CCAT percentile chart: what your raw score means

What is a CCAT percentile?

When you take the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT), the hiring test Criteria Corp sells to employers, the employer gets two headline numbers. The raw score is "the number of questions you get right"^C1, out of 50. The percentile places that raw score against Criteria's reference group. Criteria's own example: a percentile of 45 means the person "scored better than 45% of the group on which the test was normed"^C2.

Two definitions help with the rest of this page. The median is the middle score: half the group scored above it, half below. The standard deviation (SD) measures how spread out scores are around the middle. A small SD means most people bunch near the median, so each point there passes a lot of people. A large SD means scores spread out, so each point passes fewer.

The reference group is not the other people who applied for your job. It's a large sample of working adults and job applicants. Your percentile says where you'd sit in that crowd.

CCAT raw score to percentile chart (estimated)

Each row gives two estimates, one for each of Criteria's published norm groups. Where they differ, the truth is likely between them. Raw scores below 10 and above 45 sit at the very ends of the curve, where the model rounds to the 1st and 99th percentile and says little.

A few things to read off the chart. Between about 20 and 30, each extra point moves you several percentile points, because that's where most people score. Past the mid-30s the gains get smaller in percentile terms, because few people are left to pass. By this model, the 75th percentile sits at about 29 to 30 out of 50, the 85th at about 32 to 33, and the 90th at about 33 to 35.

Reading three scores on the chart

Numbers are easier to feel with examples. Here are three raw scores and what the chart says about each.

• A 21. About the 33 to 35th percentile. Below the middle, but at or above Criteria's suggested floor for 34 of its 42 job families. Three more points get you to the median.
• A 27. About the 63 to 67th percentile. Above the middle of both reference groups and above every suggested job-family floor. Three points separate this from a 24, and they move you roughly 14 to 17 percentile points.
• A 33. About the 85 to 90th percentile. Well ahead of most of the reference group. From here, each extra point moves you only two or three percentile points, because few people score this high.

The lesson for preparation: if you're in the low to mid 20s, a few extra correct answers move you a long way. Those points usually come from pacing and from one or two question types you're slow on, not from learning anything new. Type in any score on the CCAT score calculator to see its estimate and which of Criteria's job-family floors it clears.

How these percentiles are estimated

Criteria publishes three facts about the CCAT score distribution, and nothing more detailed:

• The median is 24. Its candidate page says "the average test taker only gets 24 questions right"^C1.
• One exact point: a raw score of 24 "corresponds to a percentile rank of 50"^C3.
• Two norm groups. The product page reports 985 working adults with a median of 24, a mean of 24.2 and an SD of 8.58^C2. The 2026 Information Brief reports 106,740 job applicants and employees with a median of 24 and an SD of 7.00^C4.

From those, we fit a normal curve (a bell curve) to each group: centered on the published mean, or on the median where no mean is published, with the published SD. Raw scores are whole numbers, so each score is treated as the interval half a point either side of it, and the percentile is the share of the curve below that interval plus half the share inside it. Results are rounded and kept between 1 and 99.

The check: the model puts 24 at the 50th percentile for the brief's group and the 49th for the product page's, against Criteria's published 50. The product group's mean of 24.2 sits slightly above its median, which is why it lands a point lower.

The limits, plainly. Real CCAT scores are bounded at 0 and 50 and probably not perfectly bell-shaped, especially near the top, where fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50 questions^C1. So the model is closest near the middle and least reliable at the ends. Criteria's actual percentile tables may differ from these numbers. Only your score report shows your real percentile.

Why do CCAT percentile charts disagree?

Search for a CCAT percentile chart and you'll find several, with the same raw score a few or many percentile points apart. Charts you find online often show a single number without a source. That's the problem. Criteria doesn't publish a full chart, so every chart is an estimate, and an estimate without its inputs can't be checked.

The usual reasons two charts disagree:

• Different spreads. Criteria's two norm groups have SDs of 7.00 and 8.58. On this page, that difference alone moves a 30 from the 80th to the 75th percentile. A chart that assumes some other spread will move it further.
• Old or unknown norms. Criteria's two published groups differ in size, date and spread. A chart built from some other set of figures may match neither.
• Mixing up percentile and percent correct. 30 out of 50 is 60% correct. It is not the 60th percentile; by our estimate it's about the 75 to 80th.
• Internal contradictions. If a chart puts 24 anywhere other than the 50th percentile, it disagrees with the one point Criteria does publish.

That's why this chart shows both norm groups, names the sources, and explains the model. If you want to check our math, everything you need is on this page.

How percentiles relate to employer cutoffs

Criteria does not set a passing score. It publishes suggested score ranges for 42 job families in its sample score report^C3, and every range runs to 50, so the floor is the number that matters. Those floors run from 17 to 24. Here is where each floor sits on the estimated chart:

Every suggested floor is at or below the median. In other words, the suggested floors screen out the lower part of the distribution; they don't ask for the top. The full list with each range is on what is a good CCAT score.

Employers can set their own, higher bar. Criteria's Information Brief says employers can build score ranges from their own staff or applicant pool^C4, and those private bars aren't published. One employer does publish its own: Crossover's CCAT guide says that "most often, a baseline score of 35/50 is the lowest possible passing grade," set by the hiring manager and higher for senior roles, and that 35 is its 85th percentile^X1. Our model of Criteria's general reference groups puts 35 at about the 90 to 94th percentile. The gap would make sense if Crossover's figure compares you with a different group, such as its own applicants, rather than Criteria's reference group; Crossover doesn't say. Crossover also has its own rules about which prep materials applicants may use; read them on our Crossover CCAT page before you practice.

For other employers, the reports are candidates' own, not published cutoffs. See companies that use the CCAT for what candidates report about each one's process.

What about CCAT section scores?

Criteria's score report also shows three sub-scores: spatial reasoning, verbal ability, and math and logic, each as its own percentile^C4. Criteria doesn't publish the norms behind them, so we don't estimate them. Any sub-score chart you see online is a guess on top of a guess.

What sub-scores are good for is direction. If your verbal percentile is high and your spatial percentile is low, spatial is where practice is cheapest. You usually won't see your report, though: Criteria's FAQ says results go to the employer and its support team doesn't have them^C5. A timed practice test gives you the same kind of split. Our free CCAT practice test breaks your result down by question type in the AI debrief afterwards, and the type pages, like CCAT spatial reasoning questions, show worked examples of each.

How to use a percentile to set a target

Work backwards from the bar you're trying to clear:

1. Find the floor. If your role matches one of Criteria's job families, start with its suggested floor. If the employer publishes its own bar, use that.
2. Add a margin. A practice score isn't a CCAT score, and a test day is not a practice day. Aim a few points above the bar.
3. Turn the target into pacing. To get 30 right, you'll need to reach more than 30 questions, because some answers will be wrong. The CCAT pacing calculator gives you per-minute checkpoints for any target.
4. Find where the points are. Take a full timed test, see which question types cost you the most, and drill those. The 7-day CCAT prep plan lays this out day by day, and CCAT time management covers the clock.

We can't promise a score or a percentile, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What this chart can do is tell you how far a given number of points moves you, so you can decide how hard to prepare.