All You Need To Know About NGRT And CAT4 Exams In Dubai Schools

[Editor's Note: This article is part of Khaleej Times' Schools and Parents , a dedicated section designed to support families in the UAE as they explore educational choices. The section offers explainers, guidance from education leaders, expert advice and insights from parents to help readers make informed decisions about schools, curricula and communities.]

In Dubai, schools conduct mandatory assessments such as CAT4 and NGRT for students from primary through to senior secondary levels.

Irrespective of the curriculum, whether British, IB, American, or CBSE, both the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) and the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) play an important role in measuring students' learning abilities and academic progress.

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While the benchmarks may vary depending on the curriculum, some schools even include these assessments as part of their admission process. CAT4 is often used as part of the admissions process for many private and international schools in Dubai and across the country.

Schools may administer it periodically (e.g., every two to three years) to track cognitive development and identify changes in learning profiles.

Purpose : NGRT is a standardized assessment designed to measure reading skills in students aged 5–16 years, benchmarked against a national average.

What it assesses : It evaluates various aspects of reading, including phonics, decoding ability, comprehension, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, deduction, inference skills, and understanding of figurative language.

Components : The test typically consists of sentence completion tasks (measuring decoding and some comprehension) and passage comprehension tasks (measuring a range of comprehension skills of increasing difficulty).

Benefits for schools

• Identifying students needing reading support or further development.

• Planning curriculum content and interventions at appropriate levels.

• Monitoring reading progress and the effectiveness of interventions over time.

• Benchmarking reading ability against national averages using the Standard Age Score (SAS).

Administration: NGRT is often administered termly or at key points in the academic year to track progress and measure the impact of interventions. The digital version is adaptive, adjusting to the student's ability level as they respond.

Purpose : CAT4 is a diagnostic assessment that measures a student's potential to learn by evaluating their cognitive abilities in areas that are crucial for academic success. It is not a test of acquired knowledge but rather assesses innate reasoning skills.

What it assesses : The test assesses four key areas of reasoning:

• Verbal reasoning : Thinking and problem-solving using words and language.

• Non-verbal reasoning : Identifying patterns and relationships using shapes and figures.

• Quantitative reasoning : Working with numbers and solving mathematical problems.

• Spatial reasoning : Visualizing and manipulating objects and relationships in space.

Benefits for schools :

• Identifying students' strengths and weaknesses in different cognitive areas.

• Placing students in appropriate programs and tailoring teaching strategies to meet individual needs.

• Spotting gifted and talented students or those requiring additional support.

• Providing insights into learning styles and potential areas for improvement.

• Predicting potential academic performance in future examinations.

Tip for parents : These tests require no preparation. Encourage children to try their best - it's about assessing ability, not memory.

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