What are CATs?

Most secondary schools use Cognitive Abilities Tests, CATs, to test general intelligence and to stream overall or set for certain subjects. They are designed to assess a pupil’s ability in three different areas: verbal (thinking with words); quantitative (thinking with numbers); and non-verbal (thinking with shapes and space).

My child has already taken SATs, so what’s the point of CATs?

Some secondary schools don’t like to assess pupils solely by their maths, English and science SATs results in year 6. They feel some primary schools ‘over-coach’ for the tests, so some children may have artificially high results.  Educational psychologist Conrad Martin says, “In my professional experience, secondary schools take no notice of SATs – they find them too crude a measure, so they get their own measure of a child’s underlying abilities. They can use CATs to see if a child is under-achieving or whether there are learning difficulties. The tests can also pick up on reasons behind possible behavioural difficulties – perhaps a child is frustrated because they don’t understand the work, for example.”

Can I help my child prepare for CATs?

Officially, no. The tests are designed to be taken without any revision or preparation so they can assess a child’s potential in his or her ability to reason. However, many parents feel familiarity with the format and style of the test will improve their child’s performance. Conrad Martin warns, “I think helping your child will not have anything other than an insignificant impact on the actual performance in the CATs test. You can help children be familiar with the sort of format, but a brighter child will be quicker at picking it up.”

What do the results mean?

The result will be given in SAS (Standardised Age Scores) so they take into account a pupil’s age. The average SAS is 100. The scores are used to calculate predicted levels and can also be used to predict the outcome of GCSEs. If there is a wide variation between the scores in different aspects of the test, this may flag up a child who is experiencing difficulties in one area and can lead to a diagnosis, such as dyslexia. Extra support can then be put in place to help the child.

What if my child does badly? 

Don’t be dismayed if your child does poorly in CATs – poor results don’t mean your child is destined not to achieve well. "There are many other factors which influence how a pupil does at school," confirms Conrad Martin. "Motivation and hard work are very important, as is parental support. I would urge a note of caution in interpreting CATs scores because there is a significant margin of error associated with such scores, especially with a group test."