CCAT-7 · CogAT · CAT4 · OLSAT
The reasoning behind gifted screening.
The CCAT-7, CogAT, CAT4 and OLSAT all test how a child reasons with words, numbers and pictures, about thirty seconds a question. Cub Climb builds that reasoning with original puzzles in three flavours. Getting the answer earns a star; naming the rule earns the second, because that’s the part that carries over to everything else they’ll ever have to work out.
Free to play right here in the browser. No account, no card, no ads.
Puzzle types
Thinking in pictures
Three pictures follow a rule, or one shape turns into another. Nothing to read, so a child who is still reading slowly is not held back.
Playable demo
Three follow a rule. Find the fourth.
Real puzzles, pulled from the bank the app itself draws from, so what you try here is what your child would meet. Pick an answer and it shows you the rule — not just a tick, because the rule is the thing worth learning.
Nothing here is scored, saved or sent anywhere. One of 743 puzzles at this level.
Figure ClassificationThree pictures follow a rule. Find the fourth that follows it too.
Pick an answer. Nothing is scored, and nothing is saved.
What the tests measure
Three kinds of thinking. Nine kinds of question.
The CCAT-7 is Canada’s edition of the CogAT: verbal, quantitative and non-verbal reasoning, three question types each. OLSAT and CAT4 cover similar ground in their own formats. None of them test what a child learned in class — and all nine question types below are in Cub Climb.
3 × 3
Three reasoning batteries, three kinds of question in each.
~30s
About twenty questions in ten minutes, so pace matters as much as difficulty.
0
Real test questions here. Every puzzle is written for this product.
Verbal reasoning
Thinking with words · 235 puzzles
- Verbal AnalogiesWork out how the first pair go together, then finish the second pair the same way.
- Sentence CompletionChoose the word that makes the whole sentence make sense.
- Verbal ClassificationThree words belong together. Find the fourth that belongs with them.
Quantitative reasoning
Thinking with numbers · 301 puzzles
- Number AnalogiesFind the rule that turns the first number into the second, then use it again.
- Number SeriesFind the pattern in the numbers and say what comes next.
- Number PuzzlesWork out the missing number so both sides balance.
Non-verbal reasoning
Thinking without words · 207 puzzles
- Figure MatricesThe first shape changes into the second. Change the third shape the same way.
- Figure ClassificationThree pictures follow a rule. Find the fourth that follows it too.
- Paper FoldingA paper is folded, then holes are punched. Choose how it looks unfolded.
When is the test?
It depends on where you live. Schools that screen usually do it once a year, somewhere between grade 2 and grade 4, in class — and send a letter home first, with the date. Weeks of short, relaxed sessions beat a crammed weekend, and some schools ask families not to prepare for the test itself, which is why this builds the skills and never rehearses the test.
The exams
Which tests this helps with.
Four names, one family of question. Here is what each test is, who sits it, and how much of it the puzzles here line up with.
- Fully covered
CCAT-7
Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test, 7th edition · Nelson
- Who sits it
- Canadian school boards, usually as a whole-class screener in grade 3 or 4.
- What’s on it
- Three batteries — verbal, quantitative and non-verbal — with three question types in each. Around twenty questions per type in about ten minutes, given in class.
- Here
- All nine question types are here, at the same thirty-second pace.
- Verbal Analogies
- Sentence Completion
- Verbal Classification
- Number Analogies
- Number Series
- Number Puzzles
- Figure Matrices
- Figure Classification
- Paper Folding
- Fully covered
CogAT
Cognitive Abilities Test, Form 7 · Riverside Insights
- Who sits it
- School districts across the United States, from kindergarten up, for gifted and talented screening.
- What’s on it
- The same nine question types as the CCAT-7, which is its Canadian edition. The youngest levels use pictures and read-aloud directions instead of written words.
- Here
- All nine question types are here. The picture-only versions for kindergarten to grade 2 are not yet.
- Verbal Analogies
- Sentence Completion
- Verbal Classification
- Number Analogies
- Number Series
- Number Puzzles
- Figure Matrices
- Figure Classification
- Paper Folding
- Mostly covered
CAT4
Cognitive Abilities Test, 4th edition · GL Assessment
- Who sits it
- Schools in the UK and many international and British-curriculum schools.
- What’s on it
- Four batteries: verbal, quantitative, non-verbal and spatial. Analogies, classification, number series and matrices, plus spatial questions such as folding and punching paper.
- Here
- 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
- Partly covered
OLSAT
Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, 8th edition · Pearson
- Who sits it
- Some US school districts and independent schools, for gifted and talented admission.
- What’s on it
- Verbal and non-verbal reasoning in a mixed format: analogies, classification, series and matrices alongside following directions and other verbal comprehension questions.
- Here
- The reasoning questions overlap with what is here. Its verbal comprehension questions are not covered.
- Verbal Analogies
- Verbal Classification
- Sentence Completion
- Number Analogies
- Number Series
- Figure Matrices
- Figure Classification
Every puzzle here is original. None is copied from, or claims to match, a real test form, and no practice can promise a score or a place. Test names belong to their publishers, none of whom is connected to Cub Climb.
How it works
From opening it to the first puzzle, about ten seconds.
01
Open it and play
No account, no card, no form. Pick words, numbers or pictures and start.
02
Answer, then name the rule
One star for the answer, one for the rule. The rule is the half that transfers to anything else.
03
See how it went
A short summary at the end: answers, rules named, and whether the pace was rushed or slow.
04
Keep going in the app
Every puzzle, at every grade, in all nine question types, on iPhone, iPad and Android.
The app
Try it here. Keep going in the app.
The website is the free taster. When your child wants more, the rest is in the app.
Website
Free puzzles in all three sections, in any browser. A taste of every kind of question, with nothing to install.
Free · no account
The app
The whole bank: all nine question types at every grade from 3 to 8 — 743 puzzles at grade 3 alone.
iPhone · iPad · Android · one-time purchase, never renews
Privacy
Built for a child who can’t read a privacy policy.
Nothing to sign up for
The website has no accounts. We never ask for a name, an email, a birthday or a school, from a parent or a child.
No tracking
Answers aren’t saved anywhere, not even in your browser. The only thing remembered is the grade your child picks, on this device. No advertising, no tracking cookies, and nothing to buy inside the puzzles.
Questions
The ones parents actually ask.
Not in the way that phrase usually means. There are no copies of real test questions here, no practice tests and no predicted scores, and some schools ask families not to rehearse the test itself. What Cub Climb does is build the reasoning those tests look at, with words, numbers and pictures, and ask a child to explain the rule rather than memorise answers. That is the kind of practice the research says actually helps, and it keeps helping after the test is over.
Is a screening test coming up?
Start with the free puzzles today. No account, nothing to fill in.