CCAT Practice Test

What Is the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) Test?

The Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) by Criteria Corp is a pre-employment aptitude test.  (It should not be confused with the CCAT 7 which is a Canadian reasoning assessment for students.)  The CCAT measures an applicant’s ability to think critically, solve problems, and use new information.  Your results from the test give employers an idea about how well you will respond to new training.  Research has found that cognitive aptitude is a better predictor of job performance than education level, previous experience, or interviews.

The CCAT is made up of 50 questions to be answered within 15 minutes.  Less than 1% of people taking the test get through all fifty questions, and it is typical to only have 24 correct answers.  The test is made up of verbal, math and logic, and spatial reasoning questions.  The questions are mixed together in no particular order, although they do increase in difficulty as you progress through the test.  When you receive your score, you will see the raw score which is the number of correct answers you gave, and your percentile.  The percentile compares how well you did with everyone else who has taken the CCAT. 

Question Types:

Verbal

The verbal questions measure your vocabulary, as well as how you determine a word’s meaning, your use of context, and your knowledge of how words relate to one another.

Verbal questions appear as antonyms, syllogisms, and letter sequences.

Employers are looking for applicants with strong communication skills.  They need workers who communicate well with clients, customers, and coworkers as well as over the phone and email.

Math and Logic

The math and logic questions on the CCAT test your skills in basic algebra, solving word problems, and your ability to determine proportions.

All test questions are based on mental math.  Calculators are not allowed when taking the CCAT.

Math and Logic questions appear as number series and word problems.

Research has shown that numerical reasoning and number sense directly relate to one’s ability to think critically and solve problems.  These are skills many employers value.

Spatial Reasoning

This section of the CCAT tests innate aptitude.

The questions appear as inductive reasoning, matrices, and identifying outliers.  You need to be able to rotate or flip images in your head, recognize patterns, and identify the one that doesn’t belong.

Employers will use information from your score to determine how well you will be able to solve problems, use new information, and learn new skills.

How do I Prepare for the CCAT?

1. Practice, practice, practice – the more you practice, the more comfortable you will be taking the test.  You will build your confidence as you become familiar with the format and types of questions on the CCAT.  Being confident and comfortable will enable you to move through the test at a faster pace, thereby enabling you to complete more questions correctly.
2. Take practice tests.  You can find some practice questions on the Criteria Corp website.  As the creator of the CCAT, you might think that is all the preparation you will need, when in fact, they offer very few questions and these questions do not represent all of the question formats on the actual test.
3. Read carefully.  Pay close attention to the questions and answers as you read through them.  Be sure you understand exactly what the question is asking, and then choose the answer that best answers the question.  Multiple choice tests like the CCAT use distractors in the answers.  These are answers that sound close to the correct response, but are actually wrong.
4. Develop a strategy.
   1. Think about what your natural strengths are and answer those questions first. This will increase your likelihood of a correct response.
   2. Use the process of elimination to rule out answers that are obviously incorrect, then make your best guess between the answers that are left. It is better to guess and possibly give a correct answer, than to not answer at all and be guaranteed a wrong answer.
   3. Keep track of your time. Don’t get caught up on a tough question that will keep you from answering other questions within the allotted time.
5. Bring scrap paper and a pen.  Calculators are not allowed, but you can use scrap paper to draw some quick diagrams or make a calculation.

More About the CCAT

Construct Validity: The Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test has a high statistical correlation to other leading measures of cognitive aptitude, like the Wonderlic Personnel Test.  The correlation coefficients measure from .55 to .8 when compared with similar aptitude tests.

Predictive Validity: The results of the CCAT correlate significantly with performance in a wide variety of jobs. It is most effective for predicting performance in jobs that require problem-solving, critical thinking, verbal and mathematical reasoning, and learning new information. Some examples of these types of positions include managerial positions, jobs in the technology field, financial analysts, auditors, and software engineers.

Standardization Sample: Norms for the CCAT were developed using a sample of 985 working adults who were 18 years old and older.  The adults in the sample were being assessed for employee selection purposes, and represented over fifty companies.  Their current jobs included management, technical service, customer service, sales and sales related jobs.

The CCAT is used by some well-known companies, such as Carbide Industries, Dannon Yogurt, Domino’s Pizza, Goodwill, and Viking River Cruises… just to name a few.  It is also used by a number of school districts, banks and credit unions, and local governments.

It’s a competitive job market out there.  The more information you have in advance about what to expect from future employers, the more confident an applicant you will be.  With some time and preparation, you can walk into the testing room armed with your strategies and ready to succeed.  It’s time to land that dream job!

What is CrossOver’s CCAT Test?

You’ve probably heard of a lot of job assessments and situational judgement tests but the CrossOver CCAT Test is a little bit different!

CrossOver works only with remote work opportunities and hires only the best. To ensure they’re hiring the best person for each position, they employ the CCAT Test. As the number of remote jobs increases, this test is becoming more popular!

CCAT stands for Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test. It analyzes and examines norms, percentiles, and standardized scores from the test that compares new applicants with other qualified ones around the world. These comparisons allow the hiring managers to determine who is best for the job.

The test measures critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and your ability to learn. All of these play a crucial role in remote work and effect how efficient you are in your job!

Is the CCAT Similar to Other Pre-Employment Tests?

One of the key things that sets CCAT apart from other pre-employment tests is that it’s extremely fast-paced. The fast paced aspect of the test is designed to test your skills that would be taxed and used often during remote work. Reacting and thinking on the fly is a key part of the remote work that CrossOver hires for and the test reflects that.