What are CAT tests, and why do schools use them?

Around this time of year, many parents of my Year 4 and Year 5 students’ ask me about CAT tests. Sometimes the school has told them they’ll be doing them soon; sometimes the student has come home and mentioned that they’ve done them. So what are they, and why are our children sitting them now?

CAT (also known as CAT4) stands for Cognitive Abilities Tests. Rather than assessing children’s understanding of the curriculum (like all their other school tests do), these tests are designed to assess children’s “natural” reasoning or cognitive ability, and their potential for future school tests, such as Year 6 SATs, 11+ tests, GCSE and A levels.

Schools may use the results in a variety of ways:

• to set target grades for the upcoming year or key stage. The publisher, GL Assessments, markets CAT tests as “a reliable indicator for national tests and examinations, including Key Stage 2 Sats, GCSEs, A Levels”.
• to personalise learning for individual students. For example, a student with a low numerical reasoning score is likely to need specific support in Maths, and a student with a low verbal reasoning score may need more support with reading, writing, speaking and listening. Schools may use the results to split classes based on their pupils’ needs. The Teacher’s Guide that accompanies the tests includes lots of teaching strategies that may be employed, depending on individual pupils’ results.
• to identify which pupils would benefit most from intervention groups or “booster” groups. For example, a student with high CAT scores should have the potential to work at greater depth in their year group (at primary) or achieve high exam grades (at secondary). If those pupils are not currently demonstrating that ability in their curriculum learning, then booster/intervention groups would benefit them.
• to enable them to advise parents about their child’s suitability for grammar school. This is the one I see most, and the reason that our schools are doing these tests now, and reporting the results to parents. Around this time, right before the registration period opens for the Kent 11+ Test, schools are informing parents about the 11+ process. Many schools offer parents the opportunity to meet individually, and discuss the decisions that need to be made, and their child’s potential. As the CAT tests are very similar in style to the Reasoning section of the Kent 11+ Test, they provide a very reliable piece of evidence to help teachers or headteachers to advise parents.
  The Reasoning skills tested in the CAT tests are only half the story, as they do not test reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation, grammar or maths, in the way that the 11+ tests do. But when combined with the school’s own evaluation of a pupil’s curriculum attainment, they can be very useful.

What’s in the tests?

The tests do not cover the usual Maths, English and Science – as the usual Key Stage 2 tests do – but instead they test various types of reasoning ability: verbal reasoning; non-verbal reasoning; quantitative reasoning; spatial reasoning. You can read more about the content of the CAT tests on the publisher’s website, here.

Schools (and indeed the writers of the CAT tests) usually make it clear that it is not necessary to do any preparatory work toward these tests. In fact, to do so may skew the results, and would not provide any real benefit to the pupil. Since the tests are designed this way, having prior practice may create a more generous or optimistic picture of a pupil’s potential than is realistic.

This may be the reason that some schools only inform parents about the tests after they have been completed.

The different parts of the test may be spread over more than one day. In total, the time required is usually around 2 and a half to 3 hours. Some schools use a paper booklet version; others use a digital version on computers or tablets.

What do the results mean?

Although they are not obligated to, most schools that use these tests will share results with parents, to give you a clear idea of your child’s academic potential. In the most helpful of cases, the results are sent with a clear explanation of what they mean, and in the case of Year 5 pupils in Kent, an indication of the scores that would be indicative of suitability for grammar.

This means parents can use this information to decide whether they wish to register their child to sit the Kent Test, or not.

A full set of scores over 110 are usually a good indicator that a student could have the potential to succeed at a grammar school. Scores below that, are within the average range, and usually indicate that the child would be better suited to a non-grammar school.

For more information on CAT tests, see the information on the GL website.