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The CogAT, explained for parents

The CogAT is one of the reasoning tests US school districts most often use to find children for gifted and talented programs. It measures how a child reasons with words, numbers and shapes — not what they have learned in class.

At a glance

Full name
Cognitive Abilities Test, Forms 7 and 8
Published by
Riverside Insights
Who sits it
School districts across the United States, from kindergarten up, for gifted and talented screening — some states give it to every child in a grade.
What it is made of
Three batteries — verbal, quantitative and non-verbal — with three question types in each. The youngest levels, to grade 2, use pictures and read-aloud directions; from grade 3 a child reads the words and numbers themselves. Form 8 is a parallel version of Form 7.

Three batteries, nine kinds of question

  • Verbal: verbal analogies, sentence completion and verbal classification.
  • Quantitative: number analogies, number series and number puzzles.
  • Non-verbal: figure matrices, figure classification and paper folding.

Levels, by grade

  • Ten levels span kindergarten to grade 12.
  • Levels 5/6, 7 and 8 (kindergarten to grade 2) are almost entirely pictures, with directions read aloud.
  • From Level 9 (grade 3), a child reads the words and sentences in the verbal subtests themselves, and the quantitative subtests use numerals and short equations.
  • Form 8 is a parallel version of Form 7: the same kinds of question, new items.

How long it takes

  • Each subtest is timed separately, at about ten minutes. Pace matters as much as difficulty.

How it is scored

  • The main score is the Standard Age Score (SAS): 100 is typical for a child’s age, and the scale’s standard deviation is 16.
  • Each SAS comes with a percentile rank (50 is average for the age or grade) and a stanine from 1 to 9 (4 to 6 is average).
  • Scores can be compared with children of the same age or the same grade, nationally or within the district.
  • There is no national pass mark: each district decides which scores, and what else, it looks at.

How much of the CogAT the puzzles here cover

Fully covered. All nine question types are here, from the grade 3 level up. The picture-only versions for kindergarten to grade 2 are not yet.

  • Verbal Analogies
  • Sentence Completion
  • Verbal Classification
  • Number Analogies
  • Number Series
  • Number Puzzles
  • Figure Matrices
  • Figure Classification
  • Paper Folding

Every puzzle is original: none is a copy or an imitation of a real test question. See one of each kind.

Build the reasoning, not the test

Short, original puzzles with words, numbers and shapes. Your child answers, then names the rule.

Play free in your browser
Download Cub Climb: Gifted Test Prep on the App StoreAndroid: coming soon

Or print free reasoning worksheets, grades 3 to 8.

Sources

Last checked 11 October 2026. This page is general information, not advice: your school, district, board or area has the final word on its own tests and dates. Test names are trademarks of their publishers. Cub Climb is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any of them, or to any school or education department.