Quick Answer: A CAT4 report compares your child’s reasoning with other children of the same age. The Standard Age Score (SAS) has an average of 100, and most children score between about 85 and 115. Stanines (1 to 9) and percentile ranks show the same result in simpler bands. The verbal-spatial profile shows how your child prefers to think.
CAT4 reports often arrive as a page of numbers and coloured bands with little explanation. This guide explains each number, what it means and what it doesn’t. If you want to know what the test involves and how to prepare for it, read our earlier parent’s guide to the CAT4 test in Dubai first.
What Do the Four CAT4 Batteries Measure?
CAT4 (Cognitive Abilities Test, Fourth Edition) is published by GL Assessment. It measures reasoning, not curriculum knowledge, and it is split into four batteries:
| Battery | What it measures | Typical question types |
| Verbal Reasoning | Thinking with words | Verbal classifications, verbal analogies |
| Quantitative Reasoning | Thinking with numbers | Number analogies, number series |
| Non-verbal Reasoning | Thinking with shapes and patterns | Figure classifications, figure matrices |
| Spatial Ability | Picturing and manipulating shapes in the mind | Figure analysis (folded and punched paper), figure recognition |
Each battery gets its own score. Your child also gets a mean score across all four. Because the non-verbal and spatial batteries use very little language, they can give a fairer picture of children who are still building their English.
What Is a Standard Age Score (SAS)?
The SAS is the main number on the report. Your child’s raw score (the number of questions answered correctly) is converted to a scale that takes their exact age in years and months into account.
The scale has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. In practice:
- About two-thirds of children score between 85 and 115.
- A score of 115 is one standard deviation above average, which is roughly the 84th percentile.
- A score of 85 is one standard deviation below average, roughly the 16th percentile.
- Scores above 130 or below 70 are uncommon, each covering only around 2% of children.
Every test score carries some measurement error, so a child scoring 104 on one day could reasonably score a few points either side on another. GL reports usually show a confidence band around each score, and a gap of only two or three points between batteries is not normally meaningful.
What Do Stanines and Percentile Ranks Mean?
Stanines (“standard nines”) group SAS results into nine bands. They are deliberately broad, which makes them easier to read at a glance.
| Stanine | Description | Approximate % of children |
| 9 | Very high | 4% |
| 8 | Well above average | 7% |
| 7 | Above average | 12% |
| 6 | Average (upper) | 17% |
| 5 | Average | 20% |
| 4 | Average (lower) | 17% |
| 3 | Below average | 12% |
| 2 | Well below average | 7% |
| 1 | Very low | 4% |
National Percentile Rank (NPR) tells you the percentage of children of the same age in the comparison sample who scored at or below your child. An NPR of 70 means your child did as well as or better than 70% of that group. It is not a percentage score on the test.
Group Rank (GR), where shown, ranks your child within the group tested at school, for example “12 out of 96”. It only describes that cohort on that day. In a selective Dubai school, an above-average child can still have a modest group rank.
One point matters for international schools. CAT4 scores are compared against a standardisation sample, so ask your school which benchmark its reports use. GL has noted that pupils in international schools often score higher on the quantitative, non-verbal and spatial batteries and lower on verbal than the UK sample.
What Are the Verbal and Spatial Bias Profiles?
CAT4 compares your child’s verbal and spatial scores to describe a learning preference:
- Verbal bias: stronger with words than with images. These children often do well with written explanations and discussion.
- Spatial bias: stronger with images and shapes. They often benefit from diagrams, models and visual organisers.
- No bias (even profile): verbal and spatial scores are similar.
Reports describe any bias as mild, moderate or extreme. A profile is about preference, not ability. A child can have a spatial bias and still score high on every battery. Teachers use it to adjust how they present material, so a strong spatial thinker with weaker verbal scores may need key vocabulary taught explicitly in science, for example.
What Do the GCSE and A-Level Indicators Mean?
Many CAT4 reports for older pupils include indicators. These estimate likely outcomes in later qualifications such as GCSE, A Level and, for international schools, IB, based on how pupils with similar CAT4 scores have performed in the past. Reports often show:
- a “most likely” grade, which is the typical outcome for pupils with similar scores
- an “if challenged” grade, which shows what is achievable with strong effort and teaching
- a probability chart showing the chance of each grade
These are useful for conversations about targets and subject choices, but they have clear limits:
- They are averages. GL’s own technical material explains that roughly half of pupils with a given score do better than the “most likely” outcome and half do worse.
- They can’t see effort, teaching or interest. A motivated student with good support regularly beats the indicator.
- They are based on past cohorts. Exam specifications, grade boundaries and the comparison sample all change over time.
- They are not predicted grades. Teachers’ predicted grades draw on classwork, mock exams and much more.
Treat an indicator as a starting point for a conversation, never as a ceiling.
How Do Dubai Schools Use CAT4?
CAT4 is widely used across Dubai’s private schools, usually in four ways:
- Admissions: one piece of evidence alongside reports, interviews and entrance tests. A few schools publish CAT4 guidelines for particular entry routes, but most look at the whole picture.
- Setting and grouping: helping place pupils in sets and identify children who need extra stretch or support.
- Ability versus attainment: comparing a child’s reasoning with their actual classroom results. A child with a high SAS whose results are only average may be under-achieving, and the reverse can show real effort or effective teaching.
- Benchmarking and accountability: KHDA’s external assessment requirements for Dubai private schools include a cognitive abilities test. Khaleej Times reported in September 2026 that these are taken in Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 (Years 4, 6, 8 and 10 in British schools), with new students without existing data also included. Schools use the results to check whether attainment is broadly in line with pupils’ underlying potential. Exact requirements change from year to year, so check with your school.
What Can Parents Change, and What Can’t They?
It helps to be realistic.
What you can’t (and shouldn’t try to) change: CAT4 is designed to measure reasoning that develops slowly over years. Intensive drilling of question types may raise a score briefly, but it can produce a misleading profile, which then leads to the wrong set or unrealistic targets. GL Assessment itself advises against extensive practice.
What you can influence:
- Familiarity: a child who has never seen a figure matrix can lose time just working out the instructions. Short, calm exposure to each question type removes that surprise.
- Test-day conditions: sleep, breakfast and a relaxed morning make a real difference.
- Long-term reasoning skills: reading widely, talking about new words, number puzzles, jigsaws, construction toys and drawing all build the skills CAT4 measures.
- What happens next: the most useful thing you can do with a CAT4 report is act on it. If the profile shows a gap between ability and attainment, find out where the gap comes from.
What Is Sensible CAT4 Preparation?
Good preparation is short, light and focused on understanding:
| Do | Avoid |
| Introduce each question type with worked examples | Hours of repetitive drilling |
| Practise pacing and moving on from hard questions | Memorising “tricks” or answers |
| Talk through how to rule out wrong options | Making the test feel high-stakes |
| Keep sessions short over a few weeks | Cramming the night before |
At Improve ME Institute, our CAT4 preparation course runs in small groups at our centre in Gold & Diamond Park. Teachers model each question type, guide timed practice and explain mistakes, so children walk in knowing what to expect. If your child’s CAT4 report has raised questions about their progress in Maths or English, a free Diagnostic Test can show where the curriculum gaps are. Our article on what a free academic assessment tells you explains how this works, or you can contact our team to talk it through.
Frequently Asked Questions About CAT4 Scores
What is a good CAT4 score?
An SAS of 100 is exactly average for your child’s age. Scores between about 89 and 111 are generally described as average, and anything above roughly 115 is well above average. What counts as “good” depends on how your school uses the result, so ask them.
Why is my child’s group rank lower than their percentile rank?
The percentile rank compares your child with a large national or international sample, while the group rank compares them only with the pupils tested alongside them. In a high-performing school year, the group rank will often look lower.
Is a verbal or spatial bias a problem?
No. A bias simply shows a preference for one way of thinking. Teachers use it to adjust how they explain things, and many successful students have a clear bias in one direction.
Are the GCSE indicators my child’s predicted grades?
No. Indicators are statistical estimates based on pupils with similar CAT4 scores. Predicted grades come from teachers and draw on classwork, mock exams and progress over time.
Can my child retake CAT4 to improve their score?
That is the school’s decision. Retaking soon after the first sitting is not usually recommended, because familiarity with the exact questions can make the result less reliable.
