Is a nationally recognized test to help determine giftedness in students.
Is a group test not an individual test.
Must be given by district teachers/proctors not private psychologists.
Purpose
Students from kindergarten through grade 12.
Measures the development of both inductive and deductive reasoning abilities that are crucial for success in school.
Appraises general abstract reasoning abilities and a student’s capacity to apply these to verbal and nonverbal cognitive tasks.
K-8th Grade Students
Kindergarten, first, and second grade students will have questions read to them. Questions are multiple choice and they will bubble the answer in the test booklet. Third grade students will read their questions and also bubble their answers in the test booklet. Fourth through eighth grade students will read questions and bubble answers on answer sheets.
Verbal Battery
The verbal battery tests a student’s vocabulary, as well as their comprehension of ideas, efficiency and verbal memory, and ability to discover word relationships. Statistics show a high correlation between high verbal ability and success in a variety of school subjects.
Quantitative Battery
The quantitative battery tests the student’s quantitative reasoning and problem solving ability and provides an appraisal of the student’s general level of abstract reasoning.
Non-Verbal Battery
The non-verbal battery presents the most novel problems to students. The items on these tests use only geometric shapes and figures that have had little direct relationship to school instruction. The test requires no reading. The non-verbal battery is particularly suitable for obtaining an accurate estimate of development for students who have difficulty with reading, who have limited competency in English, or who have had limited opportunities.
Should My Student Study Before Taking the CogAT?
Yes and No. These tests are not the same as a standardized reading, spelling, and math tests where you know the words or the facts and can get 100%. There is no defined curriculum for the CogAT. Instead it is about how students think, reason, and come to conclusions. The objective of the CogAT is to see if a student qualifies as Gifted or Highly Capable and has the highest need to be in a higher level classroom to succeed. That being said, it would benefit your child to be comfortable with the testing format prior to testing. To do that, please do an online search for Cognitive Abilities Test Form 7 Practice Questions, your child will be using the level that is their current grade plus the number 6, (i.e. kindergarten will use level 5/6, while first graders use level 7, second graders use level 8 and so on).