NGAT in Fairfax County: A Parent Guide to the Naglieri General Ability Tests

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.

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 (1 to 99) and a stanine (a simplified 1-to-9 band). 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.

How the NGAT fits FCPS gifted/AAP screening

In Fairfax County, the NGAT is one of several measures FCPS considers when screening students for its Advanced Academic Programs (AAP). An ability score like the NGAT is used alongside other information — it is one piece of a larger picture, not a single decision point. FCPS sets the specific testing windows, grade levels, and screening criteria for each school year, and those details can change year to year, so always confirm the current specifics on FCPS's official Advanced Academic Programs and abilities-testing pages.

For 2026-27, FCPS says it uses the NGAT to meet Virginia's nationally normed ability-assessment requirement, with administration in grade 2 and to select students in grades 3-7. FCPS also says NGAT replaced CogAT and NNAT3, that it no longer offers CogAT or NNAT3 retakes, and that one-time NGAT retake requests are due September 30, 2026.

FCPS describes Full-Time AAP pathways that include a grade-2 universal screener referral, staff referral, and family referral for grades 2-7. FCPS says screening files may include referral forms, progress reports, work samples, the HOPE Gifted Rating Scale, a parent or guardian questionnaire, and test scores, and FCPS says no part is weighted more heavily.

If your child is being screened, the most useful things you can do are practical: make sure they're rested and fed on test day, and help them feel calm and familiar with the kinds of puzzles the test uses — which is exactly what the free practice below is for.

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.

What genuinely helps is familiarity and calm: making sure your child has seen the format before, practicing the kinds of thinking the test rewards through everyday puzzles and games, and showing up rested and relaxed.

Read the calm practice guide →

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.

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.

Printable: NGAT Parent Prep Checklist

Frequently asked