CAT4 test 2026: What it tests, scoring and how to prepare

The CAT4 is the Cognitive Abilities Test (Fourth Edition) published by GL Assessment. It's a reasoning test, not a curriculum test, so it doesn't check what your child has been taught in class. It looks at how they think across four areas: verbal, non-verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning.

Thousands of UK schools use it. Some use it for 11+ style entry, others use it once a child has joined to set classes, predict GCSE grades, or spot pupils who need stretch or extra support. Because it's so widely used, parents see CAT4 mentioned in a lot of different contexts and often aren't sure which one applies to them. This guide explains what the test really contains, what the scores mean in plain English, and what you can usefully do to prepare.

CAT4 is made up of four short tests called batteries. Each one targets a different kind of reasoning, and the report you get back gives a score for each battery plus an overall picture.

The four batteries cover the kinds of thinking that tend to predict how well a child copes with secondary-school work. None of them rely heavily on prior knowledge of the curriculum. The verbal and quantitative sections do need a child to be comfortable reading and working with numbers, but they're testing reasoning patterns rather than recall.

Per GL Assessment, CAT4 (for ages 8 to 17+) is delivered in three test sittings totalling around 72 minutes of pure question time. The first sitting runs about 20 minutes and the two following sittings around 26 minutes each. The four batteries (verbal, non-verbal, quantitative, spatial) are grouped into those three sittings rather than each running on its own. Including instructions, practice questions and short breaks between sittings, a full administration typically takes around two hours of school time. CAT4 Young Learner, used for younger primary children, runs across two shorter sessions of around 45 minutes in total. Schools often deliver it digitally now, though paper versions still exist. Many children find it tiring rather than panic-inducing, mainly because the sections are short and the question style stays consistent.

CAT4 comes in levels labelled roughly by age, from primary into the early years of secondary school. For 11+ style use, the relevant levels are usually the ones aimed at children aged 10 to 12, so Year 5 and Year 6 in the English system.

Which level your child sits depends on what the school is using it for. A selective independent or grammar school using CAT4 as part of entry will typically test in Year 6, often in the autumn or spring term of the year before entry. A school using it for internal setting and predictions might run it in the first weeks of Year 7, or repeat it at the start of each key stage.

The practical takeaway is this: If a school sends you a letter mentioning CAT4, it's worth asking exactly what they'll use the result for. The same test can be a low-stakes baseline or a meaningful entry hurdle, depending on the school.

Raw marks (the number of questions answered correctly) are not what you see on the report. They're converted into a Standardised Age Score, or SAS. This is the figure parents most often hear about.

The SAS is age-adjusted, which matters more than it sounds. A child born in early September is competing for the same school place as a child born in late August who's almost a year younger. Standardising for age levels that playing field so the score reflects reasoning ability rather than maturity. An SAS of 100 is the national average. Roughly two thirds of children score between 85 and 115, and the 89 to 111 band is the one GL Assessment labels as 'average'.

Reports usually include two further numbers alongside the SAS. The National Percentile Rank (NPR) tells you what percentage of children in the test's reference group scored lower than your child. So an NPR of 75 means your child scored above 75% of children in the reference cohort. The Stanine is a simpler 1 to 9 scale, where 5 is bang in the middle, used to give a quick sense of where the child sits.

There's no single national pass mark for CAT4, because the test isn't a single pass-or-fail exam. What counts as a strong score depends on the school and what they're using the result for.

As a rough guide, an SAS of 100 is average. Schools using CAT4 as part of selective entry tend to look for scores well above 110, often into the 120s for the most oversubscribed places, and they usually want to see strong scores across all four batteries rather than a single high score propping up the rest. A child scoring 130+ on every battery is in the top few per cent nationally.

If your child's school uses CAT4 for setting or predictions, the score on its own matters less than what the school does with it. Predictions are not destiny. They tend to be useful as a baseline for noticing under-performance or unusual patterns, not as a ceiling on what a child can achieve.

Because CAT4 is a reasoning test, you can't revise content for it the way you'd revise for a science test. What you can do is help your child get comfortable with the question types, the timing, and the experience of sitting a quiet, timed test.

A small amount of focused practice tends to help. Many children gain the biggest jump just by removing the surprise factor: Knowing what a figure matrix looks like, understanding how a number-series question is laid out, getting used to clicking through a digital test interface. After the first few practice sessions, returns drop off quickly. Our 11+ verbal reasoning guide, non-verbal reasoning guide, and vocabulary builder walk through practice techniques for these question types.

What doesn't help is grinding through hundreds of practice questions in the weeks before. Children get tired, scores plateau, and the test ends up measuring stamina more than reasoning. Schools also tend to be wary of children whose CAT4 score sits oddly far above their classroom performance, because heavily-coached scores can mislead them when setting classes.

Schools use CAT4 in different ways, and it's worth understanding which one applies to you before reading too much into a score.

Selective entry is the highest-stakes use. Some independent and grammar schools use CAT4 as one component of their entry process, sometimes alongside subject-specific papers and an interview. The exact weighting varies by school, and few publish a cut-off score.

Setting and grouping is the most common use inside secondary schools. CAT4 scores feed into decisions about which class a child joins for English, maths, or science. These groupings are usually reviewed, not fixed for five years.

Predicted grades and target-setting is another widespread use. Schools combine CAT4 with other data to suggest what a child might achieve at GCSE. These predictions are best treated as a starting point for conversation, not a ceiling. Plenty of children comfortably beat their CAT4-based predictions, and a smaller number fall short of them. The score reflects one snapshot of how a child was thinking on one morning.