PISA examines the competencies of 15-year-old students in the three areas of science, reading and mathematics.

Furthermore, PISA looks at so-called background characteristics. On the basis of these background characteristics the learning and living conditions in which the competencies are developed can be examined. For example, in PISA 2006, certain characteristics of the parental home (e.g. social and cultural background), of the school (e.g. computer equipment) and of science lessons (e.g. the frequency of experiments) were surveyed by using questionnaires. Moreover, the examination of the coupling of competencies with social background is given particular attention in all PISA surveys. At their core, the background characteristics serve the purpose of describing and comparing certain framework conditions for educational processes in the participating countries.