The Oral Score Level is a criterion-referenced score. The test items are organized into sets (A–F), from simple to complex, that represent skills typical for language learners at different proficiency levels. Each student's Oral Score Level indicates the highest difficulty level on the test that the student performed on successfully. You can see the skills coverage of the IPT Oral test levels by looking at the columns of the Content of Test Items Chart in Appendix C of the Examiner’s Manual.

The Oral Designation categories are called Non-English Speaking (NES), Limited English Speaking (LES), and Fluent English Speaking (FES) for the English tests and Non-Spanish Speaking (NSS), Limited Spanish Speaking (LSS), and Fluent Spanish Speaking (FSS) for the Spanish tests. Although referenced to the level of language skills shown on the test, the designation categories are norm-referenced and grade specific in the sense that as students advance in grade, more language skills are expected of them to achieve a Limited or a Fluent designation than from students in lower grades.

The IPT Oral Proficiency Levels are Beginning, Early Intermediate, Intermediate, Early Advanced, and Advanced, and they correspond to the proficiency levels used in Ballard & Tighe’s instructional product lines. These score categories were developed to provide greater detail on the student’s oral proficiency within the “Limited” designation: The Beginning level corresponds to the Non-designation category, the Early Intermediate, Intermediate, and Early Advanced levels correspond to the Limited designation, and the Advanced level corresponds to the Fluent designation. Similarly to the designation categories, the proficiency levels are both criterion- and norm-referenced and grade-specific.

The Raw Score is the number of items the student answered correctly during the test administration. If any test levels are not administered because the rules for test starting level were applied, all items in the early test levels are assumed to be answered correctly. If any test levels are not administered as a result of applying the stopping rules in the course of the test, the items in the test levels above the one where testing was stopped are assumed to be answered incorrectly.

The scaled score is a translation of a student’s raw score onto a common scale that has the same meaning for all the IPT Oral tests for each test language. A common scale is useful for making comparisons across different forms and levels. Once a raw score has been converted to a scaled score, it may be compared to scaled scores from a different form (for example, a scaled score from IPT I Oral English Form G may be compared to a scaled score on Form H). Additionally, a scaled score may be compared to scaled scores from other levels for that test language, such that changes in performance can be studied across time. The scaled scores are on a continuous vertical scale that links together the IPT Oral Tests (Pre, I, and II) in each test language and allows growth to be determined across levels. The scaled scores were derived using Rasch models. The forms were equated using equipercentile equating, where percentiles were compared for participants taking the same test levels. The scale was linked using the median Rasch scores of same-age students taking two different tests. Scaled scores are useful for tracking student progress via score gains.

The Percentile Rank ranges from 0 to 100, with 50 indicating median (average) performance for grade-specific groups of students in the norming sample. Raw scores below the lowest observed score in the sample have a percentile of 0, while raw scores above the highest observed score in the sample have a percentile of 100. For example, if a student who is tested in 7th grade achieves a percentile score of 50, it means that 50% of the students in the grades 6–8 norming sample scored at or below that score. The decision to group students from grades 6, 7, and 8 together in the norming analyses was based on the similarity of the score distributions for these students’ scores compared with students from grades 9-12. Percentiles must be interpreted relative to the group from which they were derived, i.e., the norming subsample.

NCE stands for Normal Curve Equivalent score. This score is derived from percentile ranks and is typically used for research. The NCE scale, like percentiles, ranges from 0 to 100, and it has a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 21.06. Unlike percentiles, NCEs represent an equal interval scale and should be used instead of percentiles when averaging scores or computing gains over time within a single IPT Oral test level, e.g. the IPT II–Oral.