The CAT4, explained for parents

The CAT4 is GL Assessment’s reasoning test, used by many UK secondary schools and British-curriculum schools around the world to see how a child thinks, not what they have been taught.

At a glance

Full name: Cognitive Abilities Test, 4th edition
Published by: GL Assessment
Who sits it: Schools in the UK and many international and British-curriculum schools.
What it is made of: Four batteries: verbal, quantitative, non-verbal and spatial. Analogies, classification, number series and matrices, plus spatial questions such as folding and punching paper.

Four batteries

Verbal reasoning: thinking with words.
Quantitative reasoning: thinking with numbers.
Non-verbal reasoning: thinking with shapes and patterns.
Spatial ability: picturing and turning shapes in the mind.

What schools use it for

To see a child’s profile across the four kinds of reasoning, and plan teaching around it.

How much of the CAT4 the puzzles here cover

Mostly covered. Most of its question types have a close match here. Some spatial questions do not yet.

Verbal Analogies
Verbal Classification
Number Analogies
Number Series
Figure Matrices
Figure Classification
Paper Folding

Every puzzle is original: none is a copy or an imitation of a real test question. See one of each kind.

Build the reasoning, not the test

Short, original puzzles with words, numbers and shapes. Your child answers, then names the rule.

Play free in your browser

Android: coming soon

Or print free reasoning worksheets, grades 3 to 8.

Sources

GL Assessment, CAT4 — gl-education.com

Last checked 11 October 2026. This page is general information, not advice: your school, district, board or area has the final word on its own tests and dates. Test names are trademarks of their publishers. Cub Climb is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any of them, or to any school or education department.