CogAT or the Cognitive Abilities Test is a group test that is administered by schools to identify children for gifted programs at the school and district level. It is not an IQ test rather it tests students for their reasoning abilities and is also known as an above grade test. This means children in grade 2 are tested with the questions meant for an average 4th grader.
CogAT is a multiple-choice question test and can be taken on paper or a computer. The result of this test helps parents and teachers to assess children’s abilities and provide them with special instructions accordingly. CogAT is one of the most popular tests in the US for gifted students.
CogAT Levels
CogAT has a level system that is based on the grades. Here’s an informative table to help you understand the levels and their corresponding grades.
Grade | Level |
| Kindergarten | 5/6 |
| 1 | 7 |
| 2 | 8 |
| 3 | 9 |
| 4 | 10 |
| 5 | 11 |
| 6 | 12 |
| 7 – 8 | 13/14 |
| 9-10 | 15/16 |
| 11-12 | 17/18 |
CogAT Sections
CogAT assesses a child’s cognitive abilities through 3 sections. All three sections have sub-sections and in all, there are 118 – 176 questions based on the level of the CogAT.
- Verbal
The verbal battery of CogAT focuses on verbal skills such as verbal memory, vocabulary, and comprehension. This batter further has three sub-segments: picture analogies, sentence completion, and picture classification.
Picture analogies are a part of all levels till Level 9. Beyond that, students have to attempt verbal analogies. The picture analogy is a visual question that requires students to identify a picture from the options that relate to the third picture just like the first two relate to each other. In the word analogy, the same has to be done for words.
The sentence completion sub-section requires students to choose a sentence to answer a question or to match a picture. And the picture classification section requires students to find the picture that is similar to the pictures in the question.
- Quantitative
The quantitative segment is the math segment of CogAT. In this segment, the students are tested for numerical sequencing, mathematical reasoning, pattern recognition, and problem-solving skills. Every segment is dedicated to a different type of questions and their difficulty and sometimes pattern changes with the level of the CogAT.
The quantitative section’s number analogies are similar to the analogies in the verbal segment. Students have to identify relations to answer the questions. The puzzles and number series are also picture-based and test the students’ ability to find patterns, analyze pictures to find answers.
- Non-Verbal Abilities
Non-verbal is the third section of CogAT that tests students for reasoning and solving skills that focus on patterns and relationships. This section also covers analogies and categorization and comprises 3 sub-tests – figure matrices, paper folder, and figure classification.
This section tests a child’s imagination through paper-fold questions and analogies that are similar yet different to the other two sections. A student can do well with these questions with a lot of practice.
Types of CogAT Scores
A CogAT score can be expressed in 4 different ways. Here is a list and a brief explanation about each one of them.
- Raw Score
The score indicates the number of correctly answered questions by a student. A detailed raw score report provides information such as the number of items in a section, the number of questions attempted by the students, and the number of questions answered correctly. Please note that there is no negative marking for the wrong answers.
- Standard Age Score
Standard Age Score is also known as SAS score and is given for every battery along with a composite score. This is a normed score with a mean score of 100 and a standard deviation of 16. A student can score a maximum SAS score of 160.
- Age Stanine
Age Stanine is a simpler expression of the CogAT percentile. A student can get a Stanine score between 1 to 9 with 9 being the highest. A score of 5 indicates an average cognitive ability that falls between the 40th – 59th percentile.
- Age Percentile Rank
The age percentile rank is the comparison of a student’s performance with other students. This rank can be based on the comparison at the national level or district level. A 90 percentile on CogAT indicates that the student has performed better than 90% of the students who took the exam.
Quick Information
- CogAT test takes 2.5-3 hours with one break.
- For online testing, you must meet all the technical requirements and keep the camera ON at all times.
- For in-person testing, you need to reach the testing venue 15 minutes before the scheduled time or you will need to reschedule your test.
- CogAT testing fee is non-refundable.
Conclusion
For more information about CogAT and its format, head to eTutorWorld. On this page, you will find all the important information related to this test along with links to CogAT Prep Help and Worksheets. Enroll your child today to facilitate them with the best-gifted programs at the earliest.