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Cognitive Abilities Test

Cognitive Abilities Test

 

The CogAT

  • Is a nationally recognized test to help determine giftedness in students.

  • Must be given by district teachers/proctors not private psychologists.

 

Purpose

Measures the development of both inductive and deductive reasoning abilities that are crucial for success in school in students from kindergarten through 12th grade.


Appraises general abstract reasoning abilities and a student’s capacity to apply these to verbal and nonverbal cognitive tasks.


K-12th Grade Students

Kindergarten, first, and second grade students will have directions and test questions read to them.  The questions are multiple choice and they will select their choice.  Their tests are untimed, but paced by the testing proctor.


Third through twelfth grade students will have directions read to them, then they will read their questions and answer their questions.  Their tests are timed, using 10 minutes per test section.

 

Test Sections

  • Verbal Battery

    • The verbal battery tests a students’ 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 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 Highly Capable.  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 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 will use level 7, second graders will use level 8 and so on).