Canadian 1st graders with ambitions of joining their school’s gifted and talented program may be required to take the Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test (CCAT) 1st Grade Test. This ability test is the first step that many Canadian schools require children to pass if they wish to join a school’s special program. The CCAT 1st Grade Test is used to assess children’s learning abilities by asking nonverbal, quantitative, and verbal questions. Some students find this test to be harder than the test they typically take in school, as these tests will not quiz students on memorized information.
The CCAT exams are almost identical to the U.S.’s CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test). The CCAT 1st Grade Test is also known as the CCAT Level 7, due to the fact that the test will be assessing children that are 7 years in age. Although this test does include a verbal section, more emphasis will be placed on the nonverbal and quantitative questions. Your child’s score on the CCAT 1st Grade Test will determine their potential for attending a gifted and talented program.
The CCAT 1st Grade Test will be made up of 136 questions and three batteries, including a nonverbal battery, a quantitative battery, and a verbal battery. Moreover, every battery will also include three separate subsections that will be used to conduct an in-depth assessment on student’s abilities within that section. Each school will have their own test administration requirements, meaning that one school may choose to administer all three sections together, while another may only do one section at a time. In most cases, a teacher will act as a test proctor and will be responsible for guiding the children through the test.
The CCAT 1st grade score report will be made up of three different composite scores. The results from these scores will represent each student’s cognitive ability. Your child’s performance on the quantitative, verbal, and nonverbal batteries will determine the overall composite score. The CCAT 1st grade score report will first have an Age Percentile Rank (APR) result. This score shows a comparison of your child’s scores with those of children who are also close in age. Then, the score report will include a Grade Percentile Rank (GPR). This result shows a ranking between students within the same school grade. Finally, there will be a Stanine (S) result. This score is simply a score between 1 (the lowest score) through 9 (the highest score) that is supposed to represent your child’s ability to learn.
Any parent that wishes to enroll their 1st grader into a gifted and talented program will need to help their child prepare. In order to do so, parents need to sit down with their children and run through several CCAT practice exams. These practice exams are intended to be a simulation of what your child would see on the real exam. Most practice exams include sample questions that help familiarize children with the format of the real CCAT test. While taking the practice CCAT exams, your child will not be able to read the explanations. However, after the completion of the practice exam, your child will be able to see their results as well as detailed explanations. Make sure you and your child read through every explanation, regardless of whether or not the question was answered correctly. Explanations provide students with new ways to solve questions as well as justifications for why a question was answered right/wrong. Practice exams and study guides are absolutely essential in assisting your 1st grader to score high on the CCAT 1st Grade Test, which will hopefully lead to enrollment in a gifted and talented program.
Look at the pattern in the orange triangle. A piece of it has been removed. To complete the pattern, choose the piece below the pattern that goes where the question mark is. Which of the following answer options completes the design?
Explanation: The triangle is monotone orange, therefore the part which has been removed must be the same color as the triangle. The only answer choice that conforms to these requirements is answer choice D. It is helpful to use colors to see that they stay consistent throughout the entire picture and missing section. You can also use process of elimination to remove answer choices that are incorrect.
Examine the pattern in the huge rectangle while keeping an eye out for the missing square. Which of the following answer options completes the design?
Explanation: Imagine continuing the line across the red-yellow-red pattern, where the missing part would have yellow on top and red on the bottom. The only answer choice that conforms to these requirements is answer choice C. You might also utilize the elimination of response choices. Try to use color or distinguishing lines as markers and ensure that such markers stay consistent throughout the picture and the missing section. Straight lines will serve as markers in this question, and we expect the colors and lines of the design to line up with the correct response choice. In that manner, we can remove the response options that are not appropriate. You should always pay attention to the direction of the pattern. If all the stripes in the picture move horizontally, then you should pick an option that does not differ in direction, nor color sequence.
Find the missing piece that completes the larger design.
Explanation: The inner box needs be completed so we know there should be a small box in the upper left-hand side of the answer choice. This removes choices B and C. The lines of the inner box go diagonally from the upper left to the lower right. This removes choice D. The lines of the outer box go diagonally from the upper right to the lower left. This still leaves us with choices A and E. Looking at the remaining choices A and E, you can notice that the difference between them is the spacing between the lines in the outer box. In the main picture the spacing between the lines of the outer box is larger than the spacing of the lines in the inner box, not smaller. This leaves us with answer choice E as the correct answer.
Look at the six boxes and try to find a link between the geometric figures pictured within the boxes. Which of the following answer options can fill the empty box?
Explanation: Look at the top row. There are pink, green and purple triangles placed in the middle of separate blue squares. Now, look at the bottom row. There are two triangles; one black and one clear, and the third square is missing a triangle. Since all the triangles are facing the same way but none of the colors repeat, you need to look for an answer choice that is pictured in the same way as the other 5 triangles and yet differs in color. You can try to use the elimination method to spot the right answer. We can see that in option A the triangle is colored pink and there is also a pink triangle on the top row, therefore option A is eliminated. Similarly, option D is a clear triangle, so it too does not fit. The triangle under option C is both green and upside down, therefore not suited. Lastly, you can note that the only option that has a triangle with a different color is choice B, and it is standing upright like all the other triangles.
Examine how the series of forms shift over the rows and columns of the matrix to find the picture that completes the pattern.
Explanation: The matrix is composed of three types of figures: square, circle, and triangle. Across the columns, all the figures pictured in the first column are colored red, in the second column the figures are yellow and finally, all the figures in the third column are pink. Now, looking at the first column, we can see a red square on the top, a red triangle in the middle, and a figure missing. The missing figure must complete the square-circle-triangle pattern. We can eliminate answer choice A as it contains a red square, which we already have on the matrix. We can eliminate answer choices B, E, and C, as they do not contain red figures. Hence, the right answer is D, a red circle.
Which answer choice completes the series?
Explanation: Looking at the top and middle rows, you can see that the shapes are staying the same, but the colors are always being flipped in the 2nd column. Therefore, the missing box should have a purple square with a circle that is half blue on top and half green on the bottom. This can be found in answer choice E.