Skip to the content
Cub Climb
← Every country

Gifted and talented testing in the United States

There is no national gifted test in the US. Each state sets the rules and each district chooses its tests, so the first question is always: what does your district use, and in which grade?

The tests in the United States

  • CogAT

    Cognitive Abilities Test, Forms 7 and 8

    Fully covered

    School districts across the United States, from kindergarten up, for gifted and talented screening — some states give it to every child in a grade.

  • NNAT

    Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, 3rd edition

    Partly covered

    US school districts, often for younger children and as a screener that does not depend on English.

  • OLSAT

    Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, 8th edition

    Partly covered

    Some US school districts and independent schools, for gifted and talented admission.

Who decides

  • States set the rules for identifying gifted students; districts choose the tests and the grades.
  • Some districts screen every child in a grade. Others test only children a parent or teacher refers.
  • Many districts look at a reasoning test alongside other evidence, and each sets its own cut-offs.

When

  • Often between kindergarten and grade 3. Denver, for example, uses the NNAT3 in early childhood, the Naglieri General Abilities Test in grades 1 and 5, and the CogAT from grade 7.
  • Your district’s gifted and talented (GT, GATE or AAP) page lists the tests, the grades and the testing window.

Screening everyone finds more children

  • When a large Florida district moved from parent and teacher referral to screening every second grader, many more low-income, Black, Hispanic and English-learner children were identified as gifted (Card and Giuliano, 2016).
  • Referral finds the children someone already thought to refer. A test given to everyone finds the rest.

Read more

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

  • Card, D. & Giuliano, L. (2016). Universal screening increases the representation of low-income and minority students in gifted education. PNAS 113(48) — pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  • Denver Public Schools, Gifted & Talented testing information — gt.dpsk12.org

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.