I've said this in a lot of other posts but i really hate the CogAT. My DD took it in second grade (a timed version) and left half of it blank because she's so slow (she has ADHD and processing speed issues). Her composite was something like 118. She then did a regular IQ test (WISC) and her GAI (which is like a verbal/non-verbal composite) was 150, or over the 99.9th percentile. The school didn't even bat an eye at the huge difference. They know they are giving a crappy test they just don't care. Luckily they did accept her WISC results though and put them in the system in place of the CogAT. They "spoiled" the CogAT scores but only after I sent about 8 emails complaining about it. Another girl I know scored around 118 the first time on the CogAT, her parents prepped her, and she scored >150 the second time. Everyone told her how amazing that is and how no one scores that high. Ummmm, the child was prepped. I do think the child is actually gifted, though, the CogAT just didn't pick it up. Other parents in our gifted chapter were talking about this test and how they prepped their kids to get the scores up because they didn't do well the first time. HATE, HATE, HATE the CogAT. If you are wondering about the verbal score and want her to get gifted services for reading as well, you could ask if there is another test she could take. If they won't do it you may want to have it done privately. I knew i could prep DD for the CogAT and get her score up but I wanted to find out if she really is gifted or not.
I did get my DD's computerized reading achievement test score up (another thing the district requires--they want high scores in everything) from around 92nd percentile to 97th by having her do reading practice tests. I bought her a 5th grade level book (she's in 3rd grade). Scholastic publishes the one I bought. The school doesn't give any instruction above a third grade level so I find it odd how they expect children to achieve above grade level on standardized testing (anything over the 90th percentile is about 2-3+ grade levels advanced, there is a huge range for reading). A lot of it boils down to children becoming savvy multiple-choice test takers, not how advanced their reading really is.
