Revelian Cognitive Ability Test Practice: The Aussie CCAT Cousin at Telstra, CBA, and Qantas
Revelian is the test most Americans have never heard of and that half the candidates in Australia and New Zealand will face at some point in their careers. Owned by Criteria Corp since 2022, Revelian sits between the CCAT and the SHL General Ability in difficulty, and it is the default cognitive screen for the big-four Aussie banks, Telstra, Qantas, and several large mining and logistics employers.
What Revelian actually measures
The Revelian Cognitive Ability Test (RCAT) is a 51-question, 20-minute general aptitude test. It blends verbal, numerical, and abstract reasoning across three subsections that flow into each other with a single overall clock. Unlike the CCAT, Revelian groups its questions by type rather than shuffling them, which means you will do all verbal first, then all numerical, then all abstract.
Revelian's difficulty sits in the middle ground between the CCAT and the Wonderlic. The verbal vocabulary is Australian-English flavored but still accessible. The numerical items are slightly heavier on chart reading and lighter on pure arithmetic than the CCAT. The abstract section uses Raven's-style matrix patterns but at a faster pace.
What makes Revelian distinctive is its scoring ecosystem. Criteria Corp now owns Revelian, so the test shares psychometric infrastructure with the CCAT, but Revelian norms are explicitly Australian and New Zealand. A candidate who scored 75th percentile on the CCAT might land at 72nd on Revelian simply because the norm pool is different.
The three Revelian subsections and how to approach each
Because questions are grouped by type, you can pace each subsection individually. Knowing the typical per-section time budget is a major advantage.
Verbal Reasoning (~18 questions)
Synonyms, antonyms, and short-passage inference. Australian vocabulary conventions apply (e.g., 'organise' instead of 'organize'). Budget roughly 7 minutes, which gives you 22 seconds per item.
Numerical Reasoning (~18 questions)
Percentages, ratios, and chart-based problems. Calculator not permitted. Roughly 8 minutes total, or 26 seconds per item. Chart reading is the most time-sensitive area.
Abstract Reasoning (~15 questions)
Pattern continuation, odd-one-out, and shape-substitution rules drawn from a Raven's-style library. Budget 5 minutes, or 20 seconds per item. This is usually the fastest section if you have trained your eye.
Subsection flow
Sections run consecutively with no break. Once you finish verbal, numerical starts immediately. Do not carry unused verbal time into numerical, the clock does not pool across sections.
Revelian scoring and how Australian employers use it
Your raw score is the number correct out of 51. Revelian converts the raw into a percentile against an Australian-NZ norm pool segmented by role: entry-level, professional, graduate, and executive. The same raw can map to different percentiles depending on which norm the employer selected.
Typical employer cutoffs: Telstra and Qantas graduate programs target 70th percentile (roughly 32 correct). Commonwealth Bank and ANZ push harder for investment and corporate banking roles, often 85th percentile (roughly 40 correct). Operations roles at mining and logistics employers often accept 55th to 65th percentile (roughly 28 to 31 correct).
There is no wrong-answer penalty. Guess on anything you cannot solve within the per-item budget. A common pattern among high scorers: rush the last 4 items with educated guesses rather than spending 2 minutes on a hard item that still leaves 4 unanswered.
Who uses the Revelian?
Revelian is the default cognitive screen at Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Telstra, Qantas, and a long list of Australian mining, logistics, and retail employers. It is also gaining ground in New Zealand graduate recruitment.
A 7-day Revelian prep plan tuned to Australian hiring pipelines
Day 1: Baseline and timing awareness
Take one full 51-item Revelian-style practice at untimed pace. The goal is accuracy and subsection weakness identification, not time. Note which section ate your cognitive load, because that tells you where to drill first.
Days 2-3: Numerical drill
Numerical is the most time-sensitive section for most candidates. Drill 18-question sets at 8 minutes each. Focus on mental math for 2-digit percentages, chart interpretation under time pressure, and ratio conversion. No calculator.
Day 4: Verbal drill
18-question verbal sets at 7 minutes. Build a working vocabulary list of Australian business terms. Train quick passage skimming: first-read for main idea, second-glance for the specific claim, commit.
Day 5: Abstract drill
15-question abstract sets at 5 minutes. Learn the six rule families (rotation, color inversion, size change, distribution-of-three, shape addition, two-rule combinations). The abstract section is the fastest route to higher percentiles if you currently leave items blank.
Day 6: Full timed mock
51 questions, 20 minutes, no pauses. Compare to Day 1. If you did not gain at least 8 correct, your issue is pacing, specifically getting stuck on 2 to 3 hard items and letting the clock run.
Day 7: Rest and mental calibration
No new practice. Skim your error log from Days 2 through 5. Sleep 8 hours. Revelian punishes fatigue especially on the abstract section where visual processing accuracy drops first.
Three Revelian mistakes that drop percentile bands
Carrying unused verbal time forward
Subsections are separately timed internally even though the overall clock shows 20 minutes. Racing ahead in verbal does not extend your numerical budget. Pace each section to its own item count, not to the overall clock.
Prepping with American vocabulary tests
Revelian uses Australian-English spelling and some distinctively Australian phrasing. Candidates who drill on American SAT vocabulary lists lose 3 to 5 seconds per verbal item pattern-matching to unfamiliar spellings.
Treating the abstract section as optional
Because abstract is the last section and feels 'less serious,' tired candidates rush through the final 5 items and guess poorly. Abstract is the fastest points on Revelian if you are fresh. Save cognitive bandwidth for it.
Related reading
Revelian FAQs
Revelian rewards the fast, the steady, and the calibrated.
Timed Revelian simulations, subsection-specific drills, and Australian-norm percentile feedback.
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