Hello,

I am a 16-year-old student. A year and a half ago, I was fishing around for my old report cards when I found a report for a CogAT test that I did back in the third grade in February of 2011.

Here are my scores:

Verbal: 118
Raw: 57/65
Stanine: 7
Percentile: 87

Quantitative: 121
Raw: 54/60
Stanine: 8
Percentile: 91

Nonverbal: 123
Raw: 59/65
Stanine: 8
Percentile: 92

Composite: 124
Percentile: 93

Profile: 8A

These scores were below the gifted program's requirements, which requested that either the composite score be above the 97th percentile, or 2 or more subtests be above the 98th percentile. However, that's not my main concern.

While I have no issue with these scores, I have heard that a CogAT can give one a ballpark IQ score if the subtest scores are relatively at the same level, which in my case (as I have a relatively even CogAT profile) seem legitimate. However, at the same time, I have also heard that the CogAT only tests "learned abilities" whereas IQ tests look for innate abilities. Therefore, a CogAT score cannot give an accurate estimate of an IQ score.

I ask this as I have been addicted to these notions for about a year and a half (addictively searching about high IQ and CogAT and correlations) and I want to provide myself with some closure. Taking into account the sides of the argument that I mentioned earlier in the post, my question is: Can an IQ score be lower than a CogAT score (i.e. CogAT 124 and IQ in the average range), or are both usually at the same level (IQ and CogAT both 124) if an even profile is achieved?

Regards.