How is the CCAT scored?

Employers receive a raw score, which is the number of questions you answered correctly, and a percentile that compares you with other test takers. It is not reported as an IQ.

What is a good CCAT score?

Criteria says the average test taker gets 24 of 50 right. Above 24 is above average, but each employer sets its own target for a role, and Criteria does not publish a universal cutoff in the material we checked.

What is the difference between the CCAT and the UCAT?

The UCAT, also from Criteria, has 40 multiple-choice questions in 20 minutes and does not test verbal ability, which makes it easy to translate for international use.

Named tests

The CCAT (Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test)

Q: Can you finish the CCAT?

Very few people do. Criteria says fewer than 1 percent of candidates answer all 50 questions in the 15 minutes.

In short

The CCAT (Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test) is a pre-employment test from Criteria Corp with 50 questions in 15 minutes. Questions are verbal, math and logic, or spatial reasoning, and calculators are not allowed. Employers receive a raw score, the number correct, plus a percentile. Criteria says the average test taker gets 24 right and fewer than 1 percent finish.

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What the CCAT measures

The CCAT is a pre-employment aptitude test from Criteria Corp. It has 50 questions with a 15-minute limit, in three kinds (Criteria: CCAT prep):

Question type	What it covers
Verbal	Reasoning with words
Math and logic	Number and logic problems
Spatial reasoning	Shapes and visual patterns

Calculators are not allowed (Criteria: CCAT prep), so plan on doing any arithmetic without one.

Timing: almost nobody finishes

Fifty questions in 15 minutes is 18 seconds per question. Criteria says fewer than 1 percent of candidates answer all 50, and the average test taker gets 24 right (Criteria: CCAT prep). That is under half the questions. Not finishing is the normal result, so the aim is to get as many right as you can in the time.

How the CCAT is scored

Employers receive a raw score, the number of questions answered correctly, and a percentile (Criteria: CCAT prep). The percentile places you relative to other test takers. A raw score of 24 is about average by Criteria's figure; anything above that is above the typical result.

A percentile is a rank, not a percentage correct. A percentile of 70 would mean you scored higher than about 70% of the comparison group, whatever your raw score was. The percentile entry explains the difference. What counts as passing is up to the employer. We have not found a universal cutoff published by Criteria, and different roles can reasonably set different targets.

The UCAT: a nonverbal sibling

Criteria's Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test (UCAT) has 40 multiple-choice questions with a 20-minute limit. It does not test verbal ability, which Criteria says makes it easy to translate for international use. UCAT takers get a raw score and a percentile ranking, and most people do not finish by design (Criteria: UCAT).

CCAT vs other workplace tests

Test	Questions	Time limit	Seconds per question
CCAT	50	15 minutes	18
UCAT	40	20 minutes	30
Wonderlic Select (cognitive section)	50	12 minutes	14.4
PI Cognitive Assessment	50	12 minutes	14.4

Sources: Criteria (Criteria: CCAT prep) (Criteria: UCAT), Wonderlic (Wonderlic: FAQ), The Predictive Index (Predictive Index: Cognitive Assessment).

How it compares with an IQ test

The CCAT is an aptitude test for hiring, scored as a raw score and percentile, not an age-normed IQ test. On the research side, a meta-analysis of 85 years of personnel research estimated the validity of general mental ability for predicting job performance at 0.51 (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). That is a group-level finding, not a prediction about any one candidate. The IQ test vs aptitude test page covers the differences.

How to practice

Practice helps modestly: retaking a cognitive ability test raised scores by about a quarter of a standard deviation on average across studies (Hausknecht et al., 2007). Our free CCAT-style practice test has 10 original questions at 30 seconds each, and the number sequence test drills quick math. Neither is a CCAT, and no IQ Octopus score predicts a CCAT result.

IQ Octopus is not affiliated with or endorsed by Criteria Corp or any other publisher named here. Test names are used only to identify and describe the tests. Our free practice tests are not copies of any published test, and no score on IQ Octopus predicts a score on another test.

Try one · Quantitative Reasoning

Which number comes next?

7, 21, 11, 24, 15, ?

Tap the option you think is right, or show the answer.

Show the answer

The next number is 27 (option 1).

How to solve it

The gaps jump around, so look at every other number.
The 1st, 3rd, 5th numbers (7, 11, 15) go up by 4 each time.
The 2nd, 4th, 6th numbers (21, 24) go up by 3 each time.
The missing number continues the second series: 24 + 3 = 27.

That was 1 puzzle. The full test has 25.