The information on this page will help you to administer CAT4 and to understand and use the data it provides. There is further reading about the standardisation process for the assessment and links to the support page for our online testing platform, Testwise.
CAT4 is a standardised assessment of reasoning ability. It is important to select the correct level for the students being tested, and to follow the administration guidance to ensure an accurate result.
Links to resources:
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First, administer all four CAT batteries in the standard way. If a student has specific language difficulties, then this should be revealed in the profile of his or her scores across the four batteries. We might expect the Verbal score to be significantly lower than either the Quantitative, Non-verbal or Spatial score. (Significant in this context means a difference of 10 or more Standard Age Score points.) If this is the case, then you have independent evidence to confirm the student's difficulties in reasoning with words as compared to numbers, patterns or spatial concepts.
Second, to isolate a specific problem with reading, you could read some of the verbal questions to the student. If their response to these questions is markedly better than on the first occasion this might isolate reading as the problem. This would suggest that the student's 'true' reasoning score is obscured by reading difficulties. In CAT4 it is recommended that students with a stanine score of 3 or below on the Verbal tests should be administered a reading test as a follow up.
Yes, the indicators for KS2, GCSE and AS/A Levels have all been updated for CAT4.
If you need to re-run the Group report for teachers in order to produce a series of reports for small groups of students such as tutor groups or you need to add in late arrivals, there is no charge.
Effective use of the data from CAT4 allows schools to personalise teaching and learning, set realistic but challenging targets and identify where interventions are needed.
The combination reports bring together data from CAT4 and other assessments to add context to students’ attainment and progress.
The links below provide information about the standardisation process , the reliability of the test and how to explain the test to parents.
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