Welcome to our 2025 verbal reasoning CAT4 test practice. This is specifically designed to improve your verbal reasoning skills.
CAT 4 test practice , CAT4 practice tests and CAT4 test samples.
2025 CAT4 Verbal Reasoning skills test practice
Here’s School Entrance Tests‘s 2025 CAT4 Sample Test.
What is the CAT4?
How was the CAT4 developed?
The CAT4 (Cognitive Abilities Test) is a widely recognized assessment tool published by GL Education, now in its fourth edition. It measures different aspects of a child’s learning ability through eight short quizzes, focusing on verbal, non-verbal, mathematical, and spatial reasoning.
This information helps teachers identify a child’s academic potential and determine whether additional support or more challenging tasks are needed. Unlike tests designed to identify learning styles (auditory, kinesthetic, or visual), the CAT4 is geared toward assessing overall cognitive abilities.
Developed by GL Assessment, the CAT4 is available exclusively to schools and must be purchased by a teacher. The test is the result of extensive research, with the current edition taking five years to develop. It is in concept to an IQ test for adults.
How does the CAT4 work?
The key issue here is the research into the CAT4 validity. The Cat 4 has been validated with thousands of students in the UK and is proven to reliably predict a child’s academic capability and future success in school and higher education.
Our popular CAT4 verbal reasoning test practice samples
Mosaic’s free CAT4 skills resources
- CAT4 verbal reasoning test practice
- Practice Quantitative reasoning CAT4 skills
- CAT4 non-verbal reasoning test practice
- Practice CAT 4 spatial reasoning skills
Verbal Analogies CAT 4 sample question
CAT4 Verbal Classification section
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- This part of the CAT4 battery examines your ability to identify patterns and relationships among words.
- You’re presented with a trio of words and need to pick similar words from a list of options.
- Example: Recognizing colors like ‘red,’ ‘blue,’ and ‘green’ as all being colors.
- This assesses your capacity to generalize patterns, identify correlations, and understand linguistic fields.
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Verbal Analogies CAT4 sections
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- This test evaluates your skill in connecting words within provided categories.
- Format: A-B:C, where the relationship between A and B is similar to C and an answer choice.
- Example: Relating words in a way such as antonyms or synonyms.
- You must identify relationships between word pairs and extend them to match an analogy.
Selecting Analogy Matches
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- Choose one answer from five options that replicates the relationship between the first pair.
- Background knowledge may play a role, but focus is on abstract links and concepts.
- Clear frameworks exist to identify consistent patterns within Verbal Analogies questions.
CAT 4 Verbal Reasoning Strategies
Understand the Verbal Reasoning Categories and Question Formats:
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- Familiarize yourself with the different categories of verbal reasoning questions your child may encounter on the CAT4.
- These categories can include sentence completion, word relationships, and analogies. Understanding the categories helps your child know what to expect.
- Delve deeper into the specific question formats within each category. For instance, in sentence completion, your child might need to choose the most appropriate word to complete a sentence.
- In word relationships, they may have to identify synonyms or antonyms. Being aware of these formats aids in targeted preparation.
Practice Regularly to Recognize Patterns and Relationships:
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- Encourage your child to practice verbal reasoning questions regularly.
- Repetition helps them become comfortable with the question types and improves their ability to recognize patterns and relationships between words and phrases.
- Ensure that your child practices in various contexts. This can involve using CAT4 practice books, online resources, or even everyday activities.
- For instance, when reading books together, discuss word meanings, synonyms, and antonyms. This real-world application reinforces verbal reasoning skills.
- Teach your child the importance of time management during practice.
- CAT4 tests are timed, so practicing with time constraints can help them become more efficient at answering questions.
Utilize Provided Examples to Grasp the Concepts Effectively
Work with Examples: When studying CAT4 materials, make use of the provided examples. These examples are designed to illustrate the concepts and question formats. Walk through them together with your child to ensure they understand how to approach each type of question.
Identify Strategies: Help your child identify effective strategies for tackling different verbal reasoning questions. For example, in analogies, they can learn to establish relationships between words by looking for common themes or word roots.
Review Mistakes: Encourage your child to review any mistakes made during practice. Understanding why an answer is incorrect is just as valuable as getting it right. This review process enhances their problem-solving skills.
Expand Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension
Reading Habit: Foster a reading habit in your child. The more they read, the better their vocabulary and comprehension skills will become. Encourage them to read a variety of materials, from books to newspapers and magazines.
Word of the Day: Introduce a “Word of the Day” to your daily routine. Explore the meaning, usage, and synonyms of a new word each day. This not only enhances vocabulary but also reinforces word relationships.
Context Clues: Teach your child to use context clues to decipher the meaning of unfamiliar words when reading. This skill can be invaluable in understanding the nuances of word relationships.
What does each CAT4 sub-test involve?
Each CAT4 test battery consists of eight short CAT4 sub-tests with each focusing on different cognitive abilities. You can find test practice for each CAT4 sub-test at these CAT4 skill section-by-section CAT4 links:
- CAT4 Figure Classification test practice
- and CAT4 Figure Matrices practice tests
- CAT4 Verbal Classification test practice
- and CAT4 Verbal Analogies practice tests
- CAT4 Number Analogies test practice
- and CAT4 Number Series practice tests
- CAT4 Figure Analysis test practice
- and CAT4 Figure Recognition practice tests
You can learn how to improve each CAT4 sub-test scores in the next CAT4 section below.
When Are CAT4 Assessments Used?
CAT4 assessments are typically used in the following scenarios:
- Academic Group Placement: The results help schools place students in appropriate academic groups. These are often considered alongside traditional assessment results to ensure accurate placement. Many schools administer CAT4 tests after Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Key Stage 2 (KS2) to assess a child’s potential and guide their learning journey.
- School Entry Exams: Some schools use CAT4 as part of their entry process. Achieving the required level in the test allows the student to register at the school.
What is the Purpose of CAT4 Assessments?
Unlike traditional assessments, which evaluate what a student has learned or is currently learning, CAT4 focuses on the student’s underlying cognitive abilities. It measures skills that influence learning and academic performance, such as verbal, non-verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning.
The CAT4 does not assess acquired knowledge but instead offers a snapshot of the student’s potential. Its results provide reliable predictions of future academic performance, including GCSE achievements, making it a valuable tool for long-term educational planning.
Can a Child’s CAT4 Abilities Be Developed?
CAT4 assessments evaluate the core abilities that drive success in learning, exams, and careers. These include verbal, non-verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning skills, which are critical for national and international academic success.
While these abilities develop naturally over time, they can also be nurtured and improved through targeted activities and teaching strategies. Parents often ask whether CAT4 scores can be influenced, and while the tests are designed to measure innate abilities, exposure to problem-solving tasks, puzzles, and reasoning exercises can help children enhance the skills assessed in CAT4 tests.
My Child Is Dyslexic – Can They Take the CAT4 Test?
Whether a dyslexic child can take the CAT4 test depends on the school’s objectives and the severity of the dyslexia. Dyslexia varies greatly in its impact, ranging from mild to severe, so it is impossible to give a definitive answer for every student.
Children with dyslexia often excel in certain areas, similar to some autistic individual. In some cases, the CAT4 test can help identify mild forms of dyslexia that may have gone undetected in school.
For children with severe dyslexia, the CAT4 test may not be the most suitable assessment. In such cases, alternative or supplementary tests might provide a clearer picture of their abilities. It is always best to consult your school’s learning support advisor to discuss whether CAT4 testing is appropriate and to explore other testing options if needed.
CAT4 test practice for each pupil year group
- Firstly, our CAT4 practice tests for Year 4
- Secondly, our CAT 4 test practice for Year 5.
- Thirdly, our CAT4 practice tests for Year 6.
- And then, our CAT 4 test practice for Year 7.
- Plus also, our cat4 practice tests for Year 8.
- Next, our CAT4 test practice for Year 9.
- Also, our CAT 4 practice tests for Year 10.
- Finally, our CAT4 test practice for Year 11.
Have a CAT4 question?
Feel free to contact our Founder, Rob Williams, who is a specialist CAT4 test designer.
An Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Rob Williams is a Chartered Psychologist with over 25 years of experience working and designing tests.
He is also the author of five psychometrics books and has worked for the school entrance test publishers ISEB, Hodder and GL Assessment, the CAT4 publisher.
Here’s our popular You Tube channel‘s CAT4 video guide.
Our CAT4 video series.
CAT4 Verbal Reasoning sample questions
See above for some freely available example CAT4 verbal reasoning questions.