CAT4, understood: calm, guided lessons that help your child walk in ready

A letter comes home from school. Your child will be sitting something called the CAT4.

You do what any parent does. You ask what to revise.

And the answer, more or less, is: "Nothing, really."

It's an honest answer. CAT4 isn't a test of what your child has been taught in class, so there's no syllabus to work through. But it leaves a lot of parents in an odd spot, wanting to help and not quite knowing how. (If CAT4 is new to you, start with our plain-English guide: What really is the CAT4?)

That gap is why we built the CAT4 Academy. From today, it's open.

Why CAT4 can feel harder than it is

The CAT4 itself isn't the problem. Three things usually are.

The puzzles are unfamiliar. A grid of shapes with one square missing. A piece of paper folded, punched and opened again. Number pairs that follow a hidden rule. None of it looks like a normal school worksheet. A bright child can lose their footing simply because they've never seen this kind of question before.

The format is new. The test is taken on a screen, against the clock, with question types arriving in sections. Working out how the screen works while also working out the answer is a lot to hold at once.

Nerves take up room. When a child is worried, there's less space in their head for thinking. Unfamiliar puzzles on an unfamiliar screen are exactly the kind of thing that sets those nerves off.

None of this is about how clever your child is. It's about the gap between "never seen this before" and "oh, I know what this is asking." That gap is something we can help close.

What the CAT4 Academy is

The Academy is a set of short, guided lessons for children aged about 9 to 12, built around how CAT4 is actually laid out. It covers all four areas the test looks at (verbal, quantitative, non-verbal and spatial) and all eight question types:

• Verbal Classification and Verbal Analogies
• Number Series and Number Analogies
• Figure Classification and Figure Matrices
• Figure Analysis (paper folding) and Figure Recognition

It works in four stages.

1. Foundations. Six short warm-up lessons on the building blocks that turn up again and again: turns, fills, mirrors, moves, sameness and steps. These come first, so the later puzzles don't feel like a wall.

2. Eight lesson paths. Each question type has its own path, so your child learns what each kind of puzzle is really asking, one at a time.

3. Five steps in every lesson. Big idea, then Watch & play, Try together, Practise, and Show what you know. A lesson takes about 8 minutes. Three or four lessons a week is plenty. "Today's mission" picks the next one, so nobody has to plan.

4. Practice tests. When your child is ready, there's a full, timed CAT4-style practice test, covering all eight question types in three parts. More on that below.

What a lesson feels like

Here's one from the Figure Analysis path: paper folding.

Big idea. Quali, our origami puzzle buddy, explains it in a sentence or two: every fold is a mirror line.

Watch & play. A square of paper folds in half. A single hole is punched through both layers. Then it unfolds, and your child watches two holes appear, one on each side of the fold, mirrored across the line.

Try together. Now a similar puzzle, with help close by. If your child isn't sure what "mirror" means here, a Quick Reminder card shows the move without leaving the lesson.

Practise. A few on their own. If an answer is wrong, there's no red cross and no buzzer. Their answer appears in a calm slate colour, the right one in teal with a tick, and a kind explanation suggests another look. "Show me how" replays the fold step by step.

Show what you know. A short check at the end. When the idea clicks, Quali cheers. No lost points, no rankings.

That's the whole rhythm: see it, try it with support, try it alone, show it. Eight minutes, then done.

Meet Quali (and when Quali steps aside)

Quali is folded from paper, which feels fitting, because folding is one of the puzzles. Quali greets your child by name, explains each idea in one or two short sentences, and cheers when a skill lands.

If your child prefers to listen, "Hear Quali" reads the tips aloud in a calm British voice. Captions are always on, and the voice never plays on its own.

Just as important is when Quali doesn't appear. Quali is never on screen while your child is choosing an answer, and never inside a timed test. Quali is a guide, not a distraction.

What you see as a parent

Children see encouragement. They don't see scores, rankings, leaderboards or streak guilt.

The detail comes to you. You can see how your child's practice is going, and after a practice test, the detailed results go to you, not to them. That way you can talk about it in your own words, at a good moment.

Only a parent can create an account, and your child's profile is added with your recorded consent.

The practice tests

The practice tests are full, timed CAT4-style simulations. There's no pause button, the parts unlock in order, and there's a review afterwards. The point is simple: on the day, the screen and the timing should feel familiar, not new.

The Level D practice test has 168 questions and 72 minutes of timed practice. (On the real day, the instructions add a little more time.) Quali steps aside for the whole thing.

Our questions are original, written by us to match the CAT4 style. Any result is indicative, not official.

Is it OK to practise for CAT4?

It's a fair question, and we'd rather answer it straight.

GL Assessment, which publishes CAT4, advises against coaching. Schools use CAT4 to understand how a child thinks and learns best. It isn't a pass-or-fail test.

So here's what the Academy does, and what it doesn't.

What we do: explain what each type of puzzle is asking, step by step, and make the on-screen format familiar, so your child can show how they really think, rather than how they react to something unfamiliar.

What we don't do: coach answers, teach tricks to push up a score, or promise any particular result. We don't promise scores. Nobody honestly can.

If your child's school has shared a CAT4 report and you want to make sense of it, our guide to understanding your child's CAT4 report walks through it.

Which level is right for your child?

CAT4 comes in levels by age. Here's where the Academy stands today:

• Level C (around age 10 to 11; Year 6 / Grade 5): lessons are ready now.
• Level D (around age 11 to 12; Year 7 / Grade 6): the practice test is ready now, and the lessons are coming next.
• Levels B and E are planned.

Not sure which level your child will sit? Ask the school. They'll know.

How to try it

There are two easy ways in.

Try two puzzles, no account. Two puzzles, two minutes: a Foundations warm-up (Mirror & flip) and a real CAT4 question type (Figure Matrices). It runs in the browser and collects nothing. Try two puzzles free

Start a 7-day free trial. Every CAT4 plan includes the full Academy and the practice tests. You don't need payment details to start, and you can cancel any time. Start your 7-day free trial

A short lesson, three or four times a week, is enough. The aim isn't to cram. It's to help your child walk into CAT4 calm and ready.

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Qualificant is an independent platform. Not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment. CAT4 is a trademark of GL Assessment. Practice questions are original and indicative, not official.