Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Cogat

Those other threads will offer a range of perspective -- it seems a bit hit or miss for some, being a group test and geared toward academic success ability, rather than individually gauging intellectual ability. Some GT kids do poorly on the CogAT in part due to time or overthinking. One of my DC actually scored very high on the CogAT, yet lower on the WISC V (a whole SD less in verbal, though it was top in both), yet still in the gifted range. But the scores did correlate in that the quantitative on the CogAT was the lowest, and the PSI and WMI were lowest -- didn't have time to attempt all the problems. The higher verbal ability still showed in both.

So the answer I'd give is, yeah, you can test well and score high on the CogAT, yet possibly have an IQ that's -1/+1 SD (or more, I'm guessing), so really it's not the end-all answer. But if it gets you what you need in school, then I suppose that's the most affordable way to get the extension. If you feel like you need more information, then you can get the IQ and achievement testing done.

Edit to add: What's interesting to me is that for this DC, if IQ correlated to the CogAT, would have easily been DYS qualifying based on CogAT; instead the WISC didn't show DYS levels, but then the EXPLORE test was DYS levels. So I feel like the WISC might be a little low, the CogAT maybe a little high, and he tests well academically. In the end, the picture painted has helped DC get more of what was needed out of school.