CAT4 practice test: 24 free questions with detailed explanations

This page has 24 practice questions for CAT4, the reasoning test that many schools call "CATs". We wrote them for children of about 10 to 12, in Year 6 or Year 7The first year of secondary school in England and in British schools abroad, for children aged 11 to 12. Year 6 is the last year of primary school (age 10 to 11). (Grade 5 or 6). For each of CAT4's eight types of question, there is a worked example to read with your child, then three questions for your child to try alone. The answers stay hidden until your child has chosen, and each explanation also says why the wrong options are wrong. Everything is free, and there is nothing to sign up for.

In Year 7 (Grade 6), we suggest starting with our Level D page, because its questions are written only for Level D, the version of CAT4 for that year. Then come back to these 24 questions for more practice. For another year, or to print questions with answers, use our page for your child's year. Each has a worked example and a question for each type, and a free PDF that ends with the answers:

• Year 7, ·Grade 6, Level D
• Year 8, ·Grade 7, Level E
• Years 9 and 10, ·Grades 8 and 9, Level F
• Other years have no page yet. Our guide to the CAT4 test shows one example of each type of question. For Years 2 and 3 (Grades 1 and 2), we suggest games, not test papers.

CAT4 does not test school subjects, so there is nothing to study for it from school books. But its questions are unusual. On the day, each test gives a short example and some practice questions, and then the clock starts. A child who has already seen each type of question can spend that time thinking, not working out what to do.

We wrote these questions ourselves, to match GL Assessment's description of each test. GL is the company that makes CAT4, and it sells the test only to schools. GL makes a version of CAT4 for each age group, and calls each one a level. GL shows a few example questions in its reports and in a short video for pupils.

In each set of three, the first question is the easiest and the third is the hardest.

How to use this test

• Do the worked examples together. Read the question, let your child try it, then read the explanation together.
• Do not use a timer at first. On the day, each test also starts with practice questions that have no clock.
• Keep a pencil and some paper nearby for the number questions. On the day, children get scrap paper for the two number tests.
• Open the answer only after your child has chosen. Then read why each wrong option is wrong, especially the one your child chose.
• To feel the real speed, allow about 25 seconds a question for the shape-pattern tests, 20 for the word tests and 30 for the number tests and the folding and hidden-shape tests. We worked this out from GL's times and the highest possible mark on each part. At that speed, the 24 questions here take 10½ minutes.

When your child is ready for the clock, press "Time all 24 questions", below. It starts a timed test of the 24 questions: eight short tests, in the same order as the real test, each with its own clock. It shows one question at a time, and the results at the end. To time just one set of three, press "Time this set" at the start of that set.

Time all 24 questions 10 min 30 s, about the real test's pace

Non-verbal reasoning: shapes and patterns

CAT4 has four groups of tests, and GL calls each group a batteryGL's word for one of the four parts of CAT4: verbal (words), quantitative (numbers), non-verbal (shapes and patterns) and spatial (imagining shapes in the mind). Each part has two short tests.. Each battery has two tests. Below, they come in the same order as in the real test.

On the day: 48 questions in 20 minutes, in Part 1.

Figure classification

Three figures follow the same rule. Choose the option that follows it too.

Time this set 1 min 15 s, about the real test's pace

Figure matrices

A matrix is a grid of boxes. The top row shows a change. Which option completes the bottom row in the same way?

Time this set 1 min 15 s, about the real test's pace

Verbal reasoning: words

On the day: 48 questions in 16 minutes, in Part 2.

Verbal classification

Three words belong together. Which option belongs with them?

Time this set 1 min, about the real test's pace

Verbal analogies

Find the link between the first two words. Then choose the word that has the same link with the third word.

Time this set 1 min, about the real test's pace

Quantitative reasoning: numbers

On the day: 36 questions in 18 minutes. Number analogies comes at the end of Part 2, and number series at the start of Part 3.

Number analogies

One rule turns each first number into the second number. Find the rule, then use it on the third number.

Time this set 1 min 30 s, about the real test's pace

Number series

Which number comes next?

Time this set 1 min 30 s, about the real test's pace

Spatial ability: imagining shapes in the mind

On the day: 36 questions in 18 minutes, in Part 3.

Figure analysis

A square of paper is folded as shown, and a hole is punched through all the layers. What does the paper look like when it is opened out? A dashed line on the paper is where it folds, and a dashed outline shows where a part was before it was folded. The folded paper is grey, and the small marks show the middle of each side.

Time this set 1 min 30 s, about the real test's pace

Figure recognition

Which image hides the shape at the top? It is the same size and faces the same way: not turned round, and not a mirror image. Each of its sides is drawn in that image, as a whole line or as part of a longer line.

GL's rule is strict. The hidden shape must be "the exact same size outline of the target, including each side in full". And a copy that is a mirror image does not count.

Time this set 1 min 30 s, about the real test's pace

Quick answer key

For marking a printed copy:

What your child's result here tells you

No set of practice questions can give a CAT4 score. A real score compares your child with a large sample of children of the same age, chosen to represent the whole UK. Questions made at home cannot be compared with that sample. What these 24 questions can show you:

• Which types of question were new to your child. If the paper-folding questions needed explaining, and the next two then came easily, your child was meeting that type for the first time. That is exactly what practice is for.
• Whether the clock matters. If your child gets answers right with no clock but gets stuck with one, the thing to practise is moving on from a hard question, not doing more questions.
• Not how able your child is. Twenty-four questions at home are far too few to measure that.

Before the test: getting to know the questions

In our view, whatever the test is for, it helps if your child knows each type of question before the day. In the real test, there are a few practice questions before each test, and they have no clock. GL says these "will familiarise the children with the style and format of the questions".^{1GL Assessment, CAT4: information for parents.} This page gives your child three questions of each type to try earlier, at home.

GL, which sells CAT4 only to schools, advises against practice of any kind before the test. You can read GL's advice in its own words in our test guide.

The research: sitting a test again, and coaching

We found no published study of practice for CAT4 itself. Reasoning tests like CAT4 have been studied for many years. But none of the research below is about practising at home, so it does not tell you whether practice at home changes a score, or by how much. On CAT4's scale, 100 is average, and about half of all children score between 89 and 111.

The first and third rows are about sitting a test again; in the first, the people running the test gave and marked it, with no coaching in between. The second and fourth are about coaching, and the 10 points in the second include the gain from sitting the test again. The review behind the first two rows did not measure practice tests done alone at home, like the ones on this page.

We changed each study's result into points on CAT4's scale.^{2Hausknecht, Halpert, Di Paolo and Moriarty Gerrard (2007), Retesting in selection, Journal of Applied Psychology 92 (authors' manuscript): 0.21 of a standard deviation for a retest without coaching (75 samples, 81,374 people) and 0.64 with coaching (23 samples, 2,323 people; median contact time about 2.5 hours), for the scores people got (Table 4; the review's text gives 0.24 and 0.70, after a correction for errors of measurement). CAT4's scale is set on the scores children get, so we use the figures for the scores people got. Scharfen, Peters and Holling (2018), Retest effects in cognitive ability tests, Intelligence 67: 0.327 for a second try (153,185 people) and 0.495 for a third (23,977 people), in samples whose average age was 12 to 70, already corrected in the same way. The correction divided each result by the square root of the test's reliability. The authors took the reliability to be 0.83 for most results, so its square root is about 0.91. We undid the correction by multiplying by 0.91 (about 0.30 and 0.45). Kulik, Bangert-Drowns and Kulik (1984), Effectiveness of coaching for aptitude tests, Psychological Bulletin 95: 0.43, across 24 studies; the summary we have does not say whether it was corrected. We multiplied each by 15, the standard deviation of the scores children get on CAT4.} The change is ours, and it assumes that the results apply to CAT4 too.

Three more findings matter for parents.

• A fourth try or more raised scores no further. A paper on the 11+An entrance test, taken at about age 10 or 11, for grammar schools: schools in parts of England, and in Northern Ireland, that choose pupils by test. also notes from earlier research that more practice and coaching add less and less. The 11+ is a test for places at grammar schools: schools in parts of England that choose their pupils by a test.
• When every child can get coaching, the order of the children hardly changes. In a study of the 11+ in Northern Ireland, coaching raised scores, but it did not much change the order of the pupils, as long as all of them could get coaching.
• Most of this research is on teenagers and adults. In one large review, more than 7 in 10 groups were at secondary school or university. Another included only groups whose average age was 12 or more. So the numbers for younger children are less certain.

Researchers studied the 11+ in Kent. State primary schools in Kent are asked not to prepare pupils for it. So, the researchers argue, the only children who get to know its reasoning questions are those whose parents help them practise, pay for a tutor, or send them to a private school.^{3Allen, Bartley and Nye (2017), The 11-plus is a loaded dice, FFT Education Datalab (see further reading). On Northern Ireland: Allen and Bartley (2017), The role of the eleven-plus test papers, citing Bunting and Mooney (2001).}

Other families

Some families do practise. A UAE newspaper reported that some parents help their children get to know the CAT4 format before the test. About half of pupils at private schools in Dubai get extra tutoring, some of it at their own school. In England and Wales, about 29 in 100 secondary school pupils have had a private tutor at some point. Not all of this is for CAT4, but it shows that many children get help outside school.

What we suggest

What we suggest depends on what the test is for. If you are not sure, ask the school. Our guide to CAT4 scores explains what a score can change for your child, such as sets and target grades.

A three-week plan

This plan is ours, and it is short on purpose. In the research above, scores stopped rising on average after a third sitting of a test, and a paper on the 11+An entrance test, taken at about age 10 or 11, for grammar schools: schools in parts of England, and in Northern Ireland, that choose pupils by test. notes that more practice and coaching add less and less. None of it measured practice at home, so the length of this plan is our judgement. About 80 minutes over three weeks should be enough that no type of question is new to your child.

Long courses are another matter: in Northern Ireland, nine months of coaching raised scores a lot. We do not suggest them. In our view, beyond knowing the format, a child gains more from reading, puzzles and sleep.

The plan uses only this page, and it keeps one new question of each type for a timed try at the end, with the clock below the table.

Timed run: questions 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 in 3 min 30 s, about the real test's pace.

Start the clock

If your child wants more questions, books and websites sell them. GL does not "recommend or endorse any CAT4 practice materials". So check a few answers yourself before you trust a set. Any "score" such a set gives is a rough guide only, not a CAT4 score.

For the longer term, GL says that reasoning "can be developed through experience and practice". CAT4 uses words, numbers and shapes. So reading widely, working out sums in your head, and shape puzzles are good places to start.

Ages 6 to 8: games, not test papers

For younger children, the same kinds of thinking come up in play. None of it needs to feel like practice for a test.

• Paper snowflakes. Fold some paper, cut shapes into it, then say what the pattern will look like before you unfold it. This is the same idea as the paper-folding questions.
• Jigsaws, tangram puzzles (seven flat shapes that fit together into a square or into other shapes, such as a boat) and building toys with instructions, for imagining and turning shapes.
• Patterns to continue, first with beads or claps, then with numbers.
• Odd one out: put four things from around the house together, and ask which one does not belong, and why.
• Hidden-object puzzles, where your child finds small things hidden in a crowded scene, for finding a shape inside a bigger image.

CAT4 tomorrow? What to do tonight

Do only a little. If not knowing what to expect worries your child, try two or three worked examples together, then put the page away. A normal evening and a good night's sleep matter more.

Three reminders match GL's instructions to pupils: try every question, don't spend too long on a hard one, and if you're not sure, choose the answer you think is right. The raw scoreThe number of questions your child answered correctly. A wrong answer does not take marks away., the number of right answers, is what the test counts first, so a guess can only help.

On the day, each test has its own clock, and nobody moves on until it runs out. A child who finishes early waits, and GL asks teachers to encourage them to check their answers. But the clock never stops, so your child should not spend too long on one question. GL also tells pupils that "Some questions may be harder than others". A very hard question is normal.

Frequently asked questions

Are there official CAT4 practice tests? Not as separate tests. The official practice is inside the test itself: each test starts with practice questions that have no clock and can be repeated. GL also has a short training video for pupils with some example questions.

Are there CAT4 past papers? Not from GL. Only schools can buy the test. GL does not "recommend or endorse any CAT4 practice materials". So papers sold as "CAT4 past papers" cannot be the real test: someone else wrote the questions to look like CAT4.

Is there a free CAT4 practice PDF? Yes. Each of our level pages has a free PDF of its questions, with the answers at the back: see the list at the end of this page. To print the questions on this page, use your browser's "print" or "save as PDF" option. The answers under the questions do not print, but the quick answer key does, so you can mark the printed copy.

How many questions are in the real CAT4? GL does not say how many questions each test has. GL's teacher guidance lists the highest possible mark on each part, but names no level: 48 verbal, 48 non-verbal, 36 number and 36 spatial. A child gets one mark for each right answer, so the whole test probably has 168 questions. The test times add up to 72 minutes.

Does the CAT4 report say how my child prepared? No. A CAT4 report shows your child's scores and GL's predictions of later grades. We found nothing in GL's description of the report about how a child prepared. If you wish, you can tell your child's teacher that your child has seen the types of question before.

Is it cheating to practise? No. We found no rule against it, and our questions are not the real test: only schools can buy that. GL advises against practice, but the decision is yours.

My child gets nervous about tests. Will practice make it worse? Probably not, if it starts easy and with no clock.

A review of 24 studies of practice quizzes, mostly in classrooms, found that on average the quizzes made students less nervous about tests, not more.^{4Yang, Li, Zhao, Luo and Shanks (2023), Educational Psychology Review (see further reading). The authors call the finding on easy quizzes "suggestive rather than conclusive".} Easy quizzes seemed to help more than hard ones, though the researchers say this finding is not certain. They add that the quizzes themselves may feel more stressful than other ways of learning.

The quizzes were on what students were learning, some of them at university, not reasoning tests. So start with the worked examples, side by side, and add the clock only when your child feels ready.

All our CAT4 guides

Practice questions for your child's year

Worked examples and questions of each type, every answer explained. Each level page also has a PDF of its questions, with the answers. In Year 7 (Grade 6), we suggest starting with the Level D page, then the 24 questions for more practice.

• Year 7, ·Grade 6, Level D
• 24 free questions, all eight types, Years 6 and 7, ·Grades 5 and 6, This page
• Year 8, ·Grade 7, Level E
• Years 9 and 10, ·Grades 8 and 9, Level F
• Other years have no page yet. Our guide to the CAT4 test shows one example of each type of question. For Years 2 and 3 (Grades 1 and 2), we suggest games, not test papers.

About CAT4

• The CAT4 test, What your child will sit, the test day, and how schools use results
• CAT4 in the UAE, Which grades take it, at which level, and whether it affects admission
• CAT4 in Ireland, 6th class: which level, and why it cannot decide a school place

Your child's scores

• CAT4 scores explained, What a score of 100, 115 or 130 means, and what to ask the school
• CAT4 glossary, SAS, stanine, NPR and the other words on reports and school letters

Further reading

• Yang and others (2023), Do practice tests (quizzes) reduce or provoke test anxiety? This review brought together 24 studies of practice quizzes, mostly in classrooms and some with university students. On average, practice quizzes made students less anxious about tests, not more. Easy quizzes seemed to help more than hard ones.
• Allen, Bartley and Nye (2017), The 11-plus is a loaded dice. The title means that the test favours some children over others. A study of the 11+ in Kent. State primary schools in Kent are asked not to prepare pupils. So, the authors argue, only children whose parents help them practise, pay for tutors or choose private schools get to know the reasoning questions.
• Hausknecht and others (2007), Retesting in selection. A large review of what happens when people take a reasoning test twice. Scores rose the second time, and rose more with coaching. The people studied ranged from school pupils to adults.

Notes

1. GL Assessment, CAT4: information for parents. ↩

2. Hausknecht, Halpert, Di Paolo and Moriarty Gerrard (2007), Retesting in selection, Journal of Applied Psychology 92 (authors' manuscript): 0.21 of a standard deviation for a retest without coaching (75 samples, 81,374 people) and 0.64 with coaching (23 samples, 2,323 people; median contact time about 2.5 hours), for the scores people got (Table 4; the review's text gives 0.24 and 0.70, after a correction for errors of measurement). CAT4's scale is set on the scores children get, so we use the figures for the scores people got. Scharfen, Peters and Holling (2018), Retest effects in cognitive ability tests, Intelligence 67: 0.327 for a second try (153,185 people) and 0.495 for a third (23,977 people), in samples whose average age was 12 to 70, already corrected in the same way. The correction divided each result by the square root of the test's reliability. The authors took the reliability to be 0.83 for most results, so its square root is about 0.91. We undid the correction by multiplying by 0.91 (about 0.30 and 0.45). Kulik, Bangert-Drowns and Kulik (1984), Effectiveness of coaching for aptitude tests, Psychological Bulletin 95: 0.43, across 24 studies; the summary we have does not say whether it was corrected. We multiplied each by 15, the standard deviation of the scores children get on CAT4. ↩

3. Allen, Bartley and Nye (2017), The 11-plus is a loaded dice, FFT Education Datalab (see further reading). On Northern Ireland: Allen and Bartley (2017), The role of the eleven-plus test papers, citing Bunting and Mooney (2001). ↩

4. Yang, Li, Zhao, Luo and Shanks (2023), Educational Psychology Review (see further reading). The authors call the finding on easy quizzes "suggestive rather than conclusive". ↩