What is the NGAT (Naglieri General Ability Tests)?

The Naglieri General Ability Tests (NGAT) are three separate reasoning tests used by school districts to screen students for gifted programs. They were written by Jack A. Naglieri and colleagues and are published by Multi-Health Systems (MHS). The same author wrote the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT), which many districts used before this one, and a growing number of districts have moved from one to the other.

Like the NNAT, the NGAT measures how a child reasons rather than what they have been taught. There is no spelling, no reading passage, and no arithmetic a child has to have memorized. What changed is the coverage: where the NNAT asks only nonverbal questions, the NGAT asks verbal and quantitative ones as well.

The three tests

A district can give one test, two, or all three, and then combine the results however its own policy says. The three are:

1. Verbal. Your child sees six pictures. Five of them share an idea, and your child picks the one that does not belong. There are no words anywhere on the question, which is the point: a child can answer it in any language they think in.
2. Nonverbal. Your child sees shapes and diagrams arranged in a pattern, and works out the relationships among shape, color, and position to choose the answer that completes it.
3. Quantitative. Your child sees numbers and shapes arranged in a pattern and works out the relationship. These are patterns and sequences built on basic math ideas, not word problems.

How long it takes, and how many questions

Each of the three tests takes about 30 minutes. If a district gives all three, that is roughly an hour and a half of testing, which may happen on one day with breaks or across several days.

The number of questions on each test is not published. If you have seen a question count quoted for the NGAT, it is likely the NNAT's figure of 48 questions, which is a different test. Your district's gifted coordinator can tell you how many tests your child will take and when.

Two things are worth knowing about how a test is laid out. Every test begins with three practice problems that your child has to complete before the real questions start, so nobody meets a question type for the first time while being scored. And the publisher tells parents directly that the questions increase in difficulty throughout the test. The first questions are the easiest ones, and they keep getting harder.

What grade your child takes it in

The NGAT covers kindergarten through grade 9, for ages 5 to 15. There is one form of each test for each grade level, so a second grader and a third grader take different forms.

This trips people up, because the older NNAT works differently. The NNAT groups grades into seven lettered levels, so grades 3 and 4 share one level and grades 5 and 6 share another. The NGAT does not use letters or grade bands at all, and it does not continue into high school. If someone tells you your child is taking "NGAT Level D," that is NNAT language.

How the NGAT is scored

Each test your child takes is reported on its own. There are no subscores inside a test, and there is no single combined index. For each test you may see:

1. A standard score, which compares your child to other students using a scale where 100 is average.
2. A percentile, which says what share of students scored at or below your child.
3. A stanine, a simpler 1 to 9 band.

Scores can be compared two ways, and the difference matters. National norms compare your child to students across the country and are available for kindergarten through grade 6. Local norms compare your child to students in their own district and are available for kindergarten through grade 9. Many districts identify students using local norms, so ask yours which one it uses.

NGAT and NNAT: what actually changed

Both tests come from the same author and both measure reasoning rather than schoolwork. The publisher describes them as conceptually the same. These are the practical differences for a family:

For a fuller picture of the older test, see our guide to what the NNAT is and how it compares to the CogAT and OLSAT.

How to prepare for the NGAT

Reasoning skills build the way any skill builds, with regular practice over time. Months of short sessions do more than a week of long ones, so the single most useful thing you can do is start earlier than feels necessary.

1. Practice 10 to 15 minutes a day, for as long as you have before the test. Short and regular beats long and occasional, and it is far easier to keep going on a school night.
2. Practice all three kinds of questions, not just the shapes. Picture questions, pattern-and-shape questions, and number-pattern questions each ask for a different kind of thinking. Children are rarely equally comfortable with all three, and the weakest one is where practice pays most.
3. Talk through the rule, not just the answer. After a question, ask your child what changed from one picture to the next and what stayed the same. Naming the rule out loud is what carries over to a question they have not seen before.
4. Do at least two full, timed practice runs, and more if you can. Two is a minimum rather than a target. Pacing and stamina are their own skill, separate from knowing how to answer.
5. Practice on a screen. The NGAT is given online only, so practice with a mouse or a trackpad on a computer or tablet. A child who has only ever worked on paper has to learn the interface on test day.

Because the questions get harder as the test goes on, it also helps to tell your child ahead of time that the last questions are supposed to feel hard, and that it is normal not to be sure. Expect it, and it is far less rattling than meeting it cold.

Questions to ask your school

Districts decide most of the details themselves, and those details change year to year. Useful questions get a date or a number back:

1. Which of the three tests will my child take, and in what grade?
2. What week is testing, and is there a make-up date?
3. Does the district identify students using local norms or national norms?
4. What score, on which test, is used in the decision?
5. When will I get the score report, and what will it show?

Our list of questions to ask your school covers the rest of the process. You can also look up your district's gifted testing window.