Wondering what kinds of questions your child will be asked on the SCAT (School and College Ability Test)? Wanting your child to be prepared and help them qualify for a CTY program? Here are five examples. For additional practice, sign up for our 100 free practice questions.
IMPORTANT: While the SCAT sample questions shown on this page are representative of what your child will see on the exam, they aren’t taken directly from the actual test that’s being administered this year.
Overview of the Analogy and Quantitative Sections of the SCAT Test
The School and College Ability Test (SCAT) is an essential standardized examination administered by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) to evaluate the general intellectual ability of students in grades 2 to 8. The SCAT assesses verbal and mathematical reasoning skills, which are key indicators of academic success. The test is divided into two main sections: Analogies and Quantitative.
Analogies Section:
The Analogies section of the SCAT is designed to measure a student’s verbal reasoning abilities and their understanding of relationships between words and ideas. This section consists of multiple-choice questions that require students to identify relationships between word pairs and then apply those relationships to new word pairs.
Each analogy question presents a pair of words that are related in some way, followed by another word with a missing word to complete the analogy. Students must select the correct word from the given options to complete the analogy.
Quantitative Section:
The Quantitative section of the SCAT measures a student’s mathematical reasoning abilities, focusing on the understanding of mathematical relationships and concepts rather than the mastery of specific mathematical operations. This section consists of multiple-choice questions that require students to analyze numerical relationships, identify patterns, and solve problems.
The questions in this section cover a range of mathematical topics, including but not limited to arithmetic, number sense, algebra, geometry, and basic problem-solving. The Quantitative section does not require the use of calculators, as it is designed to evaluate a student’s reasoning skills rather than their computational abilities.
SCAT Sample Question #1 — Analogies
Look at the two words on top. They belong together in a certain way. Now look at the answer choices below. Choose the best pair of words in the answer choices that go together the same way the two words on top go together.
Gallup Poll: George Gallup ::
A. Gortex: Al Gore
B. apple Betty: Betty Crocker
C. Heimlich Maneuver: Dr. Henry Heimlich
D. sandwich: Lord Sandwich
SCAT Sample Question #2 — Analogies
Look at the two words on top. They belong together in a certain way. Now look at the answer choices below. Choose the best pair of words in the answer choices that go together the same way the two words on top go together.
gardener: hoe ::
A. carpenter: cable cutter
B. seamstress: wrench
C. baker: dough whisk
D. electrician: plunger
SCAT Sample Question #3 — Analogies
Look at the two words on top. They belong together in a certain way. Now look at the answer choices below. Choose the best pair of words in the answer choices that go together the same way the two words on top go together.
nucleus: cell ::
A. pupil: ear
B. motor: floppy disk drive
C. flower: pharynx
D. duodenum: digestive system
SCAT Sample Question #4 — Quantitative
Each of the following questions has two parts. Look at the part in column A. Then look at the part in column B. Decide if one part is greater than the other or if the parts are equal.
A – if the part in Column A is greater
B – if the part in Column B is greater
C – if the two parts are equal
D – if there is not enough information to decide
SCAT Sample Question #5 — Quantitative
Each of the following questions has two parts. Look at the part in column A. Then look at the part in column B. Decide if one part is greater than the other or if the parts are equal. Then choose one of the four answers below.
A – if the part in Column A is greater
B – if the part in Column B is greater
C – if the two parts are equal
D – if there is not enough information to decide
Answers: C, C, D, A, B
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