Wondering what kinds of questions your child will be asked on the California Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)? Here are six sample California GATE practice questions.
IMPORTANT: While the California GATE sample questions shown on this page are representative of what your child will be seeing, they aren’t taken directly from the actual test being administered this year.
Different Tests Administered for the California GATE Test
CogAT Test
Unlike academic tests that measure what a student has already learned, the CogAT aims to gauge the student’s potential to succeed in school-related tasks by measuring a broad range of cognitive skills.
The CogAT is divided into three primary battery sections, each of which tests a different area of cognitive function:
- Verbal Battery: This section evaluates verbal reasoning and language skills. Tasks may involve vocabulary, analogy solving, and sentence completion.
- Quantitative Battery: This part assesses quantitative reasoning skills, including number series, equation building, and quantitative relations.
- Nonverbal Battery: This section measures reasoning skills that do not require verbal or quantitative skills. It typically involves pattern recognition, figure analysis, and matrix reasoning.
OLSAT Test
The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT) is a test commonly used to assess students’ verbal and nonverbal reasoning abilities. Like the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), the OLSAT is often used in identifying students for gifted and talented programs, as well as for placement into advanced or specialized educational services. The test aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation of a student’s cognitive abilities, rather than what they have learned in school.
The OLSAT is organized into two primary sections:
- Verbal Section: This includes verbal comprehension and verbal reasoning questions. Types of questions may include analogies, classifications, and logical reasoning tasks that involve verbal skills.
- Nonverbal Section: This portion includes questions that measure nonverbal reasoning abilities, including pattern recognition, series completions, and logic games that involve shapes and symbols rather than words.
Each section is further broken down into various subtests designed to measure different aspects of verbal or nonverbal reasoning.
NNAT Test
The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) is an exam designed to assess the nonverbal reasoning abilities of children. Unlike other tests like the CogAT or OLSAT, which have verbal and quantitative components, the NNAT focuses exclusively on nonverbal skills. The test aims to measure cognitive ability in a way that is less reliant on language skills and formal schooling, making it more suitable for a diverse range of students, including those who are English Language Learners (ELL) or have limited verbal skills.
The NNAT is composed of various types of nonverbal reasoning questions, which usually involve pattern completion, analogies, serial reasoning and spatial visualization. The questions often feature shapes, symbols, or patterns,and the student is required to identify relationships, complete sequences, or find missing elements among these visual elements.
California GATE Test Sample Question #1 – CogAT
Look at the abacus below. The beads form a pattern. The beads for the 6th rod are missing. Choose the rod that goes in the 6th place to complete the pattern.
California GATE Test Sample Question #2 – CogAT
Choose the box that has the shapes that include neither a circle nor a square.
California GATE Test Sample Question #3 – OLSAT
Choose the picture that shows this: Cindy dived off the board, but has not yet hit the water.
California GATE Test Sample Question #4 – OLSAT
Look at the shapes in the boxes on top. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box, so the shapes in the bottom row will relate to each other in the same way as the shapes in the top row?
California GATE Test Sample Question #5 – NNAT
Look at the shapes in the boxes on top. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box, so the shapes in the bottom row will relate to each other in the same way as the shapes in the top row?
California GATE Test Sample Question #6 – NNAT
Look at this puzzle. There is a piece missing. Touch the answer that shows the piece that completes the puzzle.
(Answers: 3rd from left, 3rd from left, 4th from left, 4th from left, B, A)