NNAT Test Prep: NNAT3 Nonverbal Reasoning for Ages 6 to 9

In short

The NNAT3 (Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, Third Edition) is Pearson’s nonverbal test of general ability for kindergarten to grade 12: about 30 minutes of shape and design patterns, with no reading, writing or speaking. Districts such as Edmonds, Fort Worth ISD and St. Louis use it as a universal gifted screener. Honest readiness is a calm look at the format plus spatial and pattern play. We teach that kind of play live online for children aged 6 to 9, one to one or in a batch, and the opening class costs nothing.

Spatial thinking, grown slowly

Three courses for children who think in pictures

Each one stretches the visual reasoning the NNAT3 samples, and keeps going long after screening season.

Reasoning and Readiness for Young Thinkers (Ages 6 to 9) course thumbnail

NNT / 01

Reasoning and readiness, ages 6 to 9

Shapes, symmetry and patterns explained aloud.

Open the syllabus →

Problem Solving and Computational Thinking for Kids course thumbnail

NNT / 02

Problem solving for kids

Spotting rules and testing them step by step.

Open the syllabus →

Elementary Maths for Grades 1-5 course thumbnail

NNT / 03

Elementary math, grades 1 to 5

Geometry and number sense from the school year, deeper.

Open the syllabus →

The NNAT3

What is the NNAT3, and why is it nonverbal?

The NNAT3 is a short group test from Pearson that asks children to reason with shapes and designs instead of words. Pearson describes it as a measure of general ability, not of what a child has been taught.

From Pearson’s pages

Pearson’s product page calls the NNAT3 "a nonverbal measure of general ability for students in kindergarten through grade 12" and lists administration as "30 minutes, Online or Paper-Pencil, Group-Administered".

Its campaign page adds that "NNAT3 uses pictorial directions and requires no spoken or written language." The overview brochure says the test has been in use "Since 2004", "Uses geometric shapes and designs" and "Uses only two colors, yellow and blue", a choice made with color vision in mind.

Why districts like that

A child who is still learning English, or who reads slowly, can show reasoning on the NNAT3 that a word-heavy test might hide. Pearson’s campaign page names English language learners, students with dyslexia and twice-exceptional students among those it can help identify.

Scores are reported as a Naglieri Ability Index (NAI) plus percentile ranks, stanines, scaled scores and normal curve equivalents, all compared by age. Pearson says parent reports are available in English and Spanish.

Sources: Pearson NNAT3 product page, Pearson NNAT3 overview and the NNAT3 overview brochure, read 31 October 2026. Modern Age Coders is not connected with Pearson or with any district named here.

Levels by grade

Which NNAT3 level will my child take?

The NNAT3 has seven levels, lettered A to G, each matched to a grade or a band of grades. A second grader usually takes Level C.

NNAT3 levels and grades, from the booklet names on Pearson’s NNAT3 product page (read 31 October 2026)
Level	Grade	Forms
A	Kindergarten	Two
B	Grade 1	Two
C	Grade 2	Two
D	Grades 3 and 4	Two
E	Grades 5 and 6	One
F	Grades 7 to 9	One
G	Grades 10 to 12	One

Same length, harder designs

Edmonds School District tells families: "There are 48 questions per test regardless of age." What changes from level to level is the difficulty of the designs, not the length of the session.

Pearson’s product details read "Levels A, B, C, D: 2 forms per level; Levels E, F, G: 1 form per level", which lets a district retest a younger child on a different form.

Timing in practice

Both Pearson and the districts below describe a session of about 30 minutes. Fort Worth ISD says "The NNAT3 is a timed, thirty minute test that is taken online." Edmonds says its students sit it "on a Chromebook at school during the school day".

For a six- or seven-year-old, thirty minutes of steady looking is the real challenge. Sitting with a puzzle for ten or fifteen minutes at a time at home builds that stamina gently.

Four kinds of item

What kinds of reasoning does the NNAT3 ask for?

Edmonds School District’s parent page names four item types. Our one-line summaries follow; we show no items, and the district points families to the publisher’s own material for that.

The four NNAT3 item types as Edmonds School District describes them (read 31 October 2026), with our plain-English summary
Item type	The district’s description, summarised	The thinking underneath (ours)
Pattern Completion	Part of a design is hidden; choose the piece that completes it	Seeing a whole picture and how it continues
Reasoning by Analogy	Objects change across a row; work out how each is modified	Describing a change, then applying it again
Serial Reasoning	Designs change across rows and down columns; find the sequence	Tracking two rules at once
Spatial Visualization	A third picture is made by combining the first two	Holding two shapes in mind and merging them

The common thread

All four ask the same quiet question: what changed, and what stayed the same? A child who can say "the shape stayed, the color swapped" or "it turned a quarter each time" has the habit every item leans on.

Edmonds describes the test as measuring "a child's logical reasoning and problem-solving skills" through identifying patterns, completing sequences and making analogies.

What it does not need

No reading, no counting words, no school facts. Pearson’s brochure lists that "It does not require reading, writing, or speaking".

That is why a sheet of arithmetic will not help, and why a child who loves LEGO, jigsaws or drawing may find the test oddly familiar.

District screening

How do school districts use the NNAT3 for gifted screening?

Many districts give the NNAT3 to every child in one grade, then look more closely at those who score highly. Three public districts that publish their process show how it works.

NNAT3 screening in three public districts (district pages read 31 October 2026)
District	Who sits it	What happens next
Edmonds School District, Washington	All 2nd and 6th graders, in class; other grades by opt-in	Highly Capable screening; families can refuse by October 31st with a Test Refusal form
Fort Worth ISD, Texas	All first graders, plus referred students	A campus committee weighs it with MAP scores, teacher and parent feedback and student work
St. Louis Public Schools, Missouri	All 2nd grade students	A Naglieri Ability Index of at least 110, the 73rd percentile, leads to further evaluation

Why a nonverbal screener

Fort Worth ISD explains that "TEA requires school districts to consider a Gifted and Talented (G/T) identification process that includes an assessment in the student's home language, or that is non-verbal." It adds: "Fort Worth ISD uses the NNAT3 as a universal screener for all first graders."

Screening a whole grade, Fort Worth says, is meant "to seek and serve giftedness at all campuses within all populations", not only among children whose parents ask.

One data point among several

Fort Worth is clear that the NNAT3 "is not the only data point considered in the G/T screening process". St. Louis treats an NAI of 110 as a reason to look further, not as a label.

St. Louis also notes that assessments from other districts or independent examiners are not accepted there. Check your own district’s rule before arranging private testing.

Sources: Edmonds School District screener page, Fort Worth ISD NNAT3 page and St. Louis Public Schools gifted identification, read 31 October 2026. Edmonds lists 2026 school testing dates from November 16 to December 14.

Should you study?

Should my child study for the NNAT3?

Edmonds School District asks this question on its own page and answers it in one word: no. Being comfortable with the format is the only preparation it suggests.

The district’s answer

Under the heading "Should My Student Study Before Taking this test?", Edmonds writes: "No, however it would benefit your child to be comfortable with the testing format prior to testing." Elsewhere on the page it says "excessive preparation for the NNAT isn't recommended", while seeing the kinds of questions can be helpful.

Edmonds suggests families search online for NNAT3 Level C for second grade and Level E for sixth grade, so the format is not a surprise. We would add: start from Pearson’s own pages rather than a prep seller. That is familiarity, not drilling.

Our view, plainly

We agree. A young child who has rehearsed stacks of look-alike designs may score above their everyday reasoning, and then be placed in a program that moves faster than suits them.

What genuinely helps is the slow, playful work below: turning, folding, building and drawing, with plenty of talk about what changed. It grows spatial reasoning that also pays off in geometry, fractions, coding and art.

Two to three weeks before (ours). Keep everyday play going: jigsaws, LEGO, drawing, tangram-style shapes. No timers.
One week before. Look once, together, at the publisher’s or district’s description of the format. Talk about it as a puzzle game.
The evening before. Normal routine, normal bedtime. Nothing to practice.
On the day. A good breakfast and a light word: "It is a picture puzzle game. Just do your best and have fun."
Afterwards. Ask what was fun, not how it went. The result is one data point for the school, not a verdict on your child.

Spatial play

What spatial play builds the reasoning the NNAT3 samples?

Play that asks a child to notice what moves and what stays the same. Every activity here is ours, uses real objects, and is deliberately unlike a test page.

Turn the tile (ours)

Draw a dot in one corner of a paper square. Turn it a quarter at a time and ask where the dot will be before each turn. Then try half turns, and turning the other way.

Two windows (ours)

Draw a simple shape on each of two sheets of tracing or baking paper. Before laying one over the other, ask your child to draw what the stack will look like. Then lay them together and compare.

The cut picture (ours)

Cut a picture from a magazine into four or six pieces, hide one piece, and ask your child to describe what the missing piece must show. Then reveal it.

Our worked example: where an arrow points after each quarter turn clockwise
Quarter turns	Arrow points	What a child might say
0	Up	"It starts at the top."
1	Right	"It moved one corner round, like a clock hand."
2	Down	"Two turns, so it is upside down."
3	Left	"Three turns is the same as one turn the other way."
4	Up	"Four turns and it is back where it started."

Why the arrow matters (ours)

The insight in the last two rows is a real piece of reasoning: four quarter turns make a full turn, so five turns look exactly like one. A child who sees that can predict any number of turns without doing them all.

Change one thing and ask again: what if the arrow also changes color every turn? Now two things move at once, which is the kind of double change that takes practice to track.

The rule you invent (ours)

Swap roles. Your child lays out a grid of three by three objects, such as buttons, coins or blocks, following a secret rule of their own across the rows. You try to guess it.

Inventing a rule is harder than spotting one, and children love beating a parent. It is also the clearest evidence that they understand patterns from the inside.

Where your child is

Four stages of seeing change in a picture

Our description of how spatial reasoning tends to develop between six and nine.

Stages of tracking change (ours)
Stage	What it looks like
1. Matching	Finds the identical picture; misses small differences
2. One change	Notices a single change, such as color or size
3. Two changes	Tracks two things changing at once, such as position and shading
4. Predicting	Says what comes next before looking at the choices

For parents

Moving from stage 2 to stage 3 is the big step for most seven- and eight-year-olds. It comes from play, not pages.

Ask your child to cover the answers and predict first. That one habit raises the level of thinking quickly.

For children

Say what changed and what stayed the same. Then check if your idea works for every picture, not only the first two.

If two answers look right, look at the tiny details: corners, dots, which way a line points.

The catalogue

Courses for visual thinkers aged 5 to 12

Spatial reasoning connects to geometry, art and code, so these live courses keep a picture thinker moving.

I

Reasoning and shapes

Ages 5 to 9

NNT / R / 01

Reasoning and readiness

Patterns and spatial play.

Open the syllabus

NNT / R / 02

Early math foundations

Shapes and counting, hands on.

Open the syllabus

NNT / R / 03

Mental math

Seeing amounts at a glance.

Open the syllabus

II

Elementary math

Grades 1 to 5

NNT / E / 01

Elementary math

Geometry and number.

Open the syllabus

NNT / E / 02

Problem solving

Rules and steps.

Open the syllabus

NNT / E / 03

Abacus and mental math

Numbers you can see.

Open the syllabus

III

Shapes that move

Ages 7 to 12

NNT / C / 01

Scratch coding

Rotate, glide and repeat.

Open the syllabus

NNT / C / 02

Python for kids

Turtle drawings by rule.

Open the syllabus

NNT / C / 03

Game design for kids

Worlds built from patterns.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Spatial lessons a young child looks forward to

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

Weekdays

Short sessions after school, puzzles on camera.

Weekends

A slower slot for building and drawing.

1-on-1

For a child who wants to go faster, or slower.

Predict first

Children say what comes next before choosing.

Hands busy

Paper, tiles and blocks at the desk.

Puzzles we wrote

Never copies of test designs.

One look at format

So the day feels like a game.

Honest about results

No class can promise a screening outcome.

Batch or private

Fifteen to twenty children, or one.

Student work

Made by children in our classes

Patterns, drawings and early programs from young students. Browse student labs for more.

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Questions from parents

NNAT test prep: what parents ask

What is the NNAT3 test?

It is the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, Third Edition, published by Pearson. It measures general ability with shapes and designs for kindergarten to grade 12, and needs no reading, writing or speaking.

How long is the NNAT3?

About 30 minutes. Pearson lists 30 minutes, and Fort Worth ISD calls it a timed, thirty minute test taken online.

How many questions are on the NNAT3?

Edmonds School District tells parents there are 48 questions per test regardless of age. The designs get harder at higher levels.

What NNAT3 level is for second grade?

Level C. Pearson matches Level A to kindergarten, B to grade 1, C to grade 2 and D to grades 3 and 4.

Should my child study for the NNAT?

Edmonds School District answers no, adding that it helps for a child to be comfortable with the format. A calm look at the format plus everyday spatial play is the honest approach.

What is a good NNAT3 score?

Districts set their own lines. St. Louis Public Schools, for example, looks further at any child with a Naglieri Ability Index of 110 or more, which it puts at the 73rd percentile.

Why do schools use a nonverbal test?

It lets children show reasoning regardless of language or reading level. Fort Worth ISD notes that the Texas Education Agency requires an identification process that includes a home-language or nonverbal assessment.

What do your lessons cover?

Children aged 6 to 9 work live with a teacher on patterns, turning and folding shapes, combining pictures and explaining what changed. We use our own puzzles and real objects, never copies of test items.

What times are classes?

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

Are you part of Pearson or my school district?

No. We are an independent online school with no connection to Pearson or any district, and we never promise a score or gifted placement.

Elsewhere on this site

Related pages

More for families of young children in the US.

First grade math tutoring

The year Fort Worth screens everyone.

Second grade math tutoring

Shapes, place value and patterns.

Kindergarten math tutoring

First steps with shapes and numbers.

Fourth grade math tutoring

Angles, symmetry and fractions.

Math tutoring for kids

Live lessons for children across the US.

Math Kangaroo preparation

Picture-rich puzzles in a friendly contest.

Homeschool math curriculum

Planning math at home.

Related pages in this guide

Part of the guide: US gifted and selective school tests

Gifted and talented screening

Exam schools and private high schools

Programs for advanced students

More guides: US state math tests by state · US math placement and college readiness tests · Homeschool and school math curricula guide · US math and coding competitions guide

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