, and roughly 130 or above is the threshold many gifted programs use.

PAR reports strong correlations between RIAS-2 indexes and the WISC-IV and WAIS-IV. The Wechsler tests sample a broader set of abilities; the RIAS-2 trades that breadth for speed and lower motor demands.

1. McNicholas, P. J., & Floyd, R. G. (2017). A review of the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, Second Edition, and Reynolds Intellectual Screening Test, Second Edition. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 32(2), 176-180. doi.org/10.1177/0829573516673458

2. McCaffrey, R. J. (2016). A scientist/practitioner's perspective of the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, Second Edition. Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology, 2(3-4), 129-130. doi.org/10.1007/s40817-016-0016-x

3. Farmer, R. L., & Kim, S. Y. (2020). Difference score reliabilities within the RIAS-2 and WISC-V. Psychology in the Schools, 57(8), 1273-1288. doi.org/10.1002/pits.22369

4. Reynolds, C. R., & Kamphaus, R. W. (2015). Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, Second Edition (RIAS-2). PAR. parinc.com