What's a CAT?

[minesawine]

At my DS's parent induction, they said that they will be setting CAT's (Cognitive Ability Tests) during their first week in year 7. They will then use their answers to put them into sets.

Does anyone know what these are and what sort of questions they will ask. Is there any suggested revision that I could use?

Thanks

[bruffin]

They are non verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning and quantative reasoning tests. You can find those type of tests on line.
Dcs school do them in July before they start as part of induction day.

[pimmsgalore]

there is no point in revising for them as they are there to set the children and if your DS gets a higher result then he will be put in a set higher than his ability and struggle. Better to let him approach it without any pressure and do his best then he will be in the set that suits him.

[Haggisfish]

Yes, the idea is that they are NOT prepared for, and so give a more true refelction of a child's natural ability, rather than an ability they have been coached to death in. They are very useful to teachers!

[minesawine]

Is it just one test with verbal and numerical reasoning or are they two seperate tests.

Also do you get told what the child's CAT score is?

Thanks

[bruffin]

I think it is 3 tests, and all schools are different. Dcs school don't officially tell you but they are on dcss eschool page along with reports and targets.

[Buntingbunny]

Verbal, non verbal and numeracy.
Usually computer marked.

Average score 100, over 130 brilliant!

You may get an average mark / 3 individual marks off school. You may not.
Lots of really silly secrecy around them. They don't want you to practice.

If you google you find the same 6 example questions on different sites.
Basically they are 11+ type IQ questions.

Personally I think schools are that they can't actually trust SATs levels and go back to the sort of standardised tests they've always used.
(We did externally produced tests each year at primary, last set sent to senior school. No 11+ in our area and SATs years in the future.)

CATs seem to be the modern equivalent. Your DC may well have done them at primary. DD1 did Y9 CATs for GCSE groupings.

Sorry for the essay, I have spent ages looking into these things because the numeracy one causes my, good at maths dyslexic DD1 grief.

[minesawine]

Thanks Buntingbunny. Thats really helpful information