Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment newbie question about the CogAt

Hi everyone,
My oldest daughter (7 1/2 in 2nd grade--accelerated one year) took the CogAt recently to qualify for the gifted program, which starts in 3rd grade. The district usually tests 2nd graders on the NNAT, but I requested the CogAt because she seems to be quite gifted verbally.

I thought she would be given the 2nd grade version of the test(which I believe is read aloud to students), but it turns out she was tested with all the older kids (3rd grade and up). So she read the test on her own instead of the test being read to her.

Is there much difference in how those two versions of the CogAt are scored? Would she have had any advantage in taking the 2nd grade version of the test (the one which is read to students)?

She did mention afterward that she ran out of time to finish many of the questions, especially in the quantatative section.

She scored 97 NPR on Verbal, 88 NPR on Quantative, and 67 NPR on Non-Verbal.

Thanks for your insight!

I'm not a huge fan of the CogAT but that may be colored by our own experiences with my out of the box ADD child testing much lower on it than on IQ tests and us being told that it proved that her IQ scores were due to good guessing. That aside, the publisher does recommend that kids who are suspected of being gifted be given a higher level b/c it has more head room.

I believe that the explanation I've read from the publisher is that it is easier to get a higher score when tested above level on the CogAT b/c you don't have to get nearly every question correct in order to get a higher score.

The only major drawbacks I could see in having her take the 3rd grade level is that it is timed starting in 3rd grade and she has to read it to herself. If she isn't a fast kid, the timing could be an issue and if reading is impacted for whatever reason (not being a great reader yet, reading something into the question that it isn't asking, etc.), that could potentially lower a score.

My DD was given the 3rd grade test as a 2nd grader and scored really well, only, they put her down as being a 3rd grader. Would her scores have been higher if she was listed as a 2nd grader taking it as a 3rd grader? We did this because she was being evaluated for a grade skip. Needless to say, she outscored most 3rd graders and got her skip, but I often wonder how putting her as a 3rd grader when she was in 2nd affected her percentiles.

The tests for 2nd and 3rd aren't necessarily scored differently kiki... it's just that reading it to yourself eliminates the factor of a child potentially taking what the test proctor says a different way than would be interpretted if the child read it to him or herself. They say it is more reliable at the 3rd grade level when they do read it themselves.

It's not uncommon to run out of time. They don't expect all kids to finish. They have progressively more difficult questions on portions of it and with a time limit, some kids will finish and some won't.

If you got the actual score report, it should have reported the scores both ways: as compared to kids of the same age and as compared to kids of the same grade (or whatever grade they listed the child as being in). Definitely look at the age scores.

It didn't have her birthdate on it, only grade level as being tested as a third grader in the end of the year so I believe that is how she was ranked?! Weird. I think it had to do with the fact that she also took the 2nd grade test that same year but this was on the side and not counted with the schools total reporting. It was sent in with the rest but for whatever reason that had to list her as a 3rd grader to give her the third grade test? (They've never skipped a kid, let alone give an out of level test so they probably didn't think it would matter either way.) The ITBS was taken with the CogAT (as they do in 3rd and up at our school so the scores are somewhat combined onto one score report).

My child hated having it read to her at a snail pace too Dottie

Thanks everyone for your info!
The district says they look at other district assessments, classroom work, teacher recommendations, and "other data" in addition to the CogAt scores, so we're just in waiting mode now.

thats great! Our district only looks at CogAT for the gifted program. And it only looks at verbal and non verbal scores. I will ask today when I am at the school about the quantitative portion.