Understanding CogAT The CogAT is an excellent test of critical thinking abilities and logic, not rote memorization. It assesses students’ problem-solving abilities and spatial reasoning. It also challenges students to look for patterns and to make connections between numbers, symbols, and words.
The CogAT measures a child’s reasoning abilities in three key areas (Verbal, Quantitative, and Nonverbal). It evaluates how well a child figures out problems. There are three parts in each: Verbal - Quantitative - Nonverbal
Verbal section scores The verbal section evaluates the student’s ability to break apart words and change sequences of English words. The way the child understands the words are measured, and so is their ability to infer implications based on the meaning of those words. This section asks students to find the relationships between words, including whether it’s finding a synonym or antonym.
Quantitative test scores The quantitative portion of the test is about numbers. CogAT scores measure students’ abilities to find relationships and solve problems with numbers and equations. The CogAT asks what number comes next in a sequence. It also asks students to use numbers and symbols to form the right equation.
Nonverbal test results The three parts of the nonverbal section measures student’s reasoning skills without words. The nonverbal part is mostly about shapes, symbols, and patterns. A student may be asked to choose which shapes are most alike, for example. There are paper folding questions for older grades where the child’s spatial abilities are assessed.
Interpreting Scores To interpret CogAT scores, you need to understand what Stanine means. Stanine is another way to measure and is a common way to rank in educational testing. It’s divided into nine classes, 1 – 9, with one being the lowest, and nine being the highest. A CogAT score of 7 means the student placed Above Average. With regards to the CogAT, a score of 7 is equivalent to 77 – 88%. Standard Age Scores (SAS) For each portion and the composite, there is an age score. These scores tell you how the student compares to the other students in their age group. The SAS has a mean of 100, which just tells you that a score of 100 is average for the age group. It has a standard deviation of 16, which is a way of saying that most students fall within 16 points of the mean (84 to 116). Anything above 100 means they have a higher level and development of that ability than other students their age. Stanine Age Scores The next set of scores range from a low of 1 to a high of 9, and group percentile ranks to give a clear idea of the child’s ranking among others of their age. Stanine, % Rank, Description 9 96-99 Very High 8 89-95 Above Average 7 77-88 Above Average 6 60-76 Average 5 40-59 Average 4 23-39 Average 3 11-22 Below Average 2 4-10 Below Average 1 1-3 Very Low
Age Percentile Rank: This is more specific information on how the child ranks among their age group in the entire country. A score of 82 on the verbal portion means that 82% of the students in their age group in the country scored less than that student did. APR Graph:Shows the age percentile rank range in a graph format. Raw scores:Gives three numbers for each test portion. These numbers represent the number of items on the test, the number of items the child tried to answer, and the number of correct answers for each portion.
Grade scores:Shows how the child compares to other students in the same age group in the entire country.
Learner Ability Profile: Below are the specific ability profiles. This is a general explanation, teaching specifics are attached.
A profile: A profile fits a student with roughly the same scores across all portions (verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal). This applies to about 1 out of 3 students.
B profile: B profile applies when one of the scores is either much higher or much lower than the two others. This reveals a child’s relative strength (one is higher than the others) or relative weakness (one is lower than the others). About 40% of all students get this profile.
C profile: C profile denotes “contrast”. This child has both a relative strength and a relative weakness. About 14% of students fit this profile.
E profile: E profile, stands for “extreme”. This applies when there’s at least a 24 point difference between two of the scores in the CogAT. If a child scores a 90 on verbal and a 65 on nonverbal, this would be considered an E profile.
CogAT Scores: Understanding the ResultsCogAT scoring is based on the child’s age (not grade level). The child will receive a SAS, or “Standard Age Score,” which compares the child’s score against other children in the same age range. The highest SAS that a child can receive on the CogAT is 160, while 100 is considered to be an average score.
Steps used to calculate a child’s unique test score:
Raw Score. Total number of questions answered correctly; however, incorrect answers do not cause points to be deducted from the overall raw score.
Universal Scale Score (USS). After the Raw Score is determined, it is converted to a normalized standard score known as the Universal Scale Score. There are separate USS scores for each of the test’s three verbal, nonverbal, and quantitative reasoning skills subsections (also called “batteries”). The Composite USS is determined by averaging these three different scores.
Standard Age Score (SAS). The Standard Age Score has a maximum possible score of 160; average score is 100.
Percentile Rank (PR). School districts use this number to compare students that share the same age and grade level. A percentile rank of 80 means the child’s score was higher than 80% of students who took the same test. The average percentile rank is 50.
Stanine (S). A stanine is a very broad, simplified score ranging from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest possible), and it’s normalized for the child’s age and grade level.
Each stanine is made up of a range of percentile ranks. The table below shows the percentile ranks that formulate each stanine and the associated ability level. Stanine Percentile Rank Description