CAT4 and CCAT-7 scores: stanines and percentiles explained
27 October 2026 · 5 min read
The short answer: both tests put your child’s result on the same three kinds of scale, where 100 or the 50th percentile is average and stanines run from 1 to 9. A stanine of 7 or more is above average on either test, but the numbers are not interchangeable, so compare percentiles, and check which test the report is from first.
Which test is on the report?
Three tests are called something like this, and they measure different things:
- CCAT-7, the Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test, from Nelson. The gifted screener in boards such as Toronto, York Region and Halton. Three batteries: verbal, quantitative and non-verbal, scored against Canadian norms.
- CAT4 from GL Assessment, the Cognitive Abilities Test. A UK reasoning test, also used by British-curriculum and international schools. Four batteries: verbal, quantitative, non-verbal and spatial.
- CAT4 from the Canadian Test Centre, the Canadian Achievement Tests. An achievement test of reading, writing and mathematics, which some Canadian schools give. It measures what has been learned, not reasoning.
The publisher’s name is on the report. If it says GL Assessment, the CAT4 sections below apply; if it says Canadian Test Centre, the school is the place to ask what its scores mean.
What do the three numbers mean?
- Standard Age Score (SAS). 100 is average for a child’s age on both tests. On the CCAT-7, as on the CogAT it comes from, the standard deviation is 16, so most children score between about 84 and 116.
- Percentile rank. The share of the comparison group your child scored as well as or better than. 50 is average; 90 means as well as or better than 90 in 100.
- Stanine. A band from 1 to 9: a broad summary of the other two. GL calls stanines “particularly useful when reporting test results to students and parents.”
A full explanation of each, with what none of them can tell you, is in what a gifted test score means.
How do stanines line up with percentiles?
This is GL Assessment’s own table for CAT4:
- Stanine 9 · Very high
- 97th percentile and above · SAS 127 and above · 4% of children
- Stanine 8 · Above average
- 90th to 96th · SAS 119 to 126 · 7%
- Stanine 7 · Above average
- 78th to 89th · SAS 112 to 118 · 12%
- Stanine 6 · Average
- 59th to 77th · SAS 104 to 111 · 17%
- Stanine 5 · Average
- 41st to 58th · SAS 97 to 103 · 20%
- Stanine 4 · Average
- 23rd to 40th · SAS 89 to 96 · 17%
- Stanine 3 · Below average
- 12th to 22nd · SAS 82 to 88 · 12%
- Stanine 2 · Below average
- 5th to 11th · SAS 74 to 81 · 7%
- Stanine 1 · Very low
- 4th percentile and below · SAS 73 and below · 4%
The percentile bands are how stanines are defined, so they hold on the CCAT-7 too. The SAS column is CAT4’s alone: the CCAT-7’s SAS is on its own scale, so the same number can fall in a different stanine. That is why percentiles are the safer way to compare the two.
Age stanine or grade stanine?
The CogAT, and so the CCAT-7, reports percentile ranks and stanines twice: against children of the same age and against children in the same grade. A child who is young for their grade can come out higher on the age scores. The Standard Age Score is, as the name says, always by age.
A CAT4 report from a school outside the UK is worth reading with one more thing in mind: GL says those schools “use SAS that are based on UK standardisation,” so a Canadian child is being compared with children of the same age in the UK.
What score gets a child into a gifted program in Ontario?
None of these, directly. Ontario boards that screen with the CCAT-7 don’t publish the cut-off for going on to the next stage. In York Region, for example, the bar for the identification committee is a result at or above the 98th percentile on the General Ability Index of a one-to-one WISC-V assessment, not a CCAT score. How each board does it is in the board-by-board guide, and what Toronto’s letter home means is in the TDSB CCAT-7 letter, explained.
Questions parents ask
What is a good CAT4 score?
On GL Assessment’s CAT4, a Standard Age Score of 100 and a National Percentile Rank of 50 are average. GL’s table puts stanines 4 to 6 in the average range, 7 and 8 above average, and 9 very high: a Standard Age Score of 127 or more, the 97th percentile and above.
What does “age stanine” mean?
A stanine worked out against children of the same age, rather than the same grade. The CogAT, which the CCAT-7 is adapted from, reports stanines for both age and grade groups.
What is the average CCAT-7 score?
The Standard Age Score has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 16, the same scale as the US CogAT it is adapted from. A percentile rank of 50 is average for an age or grade group.
Is CAT4 the same test as the CCAT-7?
No. GL Assessment’s CAT4 is a UK reasoning test with four batteries; the CCAT-7 is Nelson’s Canadian edition of the CogAT, with three. In Canada, CAT4 can also mean the Canadian Achievement Tests, which measure reading, writing and mathematics.
What score do you need for a gifted program in Ontario?
Boards don’t publish the cut-off for their group screening. In York Region, for example, the bar for the identification committee is the 98th percentile or above on the General Ability Index of a one-to-one WISC-V assessment, not a CCAT score.
More on each test: the CCAT-7 and CAT4 guides. Cub Climb is not affiliated with or endorsed by the test publishers or any school board.
Sources
From the makers of this blog
Cub Climb: Gifted Test Prep — reasoning puzzles that ask “why?”
- All three kinds of reasoning: words, numbers and shapes, nine puzzle types, 4,200+ original puzzles for ages 5 to 11 (kindergarten to grade 5).
- Answer, then say why. One star for the answer, a second for naming the rule, then the cub explains it in plain words.
- Puzzles follow your child, missed ones come back after 1, 3, 8, 20 and 50 days, and up to four children can each have their own climb.
The first 20 puzzles are free. Then a $14.99 season pass, paid once, that never renews. See how it works.
Android: coming soonMore from the blog
Gifted test prep: boards say don’t, sellers say you must. The evidence?Toronto's board says never prepare; prep sites sell practice tests. A 2025 meta-analysis of 28 studies found modest gains and little from sample items.- Gifted testing
- How children learn
- Canada
YRDSB Grade 3 gifted test: when it is and what comes nextWhen York Region screens Grade 3 students for gifted programs, what the CCAT looks at, and what happens after — from the board’s own published procedure.- Gifted testing
- Canada
Music exams around the world: ABRSM, Trinity, RCM and AMEBThe first music exams in the UK, Canada, the US and Australia, what they ask a beginner to read, and a quarter-note-to-crotchet glossary.- Reading music
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Canada
- Australia
Cub Climb is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any school board, test publisher or testing organisation. CogAT, NNAT, OLSAT, CCAT-7, CAT4 and other test names are trademarks of their respective owners.