Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Interpreting test scores

Thank you in advance for your help. I'm trying to find out how to interpret my son's test scores. He is 9, in 4th grade (did not skip - was admitted early to K)

CogAT7
Verbal SAS 153
Nonverbal SAS 143
Composite SAS 158

He was also given IOWA Assesment and scored 99% on Quantitative and 98% in reading.

When I've looked around for sites to help interpret the CogAT7 there seem to be pieces of information that I am missing. I'm looking for a way to get meaning from the tests in order to understand his abilities and better support him.

Based on the scores he has been invited into a highly gifted self contained class. I'm thrilled for him as he has not been challenged.....and terrified for him as it will be a big adjustment. They should have accepted him years ago....

bumping up so hopefully someone with more answers will see this one!

I know CogAT uses standard scores; so the composite translates into a percent or easier to understand as a ratio. In this case a 158 roughly translates to only 1 in 20,000 kids score that high.

If you want to wrap your head around it more, this is a nice intro article about highly gifted+ kids at Hoagies:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_gifted.htm

Hi
I can't give much on Cogat. It seems fairly hard to get much information about the test results. Those are very strong scores. Cogat is not an IQ test, but I would imagine a high achiever but not gifted child would not score that high on Cogat.
It is scored as Zen mentioned on the same type of scale as IQ. Which at least gives some reference to for rarity.

IBST is a grade level achievement test. It is hard to get what level of gifted is going on at 99 percentile on a grade level test. The ceiling is very low for a gifted child. High Achievers with good exposure levels can score 99 on it. I have seen that a lot in our district.

He will looks like a wonderful fit for a self contained gifted program. You may actually find its not enough either depending on your ds and the selectiveness of the program. You are probably going to have trouble getting a good handle on his level of Giftedness with either one of those test. Individual IQ testing or above grade level testing would likely be far more informative for you.

Thanks for the bump - HK -

Zen - you have thoroughly scared me to death. I was able to figure that 160 is the highest poss score - and that has me floored. I've also figured that the whole thing is a racket thus the lack of public info - also guessing the school has motives for not sharing too. I have skills though. But I have to get over this about to vomit and the floor is spongy feeling.

I might look into independent testing.

Luckily my ds is supper happy - he's really excited to go to the new school but he's learned alot about tolerance at his current school. I feel good about the placement and will have to face the challenge of finding him more as Jtooit mentioned once he adjusts and I'm thinking that might happen quickly.

Well Stinky, look at the positive side, you found the right forum, because probably 1 in 2 of us here have a kid who scored in the 1 in 10,000+ range on some test. Actually there are a ton of positive sides, and it is fun having a sharp kid with so many possibilites.

Super happy is the best thing. He sounds like he'll adapt just fine. You'll know if something doesn't fit, and you'll make adjustments as you go.

DeeDee