What is CogAT screening form and why is it important?

The Cognitive Abilities Test or CogAT is a test administered by schools to identify gifted students. It has multiple forms or formats such Form 6, 7 and 8, which are the standard full-length tests generally for 90 minutes or more. But administering these tests is quite time consuming and difficult for a lot of schools. This is where the CogAT screening form helps.

CogAT screening form, as the name suggests, is the easiest and fastest way for schools to identify gifted students. It provides a fast, reliable and valid data point for eligibility decisions. The test takes just 30 minutes to complete and helps in determining eligible students for gifted and talented programs.

CogAT screening form is a shorter version of the CogAT Form 7 for Grades 3,4 and 5 that is formed from analogy questions from each battery (Verbal, Quantitative and Non-verbal). Each section takes about 10 minutes each to complete. As the screening form only has analogy-based questions, it serves as an excellent tool to spot English Language Learner (ELL) students or students who struggle with reading. These students are essentially evaluated on their reasoning skills.

CogAT screening form has now been made available with screener-to-complete functionality for online testing. Schools can administer this to a large set of students by quickly screening using the 3 subtests (analogies portion of each of the 3 batteries). The results from the screening are then quickly reviewed to select students for complete CogAT administration. With the online post-screener, schools can then obtain a complete abilities profile of students based on the remaining six subtests of CogAT (out of the total 9 subtests).

To summarize, below are the key benefits from the CogAT screening form:

1. Administration takes a much shorter time (30 mins), leaving more time for instruction
2. It is highly reliable ensuring that educators can trust the results in making important decisions about students
3. Reduces emphasis on language giving ELL students an equal chance
4. Administration directions in Spanish are also available
5. The screening form being online makes it easier to administer
6. Screener-to-complete functionality allows large batch of students to take the screening out of which subset is selected for full administration
7. Scores are available for local and national comparisons
8. Since the attention span of younger students (Grades 3 to 5) is shorter, a quick test helps them to perform better