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We received our DS7's CogAT profile narrative yesterday, along with his report card, and I was shocked out of my seat. His Nonverbal and Quantitative scores were in the 98th and 94th percentiles, respectively, but his Verbal score was in the 71st percentile. The SAS scores show a >24 point discrepancy between the Nonverbal score and the Verbal score, which makes him an "E" profile.

We have been told since our DS was quite young that he showed signs of gifted-ness, with an emphasis on his acquisition, knowledge and mastery of verbal reasoning, understanding and comprehension. He is a high achiever in all areas, has taught himself to read music and the list goes on and on. He has had absolutely no challenges of any kind ever and thrives and thirsts always for more.

As the red flag raised in my mind, I recalled that he was sick the day the Verbal Battery was given, and he was sent home.

We are just concerned that the school get a true and accurate picture of our DS' abilities and this "E Profile" could not be further from the description of him.

Do you have any advice as to what my next steps should be?


Please help. Thanks!

My dd10's verbal part of the her CogAT was hugely lower than her verbal index on the WISC. She's taken the WISC twice and both times had a VCI (verbal index) at or above the 99th percentile. I can't recall her exact verbal CogAT score but it was one of her lower scores with Nonverbal being, by far, her highest. She, too, had a less than ideal testing circumstance on the CogAT and I just don't think that it is a good test for her anyway as she's a very out of the box thinker.

My first step would be to find out whether your school will accept outside testing and what score on it they'd need in order to id him as gifted.

DS had the same type incident when he was 8. He had had the flu for 7 days prior to the testing and when he went back to school, they popped him right in for a make up. His teacher and the g/t teacher contacted me, they had both known that he needed something more than regular school, but he was really tired and spacey by the end of the test. His Verbal was 98, Quantitative was 99 and his Non Verbal was 38. I looked up what that portion involved and I though that looks like Lego skills. No way this kid could get a 38 in Legos! It was suggested that we get outside testing quickly. We found someone and his Nonverbal was 99.8%. The rest of the information from the WISC was really helpful as well and starts to add to the overall picture for down the road.

I don't think you're changing the wood. I think you're just finding out all the different things that are in the wood. The WISC is better at that. Good Luck-

Based on Riverside Publishing's own information, you are right to question these results. Also, Riverside apparently has a specific guide on how teachers/test administrators should check the results of an E profile. The following is on form Cogat Form 6, and is included in the profile information for 7, 8, and ,9 E profiles with a relative weakness:

"When students obtain an E profile, it is important to double-check the integrity of their scores. The section "For Additional Information" (below) directs teachers to parts of the CogAT Interpretive Guide for Teachers and Counselors that explain how to check (1) whether the students attempted most of the test items, (2) whether their score reports contain score warnings, and (3) whether the confidence intervals on their plot of scores (shown on the List of Student Scores and the Profile Narrative Report) are reasonable."

Good luck in getting answers.