Short Blessed Test (SBT)
What It Measures
The Short Blessed Test is a six-question cognitive screen that takes a few minutes and needs nothing but a copy of the form. It asks the year, the month, and the approximate time; gives a name and address to remember; asks the person to count backwards from twenty and recite the months in reverse; then asks for the name and address back.
What makes it different from a simple error count is the weighting. Getting the year wrong counts four times; missing part of the memory phrase counts twice per error. That weighting reflects how much each mistake actually signals, and it means the total runs 0 to 28 rather than 0 to 6.
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: Copyright is held by the American Psychiatric Association, and at least one federal use documents explicit permission granted by Katzman. The form circulates widely without a posted fee, but confirm before commercial reproduction.
Learn More: Two sets of cut-points circulate and produce different pictures. The original 1983 validation found 90% of normal participants scored 6 or less, with 7 or higher indicating a need for further evaluation. The Memory and Aging Project bands are 0–4 normal, 5–9 questionable impairment, and 10 or more impairment. Some sources use 0–8 normal, 9–19 minimal to moderate, and 20–28 severe. State which you are applying.
Learn More: Scoring rules matter here. Spontaneous self-correction is not an error. For the memory phrase, substituting "Lane" or "Boulevard" for "Street," or omitting the street term entirely, is not counted. Item weights are: year ×4, month ×3, time ×3, counting backwards ×2, months in reverse ×2, and memory phrase ×2.
