What is CogAT?

Gaining insight into students’ cognitive strengths opens up a wide range of opportunities – teachers can adapt instruction to align with how students learn, students can be identified for enrichment programs that spark their interest and stretch their thinking, and discrepancies between achievement and potential can be brought to light.

The Cognitive Abilities Test™ (CogAT®), the most commonly used and trusted abilities assessment, makes this possible. CogAT evaluates abilities across symbol systems that are strongly linked to fluid reasoning, problem-solving, and academic success. With distinct measures of Verbal, Quantitative, and Nonverbal reasoning, this research-supported assessment offers multiple views of student ability from kindergarten through grade 12.

Identify hidden potential

CogAT is the most trusted solution for supporting fair placement in gifted and talented programs because it accurately reveals student strengths below the surface of academic achievement. Compared to identification models that rely heavily on achievement assessments, CogAT is up to 4x more accurate in identifying qualified students.

assess multilingual learners’ academic potential

CogAT gives educators trustworthy data to understand whether multilingual learners need extra learning support or if they just need to continue to develop their English proficiency.
Multilingual learners with limited proficiency in English are 5 to 10x more likely to score average or above on CogAT than on an achievement assessment.

Build upon students’ strengths

CogAT’s Ability Profiles and instructional materials support educators in implementing differentiated, strengths-based instruction to help every student maximize their growth.
Add power to your current academic assessments by integrating cognitive ability insights. Move beyond measuring what students know to understanding how they learn – CogAT is empowering educators to personalise instruction and unlock every learner’s potential.

About CogAT

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) evaluates students’ verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal reasoning skills and helps educators identify effective instructional strategies from Kindergarten through Year 12.

The CogAT offers:

More advanced items at every level, reducing the need for administering tests outside a student’s grade level.

Strong reliability and validity, giving educators confidence in the results, even when making high-stakes decisions

A construction that supports English language learners, promoting fairness and accessibility

Distinct Ability Profiles that show how a student’s reasoning skills compare to peers overall, while also pinpointing areas of relative strength and weakness to inform teaching and learning

The Ability Profile™

Unique to the CogAT Complete Battery, the Ability Profile™ offers a succinct summary of each student’s cognitive ability, areas of strength, and areas of opportunity. Teachers and parents can enter students’ Ability Profiles at CogAT.com to view detailed, individualized information about learning characteristics and instructional suggestions. Ability Profiles power the Differentiated Instruction Report, a powerful tool allowing educators to conveniently group similarly-able students.

CogAT Screening Form

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) Screening Form gives schools a fast and dependable data point for identifying students for accelerated programs.

Developed to the same rigorous quality standards as the full CogAT, the Screening Form includes the analogies components from each of the full test’s Batteries (Verbal/Picture Analogies, Number Analogies, and Figure Matrices).

Testing time is approximatelly 30 minutes

CogAT Post-Screening Form

After students finish the Online CogAT Screening Form, you have the option to administer the six additional subtests needed to complete the full CogAT battery. To do this, you can purchase the Online CogAT Post-Screening Form Administration.

Please note: To buy the Online CogAT Post-Screening Form Administration, you must have already purchased and administered the Online CogAT Screening Form. The post-screening form must also be given within 30 days of the screening form.

Testing Times and descriptions

Testing online with DataManager

Web-based reporting is available through DataManager, an easy-to-use assessment platform that streamlines the management and reporting of CogAT results. You can view and print results for individual students or groups up to the system level, download print-ready parent reports, and easily export CogAT data for further analysis or for uploading into your local information system. CogAT online also offers a more cost- and time-efficient testing option – there are no minimum administration requirements, so you can test any number of students as needed, with pricing based on administrations.

• Online CogAT Administration is available for all CogAT levels (5/6–17/18).
• Online CogAT Screening Form Administration is available for all Screening Form levels (5/6–17/18).
• Flexible administration options allow you to use audio instructions or run the assessment with a proctor.
• Content and testing time match the traditional paper-and-pencil format.
• Digital resources – such as the Research Development Guide, Technical Summary Forms, and Implementation Guides – are included within the DataManager portal.

The new CogAT Dashboard presents your assessment results in a modern, interactive format, giving you quick access to the information needed to understand your students’ abilities—all in one place.

reports

CogAT offers helpful scores and customisable reports for everyone – administrators, teachers, parents, and students. The Differentiated Instruction Report in the Ability Profile groups students by ability and gives detailed teaching suggestions based on their learning potential. The CogAT Dashboard makes data easy to understand with tailored views, cut-score tool, real-time graphs, roster lists, and more.

Sample Reports