Original research · CCAT practice data
What our CCAT practice data shows
Where the points go on a full-length CCAT practice test: how many people run out of time, which sections and question types they miss most, how long they spend per question, and what changes with practice. From practice tests taken on CCAT Tests between 8 June 2025 and 2 October 2026.
By the CCATTests Research and Editorial Team
Published · Percentages and averages only
Key findings
- 1
52% of full-length practice attempts ran out of time before question 50. On a first attempt it was 74%.
- 2
Math was the hardest section: 75% of math answers were right, against 78% to 80% for the other three sections.
- 3
Charts and tables were the most missed question type, right 60% of the time, followed by ordering and arrangements (67%) and word problems (73%).
- 4
Answers given in under 20 seconds were right 81% of the time. After 40 seconds on one question that fell to 65%, and after a minute to 60%.
- 5
People who took three or more different papers scored 3.5 points higher on their third and later papers than on their first, and the share who ran out of time fell from 71% to 43%.
52%
of full-length attempts ran out of time before question 50
75%
of math answers were right, the lowest of the four sections
60%
right on chart and table questions, the most missed type
+3.5
points from a first new paper to the third and later ones
Finding 1 · Time
The clock beats most people, especially the first time
The CCAT gives you 15 minutes for 50 questions, which is 18 seconds a question. In our data, 52% of full-length attempts ended with the clock before question 50. On a first attempt, 74% did.
Attempts that ran out left 10 questions unanswered on average. Because a wrong answer costs nothing, those blanks are free points left behind.
Accuracy also falls as the paper goes on, from 87% on questions 1 to 10 to 65% on questions 41 to 50. Later questions are harder in our papers, as they are on the real CCAT, and they are also where people rush: the median time drops back to 11 seconds.
A typical attempt that ran out: 40 of 50 answered
A quick guess on every blank would have been worth about 2.0 points on average. A wrong answer costs nothing.
Share of answers right, by question position
Finding 2 · Sections
Math is the section that costs the most points
75% of math answers were right, the lowest of the four sections. Math was also the slowest, with a median of 20 seconds an answer, and the most often left unreached: 16% of math questions were never answered.
Wrong answers take longer than right ones. In math the median wrong answer took 23 seconds against 19 for a right one, and in spatial 18 against 12. When a question is dragging on, the extra seconds rarely rescue it.
Share of answers right, by section
- Math75%
- Spatial78%
- Verbal79%
- Logic80%
Finding 3 · Question types
The question types people miss most
Charts and tables were the most missed type, right only 60% of the time. Next came ordering and arrangements (67%) and word problems (73%), all of which ask you to hold several facts at once.
The easiest were quick arithmetic (88%), syllogisms and deductions (86%) and number series (84%). Questions with one clear rule to find are where practice pays off fastest.
Question types are grouped by their wording, see the methodology.
Share of answers right, by question type, most missed first
- Charts and tables60%
- Ordering and arrangements67%
- Word problems73%
- Matrices73%
- Odd one out75%
- If-then statements75%
- Percentages75%
- Attention to detail76%
- Analogies77%
- Antonyms80%
- Shape sequences81%
- Sentence completion82%
- Number and letter sequences84%
- Number series84%
- Syllogisms and deductions86%
- Quick arithmetic88%
Finding 4 · Time per question
Long thinking rarely pays on the CCAT
The median answer took 14 seconds, comfortably inside the 18-second average. The trouble is the long tail: 35% of answers took longer than 18 seconds, and each one borrows time from a later question.
Answers given in under 20 seconds were right 81% of the time. Between 40 and 60 seconds that fell to 65%, and past a minute to 60%. Slow answers are often hard questions, so extra time is not what makes them wrong, but it shows how little a long struggle buys.
Share of answers right, by seconds spent on the question
Median answer time against the budget
Finding 5 · Practice
Practice mostly fixes pacing
Among people who took at least three different full-length papers, the average score went from 31.7 on the first paper to 35.3 on the third and later ones, +3.5 points. 74% scored higher than on their first paper.
Most of that gain came from reaching more questions. The share who ran out of time fell from 71% to 43%, while accuracy on answered questions moved only from 75% to 78%.
Retakes of a paper already seen are left out, because they test memory. Papers differ a little in difficulty, so treat this as what we observed, not a promise.
First paper against third and later papers
Average score out of 50
31.7 → 35.3
Questions answered out of 50
42.2 → 46.1
Answers right
75% → 78%
Ran out of time
71% → 43%
Scores
How scores on our practice papers spread
The average score was 34.7 out of 50 and the median 35. A first attempt averaged 30.2. Overall, 78% of answered questions were right.
These are scores on our own practice papers by people who chose to practice, many of them more than once. They are not official CCAT scores and should not be compared with Criteria's published average of about 24 out of 50. For what a score means on the real test, see our CCAT scoring guide.
Share of attempts by score out of 50
What it means for your prep
Five changes the data argues for
- 01
Never let the clock end on blanks
A wrong answer costs nothing on the CCAT. In the last 30 seconds, pick an answer for every question you have not reached.
- 02
Set a move-on rule
Past 40 seconds on one question, the chance of getting it right fell to about 65%. If you are still stuck at 30 seconds, guess and move on.
- 03
Put math first in your practice
Math had the lowest accuracy and the slowest answers. Chart and table questions and word problems are where the points go.
- 04
Learn the puzzle formats before test day
Ordering and arrangement puzzles were the most missed logic type. A quick sketch of the order beats holding it in your head.
- 05
Practice full papers against the clock
The biggest change across repeated papers was pace, not knowledge. Single questions without a timer cannot train that.
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Methodology
How we got these numbers
Data from 8 June 2025 to 2 October 2026. We update this page when we refresh the data, and the date at the top changes with it.
Cite this research
CCATTests Research and Editorial Team (2026). CCAT practice data: scores, timing and the questions people miss. CCAT Tests. https://ccattests.com/research
You are welcome to quote these figures with a link to this page.
Download the figures (JSON)- What we looked at
- Full-length practice papers on CCAT Tests, 50 questions in 15 minutes like the real CCAT, completed by signed-in users between 8 June 2025 and 2 October 2026. Results of the free test taken without an account are not stored, so they are not included. The 20-question diagnostic and the topical papers are left out because their length and timing differ.
- What we left out
- Attempts with no answers at all. Attempts with fewer than 5 answers, which are people opening a paper and leaving. Attempts clicked through at under 3 seconds a question. Duplicate submissions of the same paper a few seconds apart. Attempts whose recorded time ran more than 2 minutes past the 15-minute limit. Staff and test accounts.
- Running out of time
- On our test page you answer each question to move on, and the paper submits itself when the 15 minutes end. An attempt with fewer than 50 answers therefore ran out of time.
- Timing
- The test page records the seconds spent on each question. More than 5 minutes on a single question is treated as someone stepping away, and that question is left out of the timing figures.
- Question types
- Our question banks tag each question by section. Within a section we grouped questions by their wording, for example "is to" for analogies, "opposite" for antonyms, or a chart or table for chart questions. Types with too few answers to be reliable are not shown.
- Practice comparison
- We follow each person's papers in date order and keep only papers they had not taken before, because a retake of the same paper tests memory. We compare their first paper with the average of their third and later papers. Our papers are not perfectly equal in difficulty, and people who keep practicing may differ from people who stop, so read this as what we observed, not a promise.
- Privacy
- Every figure is computed on our own server and only percentages, averages and points leave it. No individual result, name or account appears here, and any group too small to report is left out.
- Limits
- These are our own practice papers, written in the style of the CCAT. They are not official CCAT questions, and the people in this data chose to practice, often more than once. The figures describe practice on this site, not the real test, and they do not replace Criteria Corp's published norms.
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