CAT4 Test Results Explained: a Full Guide for the Exam Scores

This is a complete parent’s guide for the CAT4 test results.

Although the test provider went to great lengths to provide parents and teachers with multiple score reports, they are not always clear.

This page aims to provide you with a better understanding of your child’s scores, their significance, and the steps to take for the future.

Let’s dive right in and unravel the insights behind the CAT4 test results.

How to Read the CAT4 Test Results?

After the CAT4 scores are processed (15 days for the paper-based version, instant for the digital version), the parents receive two reports.

The first report is the student’s individual scores, and the second is the GCSE indicators. We’ll focus on the first one as it’s more important for your child’s academic growth.
Here’s an example of such a report, taken from the official GL Assessment Guide:

The parent’s score report includes the following information:

An explanation of the assessment, an overview of why it is used and example questions to ensure parents are informed.
Overview of performance scores across the four batteries
Profile description with written recommendations to help improve parent understanding of their child’s learning preference, with suggestions for how to offer support at home.
Indicators of future attainment in national tests/examinations with supporting chart for ease of comparison across subject areas.

Other Reports That Your Child’s Teachers Receive

Teachers and other school educators receive almost 10 different reports that enable them to analyze the performance of each student in-depth.

One of the most important reports is the Group Report. Here’s an example for this report, taken from the official guide:

Watch the following video that explains the CAT4 Group Report in 3 minutes:

The main parameters we should look at are SAS, NPR and ST. Let’s go over them briefly with a little background so you know exactly what they mean:

When students take a CAT4 test, they get a raw score. This score shows how many questions they got right. To understand the raw scores, they are compared to other students of the same age group.

There are three different ways to do this: Standard Age Score (SAS), National Percentile Rank (NPR), and Stanines (ST).

Standard Age Score (SAS): These scores are based on a standard scale where the average score for each age group is 100, and the standard deviation is 15.2. This allows for a fair comparison between different age groups.

If a student achieves the same score on two different batteries, it means they performed equally well compared to others in their age group. Similarly, if students of different ages achieve the same score, it means they performed equally well compared to others in their own age group.

National Percentile Rank (NPR): The percentile rank shows how many students of the same age scored the same as or lower than the student being evaluated. For instance, if a student receives a percentile rank of 79, it means they scored the same or higher than 79% of students in the same age group, and only about 21% of students scored higher on the same test.

Stanines (ST): The stanine scale is a score scale divided into nine groups, which is helpful when presenting test results to students and parents since it is easy to understand and does not give the impression of being an IQ score. The table below shows how the scores are grouped on a stanine scale.

The Stanine Scale
	Stanine	Percentage of Cases	Corresponding of Percentiles	Corresponding SAS
Very High	9	4%	97 or higher	127 or higher
Above Average	8	7%	90-96	119-126
Above Average	7	12%	78-89	112-118
Average	6	17%	59-77	104-111
	5	20%	41-58	97-103
	4	17%	23-40	89-96
Below average	3	12%	12-22	82-88
Below average	2	7%	5-11	74-81
Very low	1	4%	4 or under	73 or under

What Do the CAT4 Test Scores Tell About Your Child?

The CAT4 test scores provide a profile of your child’s strengths and areas for improvement across four batteries that measure cognitive abilities: Verbal Reasoning battery, Quantitative Reasoning battery, Non-verbal Reasoning battery, and Spatial Ability battery.

Also, it compares their scores with their classmates and with the national scores for the same age group.

What Are the CAT4 Results Used For?

The CAT4 results help teachers provide students with specific support according to their strengths and weaknesses. For example, students who struggle with certain subjects will enter weekly or daily support groups, while high-achievers will be challenged more often and get extra activities to stimulate them.

How Accurate Are the CAT4 Test Scores?

Being a cognitive abilities test, the reliability of the CAT4 test was examined several times before it became so widely used, and It showed high reliability and accuracy.

Also, the scores show a high level of consistency throughout the years. Students who took the test once and then re-tested a few years later (at a different test level) had a high correlation between their scores.

Does CAT4 Measure IQ?

The CAT4 does not measure IQ and was never intended to do so. It has a few similarities to IQ tests, specifically in the types of questions used in some of its batteries. But other than these similarities, the tests are quite different tests.

What Is a Good CAT4 Score?

A good CAT4 score is any score that is above the average score. An average CAT4 score (SAS) is 100, or in Stanines 4 to 6. The maximum CAT4 score (SAS) is 141 for levels Pre-A to G, and 131 for levels X and Y.

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What Does a Low CAT4 Score Mean & What to Do About It?

It is important to be cautious when looking at a low score on any of the CAT4 batteries. To properly interpret a student’s score on the CAT4 reports, teachers first check how many questions they attempted. This will indicate if they left many questions unanswered or if their score is close to what would be expected from random guessing.

If most of the questions have been answered and the remaining ones are guessed randomly, the scores will be at “Chance Level” as indicated in the table below. This table will help identify students whose scores need to be examined more closely.

Chance Level of Performance on CAT4 Batteries
	Maximum Raw Score	Chance Raw Score
Verbal Reasoning Battery	48	10
Quantitative Reasoning Battery	36	7
Non-Verbal Reasoning Battery	48	10
Spatial Ability Battery	36	7

Any student who skips many questions or answers only a few questions correctly is probably functioning at a low level in the cognitive area being tested.

Either way, teachers can’t rely on such scores confidently and will likely need to re-test the student after at least six months to better understand their abilities.

What Teachers Can Do With Low CAT4 Scores?

As a parent, you probably already know that you have a minor impact on what your child learns at school

Fortunately, the CAT4 results enable your child’s teachers to incorporate score-based interventions and strategies to help improve the skills that are below average.

These include:

The lowest-scoring students in each year group usually enter a small class where they’re given intensive support. Students who make progress move out into mainstream classes, while students who still need this support stay in the small class for the rest of the year.
Students with low stanine scores on the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning batteries receive additional assessments to evaluate their exact level. Then, the students receive specific support plans to improve their skills in these areas.
A student with a very low Verbal Reasoning score will usually receive one-to-one support and be paired with other students with high verbal skills.
Students often attend a support group once a week to reinforce their weaker areas, such as maths and reading.
If a student’s SAS scores are all within the below-average or very low bands, It would be a good idea to screen this student for Special Educational Needs and carry out a reading age check, as this may influence the CAT4 scores.

High CAT4 Scores and Gifted & Talented Programs

Many schools worldwide use CAT4 to screen students for their Gifted and Talented programs. Very high SAS scores in all four batteries strongly indicate that a student should be considered for such programs.

Also, some luxury private schools use the CAT4 scores for their admissions. So a high CAT4 score combined with high marks in the previous school will usually help your child get accepted.

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How to Improve Your Child’s CAT4 Test Score?

You can help your child prepare for the next CAT4 test and improve their chances of scoring high.

The most efficient preparation method is taking practice tests that replicate the questions. This enables your child to get a feel for the actual types of questions and difficulty level, learn effective solving techniques, and eventually improve their performance.

You can find plenty of CAT4 sample questions on this site, divided by test levels (see the list of resources below). Additionally, we recommend taking an online CAT4 practice course to receive dozens of practice tests that simulate all the existing test questions.

Visit our dedicated guides for more information and sample questions for each test level: