Psychological Testing Library — Singapore

Psychological Testing Library

This is the working list of standardised psychological instruments I use in assessment. The specific battery for any individual depends on the referral question, the person’s age, and what we’re trying to clarify. Not every instrument below is used in every assessment.

If you’re a referring clinician, this page is what you can use to verify the diagnostic toolkit. If you’re an international family validating accommodations with a school overseas, the instruments listed are the ones IB, Cambridge, MOE, and US-curriculum schools recognise. If you’re a parent or self-referring adult who wants to understand what testing involves before booking, the assessment hub walks through the process — this page is the appendix.

Cognitive and intellectual functioning.

Standardised measures of reasoning, processing speed, working memory, and overall intellectual ability.

  • WISC-V — Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition. Ages 6–16. Gold standard for childhood cognitive assessment.
  • WAIS-IV — Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition. Ages 16+. Gold standard for adult cognitive assessment.
  • WPPSI-IV — Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition. Ages 2:6–7:7. Used for preschool and early-primary cognitive profiles.

Academic achievement and learning.

Standardised measures of reading, writing, and mathematics skills, used to identify learning disorders and to map academic strengths and weaknesses.

  • WIAT-III — Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Third Edition. Comprehensive achievement battery commonly paired with WISC-V or WAIS-IV.
  • WJ-IV — Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement. Alternative achievement battery.

Attention and executive function.

Used in ADHD assessment and in evaluations of executive function more broadly.

  • DIVA 5.0 — Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in Adults, fifth edition. Structured interview developed by the European DIVA Foundation; current standard for adult ADHD diagnostic interviewing.
  • CPT-3 — Conners Continuous Performance Test, Third Edition. Computerised attention task. One data source among several; not a standalone diagnostic tool for ADHD.
  • Conners-3 / Conners-4 — Conners Rating Scales for children and adolescents, with parent, teacher, and self-report forms.
  • CAARS — Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scale. Self-report and observer forms.
  • ASRS — Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale, developed by the World Health Organization. The brief version (ASRS v1.1) is on the screening tools page; the full ASRS is used clinically.
  • BRIEF-2 — Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition. Parent, teacher, and self-report forms across the lifespan.

Emotional and behavioural functioning.

Used across clinical assessment to map mood, anxiety, behaviour, and social-emotional functioning.

  • BASC-3 — Behavior Assessment System for Children, Third Edition. Comprehensive parent, teacher, and self-report forms covering emotional and behavioural functioning in children and adolescents.
  • Achenbach (CBCL, TRF, YSR) — the Child Behavior Checklist (parent), Teacher Report Form, and Youth Self-Report. Used widely in research and clinical work, with strong cross-cultural validation.
  • CDI-2 — Children’s Depression Inventory, Second Edition. Self-report depression measure for ages 7–17.
  • MASC-2 — Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, Second Edition. Self-report and parent forms.
  • BDI-II — Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition. Adult self-report depression measure.
  • BAI — Beck Anxiety Inventory. Adult self-report anxiety measure.
  • RCADS — Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale. Used when both anxiety and mood domains need a careful look in children.

Anxiety, OCD, and trauma.

Used in anxiety and OCD assessment and to track treatment response.

  • Y-BOCS / CY-BOCS — Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (adult and children’s versions). Gold standard for OCD severity rating, including the symptom checklist.
  • SCARED — Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders. Available as a screener on the SCARED page; used clinically as part of broader assessment.
  • DASS-21 — Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, 21-item version. DASS-21 screener.
  • GAD-7 — Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale. GAD-7 screener.
  • PHQ-A — Patient Health Questionnaire, adolescent version. PHQ-A screener.
  • SDQ — Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Parent-report and teacher-report versions.

Personality and adaptive functioning.

Used selectively in adult assessments and in cases where adaptive functioning needs to be mapped formally.

  • MMPI-3 — Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Third Edition. Comprehensive adult personality inventory; used when the differential includes personality patterns.
  • PAI — Personality Assessment Inventory. Alternative adult personality measure.
  • Vineland-3 — Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Third Edition. Used when adaptive functioning needs to be measured formally, particularly in autism and intellectual disability assessments.

Autism-specific instruments.

Used when an autism assessment is the primary referral question. I take some autism cases in the practice and refer others — see the clinical fit page for how I think about that.

  • ADOS-2 — Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition. Structured observational assessment; the closest thing to a gold standard in autism diagnostic work.
  • SRS-2 — Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition. Parent and teacher rating scales used alongside direct observation.

How instruments are selected.

The specific battery used in any assessment is determined by the referral question and clinical judgement. Not all instruments are used in every assessment — using more tests is not the same as doing a better assessment. A 30-page report from a 12-instrument battery is not more useful than a 12-page report from the four instruments that actually answered the question.

If you’re a referring clinician and want to discuss instrument selection for a specific case, I’m happy to do that before referral. The refer-a-patient page covers the practical side; for clinical questions, email is usually the fastest path.

Documentation standards.

For school accommodation applications, I write reports in the format the relevant authority requires:

  • MOE mainstream schools — Allied Educator (Learning and Behavioural Support) and Educational Psychologist–readable format.
  • IB schools — IB Inclusive Assessment Arrangements documentation requirements.
  • Cambridge schools — Cambridge Assessment International Education access arrangements documentation.
  • US-curriculum schools — IEP/504-style documentation that translates between US and Singapore systems.

If your child is heading into a major exam (PSLE, O-Level, A-Level, IB, Cambridge), assessment timing matters — accommodation applications take time, and starting earlier gives the widest set of options.

Next steps.