The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) will be administered to students in grades 2 and 4 during the month of May.
School districts have used the CogAT effectively for many years as one measure to help identify academically talented students. Scores from the CogAT will be used for this purpose.
CogAT has long been one of the most trusted and widely used ability tests in the United States and abroad. It has set standards for excellence in group-administered ability testing for several generations of test users. CogAT appraises the cognitive development of students from kindergarten through grade 12. The test measures students’ learned reasoning abilities in the three cognitive domains most closely related to success in school: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and nonverbal reasoning.
CogAT consists of the following three batteries:
The Verbal Battery assesses students’ abilities to use search, retrieval, and comparison processes that are essential for verbal reasoning.
The Quantitative Battery assesses students’ abilities to reason about patterns and relations using concepts that are essential in quantitative thinking.
The Nonverbal Battery assesses students’ abilities to reason with somewhat more novel questions that use spatial and figural content.
By measuring the three reasoning domains, CogAT provides a broad perspective on each student, identifying profiles of cognitive strengths and weaknesses critical for talent identification that single-score instruments would miss. Thus, CogAT is a reliable and valid tool that assists in planning effective instructional programs and adapting instruction to enhance the student’s chances of success in learning.
The CogAT Screening is a short form of CogAT. The Screening Form provides a highly effective way to reduce the amount of testing when the results will be used primarily to help identify academically talented students who will be evaluated further for placement. The Screening Form consists of the first subtest from each of the three batteries on the complete CogAT: Picture/Verbal Analogies, Number Analogies, and Figure Matrices. Like the overall composite score on the complete test, the Screening Form Total score estimates students’ general reasoning abilities across all three domains. Students whose scores exceed a particular percentage on the Screening Form are eligible to take the CogAT Post-Screening Form. The ability profile from the complete test can then be used to help guide placement into different kinds of educational activities that build on each student’s abilities.
The CogAT Assessment is just one of multiple measures that it used to identify academically talented students. For further explanation of the CogAT, please see the following link: