In 1985, Indiana joined the growing list of states assessing students' achievement at various levels. During February 1985, over 63,000 third-grade students took the 40-item Indiana Basic Competency Skills Test. A mean of 34.7 was achieved. An item analysis was performed for a random sample of 6,439 students (approximately 10%). Findings confirm the national assessment results that students generally do very well computing with whole numbers, and no single item was answered correctly by less than 70 percent of the sample. Difficulties with items on geometry and problems involving graphs and charts are discussed. (MNS)