CogAT guide
What is the CogAT?
The CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) measures how a child reasons with words, numbers and shapes. It is published by Riverside Insights, and many US school districts use it to find children for gifted and talented programs.
What it tests
The CogAT does not test what a child has been taught. It tests how they solve problems they have not seen before. It has three batteries, and each battery has three parts.
Verbal Battery
Reasoning with words: how pairs of words go together, which word completes a sentence, and which word belongs in a group.
- Verbal analogies
- Sentence completion
- Verbal classification
Quantitative Battery
Reasoning with numbers: finding the rule between pairs of numbers, solving number puzzles, and continuing number series.
- Number analogies
- Number puzzles
- Number series
Nonverbal Battery
Reasoning with shapes and pictures: shape patterns, folded paper with holes punched in it, and which shape belongs with a group.
- Figure matrices
- Paper folding
- Figure classification
Levels and grades
The CogAT has a level for each grade from Kindergarten to Grade 12. From Grade 3 (Level 9), every question is in print and each of the nine parts is timed at 10 minutes, so a battery takes 30 minutes. Before Grade 3 (Levels 5/6 to 8), every question is a picture and no reading is needed: the teacher gives the directions and reads the sentence questions aloud, and there is no time limit. We practice both, and up to Grade 2 our tests read every question aloud.
- Kindergarten: Level 5/6
- Grade 1: Level 7
- Grade 2: Level 8
- Grade 3: Level 9
- Grade 4: Level 10
- Grade 5: Level 11
- Grade 6: Level 12
How schools use it
Many districts give the CogAT to a whole grade at once, often Grade 2 or Grade 3, and invite children above a cut-off to a gifted program. Each district sets its own cut-off and its own grade, so ask your school which applies to your child. Our guide to CogAT scores explains what the report shows.
Can a child prepare?
Nobody can practice the real questions, which are kept secure. What helps is knowing what each part looks like and how long ten minutes is, so the first time your child meets a paper folding question is not on test day.