The NGAT for parents: the Naglieri General Ability Tests in one place
Here, NGAT means the Naglieri General Ability Tests, used in U.S. gifted screening from kindergarten to grade 9. This guide gathers what the tests measure, free practice, how scores work and which districts publicly name the NGAT, with a link to the full page on each.
In Fairfax County? The FCPS AAP guide has the NGAT’s place in FCPS screening, this year’s dates and the latest official word.
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What the NGAT is
NGAT stands for the Naglieri General Ability Tests. It's a test of general reasoning ability — how a child thinks and solves new problems — developed by Jack A. Naglieri, Dina Brulles, and Kimberly Lansdowne and published by Multi-Health Systems (MHS).
The key word is ability, not achievement. An achievement test asks what your child has already learned. An ability test like the NGAT tries to measure reasoning that does not depend as heavily on what has been taught: pattern-finding, relationships, and logic.
A deliberate design choice runs through all three areas: the test is built to reduce the load of language and acquired knowledge. Instructions are delivered through short animated videos rather than spoken or written directions, and answers are multiple-choice.
Read the district-neutral explainer →The three reasoning areas
The NGAT is a small family of tests covering three reasoning areas. A school may use one or more of them.
Verbal (picture-based)
The child looks at a set of pictures and figures out the concept that connects them, or the one that does not belong. Notably, it uses pictures rather than words, so it leans less on reading.
Nonverbal
The child studies shapes, colors, sequences, and orientations in a pattern and picks the piece that completes it.
Quantitative
The child finds the pattern in a series of numbers or symbols using basic math reasoning.
How it's scored
Your child's raw score is converted into a standard score with an average of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
Scores are also reported as a percentile rank and a stanine (a simplified 1-to-9 band). Percentile ranks run from 1 to 99, and to tell apart the very top, MHS prints a rank of 99.5 or above as “>99” (MHS scoring options). The percentile is the number most parents find easiest to read: a percentile of 90 means the child scored as high as or higher than 90 out of 100 students who took the same test.
Important: the NGAT does not decide on its own whether a child is "gifted." A score is one piece of a larger picture. Each district sets its own thresholds and combines the ability score with other information.
Which districts use the NGAT
Districts choose their own ability tests, so the NGAT matters to you only if your district names it. Our NGAT district tracker lists districts whose official pages name the NGAT, with the grades they test and the date we last checked each one.
Each district also decides which grades are screened, when, and how the score is used alongside other information. Our district guides set this out from official pages. Fairfax County has its own AAP guide with the NGAT’s place in FCPS screening and this year’s dates. If your district has no guide here, here is how to find its rules.
These 8 district guides cover districts whose official pages name the NGAT:
- FCPS Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
- LCPS Loudoun County Public Schools, Virginia
- CFBISD Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, Texas
- BSD Beaverton School District, Oregon
- Tahoma Tahoma School District, Washington
- ACS Asheville City Schools, North Carolina
- Woodridge 68 Woodridge School District 68, Illinois
- ABSS Alamance-Burlington School System, North Carolina
How to prepare — calmly
There are no "leaked" NGAT questions to memorize, and you would not want them — the goal is for your child to walk in calm and unsurprised by the format.
You cannot and should not try to "teach the test." Ability tests are designed to measure reasoning, and drilling a child on leaked items does not build that reasoning — it just adds stress.
The developers’ own tips are simple: tell your child to take time over each question and look at all of the possible answers; explain that the questions get harder as the test goes on; and help a young child practice sitting and paying attention to a task for 20 to 30 minutes, ideally on a computer or tablet, since that is how the test is usually given. A rested, unhurried test day helps too.
Check your district’s own advice first. The test’s developers say no test prep or studying is needed, and some districts ask families not to prepare with test materials at all, including CFBISD and BSD. What districts say about practice →
Control the preparation, not the policy.
You cannot control whether your district changes a future-year screening process, and you should not build a plan around rumor or a single score. You can control whether your child walks in rested, calm, and familiar with reasoning-puzzle formats.
- Use short sessions rather than long drilling blocks.
- Practice original sample items and reasoning games, not leaked test content.
- Keep the message steady: this is a chance to solve puzzles, not a verdict on the child.
NGAT vs CogAT, NNAT & OLSAT
All four are reasoning/ability tests used in gifted screening. The most useful thing is to practice the format your district actually uses.
| Test | Publisher | Measures | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGAT | MHS (Naglieri) | Verbal (picture), Nonverbal, Quantitative | Reduced-language, animated instructions |
| CogAT | Riverside Insights | Verbal, Quantitative, Nonverbal batteries (9 subtests) | SAS score (mean 100, SD 16); widely used |
| NNAT | Pearson | Nonverbal reasoning only (matrices/patterns) | Language-reduced, single battery |
| OLSAT | Pearson | Verbal & nonverbal reasoning (incl. quantitative) | Often paired with other measures |
Not sure which test your district uses? Start with our NGAT vs CogAT guide → and the CogAT guide →.
Free NGAT practice
Use these resources for short, low-pressure format familiarity.
Free NGAT practice test →
Twenty-four original NGAT-style items with worked answers and a direct PDF download.
Original itemsNGAT sample questions →
Nine original Grade 2 picture questions with worked answers.
ScoresNGAT scores explained →
Standard scores, percentiles, stanines, and how districts use the numbers.
DistrictsNGAT district tracker →
Strict official-source rows for districts that publicly name NGAT use.
Interactive labOpen Logica →
Figure-matrix, spatial, pattern, and reasoning puzzles with calm feedback.
Printable: NGAT Parent Prep Checklist
The calm approach
The full checklist is right here — free to read and print. You can also request a printable PDF through the form below.
Get the NGAT Parent Prep Checklist
School details, short practice, referral questions and an ordinary test-day routine.
Download checklist (PDF) ↓Text version (screen-reader friendly): NGAT parent checklist
Optional: get Reasonwell updates by email
Download NGAT parent checklist ↓1 page · 90 KB · No email requiredText version (screen-reader friendly): NGAT parent checklist
Naglieri General Ability Tests™ (NGAT) is a trademark of Multi-Health Systems Inc. (MHS), used here for identification purposes only. Reasonwell Press is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or licensed by MHS or Dr. Jack Naglieri, and MHS was not involved in producing our materials. Our practice materials are original NGAT-style items, not actual test questions, and do not guarantee any score or placement outcome.
We are not affiliated with Fairfax County Public Schools either; FCPS is mentioned descriptively and sourced for parent context.
Your district’s pages decide.
District pages can change from year to year. Before making placement, appeal or application decisions, confirm the current details on your district’s official pages or with your school.
Frequently asked
Is the NGAT an IQ test?
It's a test of general reasoning ability used for gifted screening, not a clinical IQ test. It reports a standard score on the familiar 100-average scale.
Can you study for the NGAT?
The NGAT developers say no test prep or studying is needed, and they discourage using prepared materials to practice test content. Any reasoning activities are optional and do not predict scores.
What NGAT score qualifies a child for a gifted program?
There is no national qualifying score. Each district sets its own rule and usually weighs the score with other information, and some publish no number at all. Our district guides say what each district we have checked publishes.
When is the NGAT given?
Each district sets its own grades and testing window. The NGAT district tracker lists districts that publicly name the NGAT, with links to their official pages; Fairfax County's dates are in its AAP guide.
Is the NGAT the same as the CogAT?
No — they're different tests from different publishers (NGAT from MHS, CogAT from Riverside Insights) with different formats and score scales, though they measure overlapping reasoning skills.