The WRAT5 provides two equivalent forms (Blue and Green), which enables retesting within short periods of time without potential practice effects that occur from repeating the same items.
[2] The test series was first published in 1946 and has historically been used in a variety of settings as a measure of the basic academic skills necessary for effective learning, communication, and thinking.
An overall composite score for reading was added with the 4th edition (WRAT4) in 2006; the WRAT5 update in 2017 included refinements to the Math Computation and Sentence Comprehension subtests, while maintaining the same overall structure of the assessment.
According to the manual, no attempt was made to make the sample representative of national characteristics.
Recommended uses for the test described in the manual include comparing achievement of one person to another, determining learning ability or learning disability, comparing codes with comprehension in order to prescribe remedial programs, and informally assessing error patterns to plan instructional programs.