My DD in third grade took the CogAT and I'm working on getting her a WISC. The problem with the CogAT was that she finished the verbal section but not the other two sections. So she did very well on the verbal section but not the other two sections. You can't do well if you leave half the test blank. She took a timed version. I think she took a different version of the CogAT when she was grade accelerated in kindergarten (only a little over a year earlier) and her non-verbal score was actually much higher than verbal. So obviously there are problems with the CogAT with huge discrepancies like that. My DS had the WISC and had a GAI in the 99th percentile and I know DD is just as bright as he is, which is why we're now pursuing outside testing. The CogAT is not a reliable test (probably esp. for 2e kids). Other moms who I talked to who have their kids in GATE were saying that their kids CogAT scores were all over the place as well, with some kids dramatically improving from one test to the next (practice at home?). One of my friend's DD's also took it for the first time and her math score was low (because she didn't finish) despite the fact that she was learning long division in first grade and is always 99.9 percentile on math achievement testing done by the school. She didn't do well on the non-verbal section either.
