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CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) Level C


The recommendations below are for the typical gifted child taking CogAT Level C in fifth grade.  If your child has areas of particular strength or weakness then you may wish to adjust up or down a level.  If you'd like recommendations for your situation please email or phone with some information about your child and I'd be happy to make suggestions.
 
For most able fifth graders children either Building Thinking Skills Level 2 or Level 3 Figural and Verbal and Cranium Crackers will be the place to start.  Add other titles depending on your child's relative strengths and weaknesses in the different areas of testing, what they'd enjoy doing and what you've got time for.  For each of the titles below you can get more information including a look inside at sample pages by clicking on "more info" after the brief product description.

The CogAT is a test of reasoning skills.  It’s not like a spelling or a math test where if you know the words or the facts you can get 100% and there is little advantage is learning more difficult words or practicing more difficult math problems.  There is no defined curriculum for the CogAT.  An average child in fifth grade would not be expected to be able to answer the most difficult questions on the CogAT.  That's why the list below includes titles that are notionally for higher grades.  A child who has prepared at this higher level is more likely to be able to answer the most difficult questions on the test.


Building Thinking Skills is our number one recommendation.  Building Thinking Skills Level 2 is a Gr 4-6 product covering verbal and nonverbal reasoning.  The software covers the same skills, with the same examples, but the presentation is very different.  The choice of book or software is up to you.  The presentation of the book is more like that of the test but the software is more engaging and can be used more independently.  Exercises can be repeated more easily with the software enabling a fifth grader to rework areas they find challenging until they master them.  Many of my customers choose to purchase both book and software.

If you have a very able child they may be ready for some, or all, of the activities in Building Thinking Skills Level 3.  In our opinion it can only help a child to expose them to difficult problems and challenge them to develop strategies to solve them.  Remember that by definition your gifted child has cognitive abilities two or more years ahead of those of their peers.  Your able child should be ready to learn the material in Building Thinking Skills Level 3.  Since the most difficult questions on the CogAT will be more difficult than those in Building Thinking Skills Level 2 if your child is ready for Level 3 (have a look at the sample pages) then we recommend it over Level 2.


For the quantitative battery we have a number of suggestions.  Cranium Crackers are outside the box extension math activities.  The quantitative analysis battery in the CogAT is not about math per se but rather about understanding quantitative relationships and how numbers can be manipulated.  Cranium Crackers will get your child thinking about math in different ways and prepare them for the type of thinking they will need to do to solve CogAT problems. 

 

Brain Stretchers is another possibility for the CogAT Quantitative Battery.  Brain Stretchers contains a section specifically on sequencing and another on algebraic reasoning (two of the three quantitative subtests).  The reminder of the book contains a collection of traditional and non-traditional logic and math problems. 
 
The highest level in the series Math Analogies is recommended for Gr 4-5.  It will probably be pretty easy for your able 5th grader but it presents figural and quantitative analogies in a format not used in any of the other titles.  If analogical reasoning is something your child needs practice with this title could be a good choice.
 
Mathematical Reasoning through Verbal Analysis takes a different approach.  This is a complete compressed math curriculum.  It has more math than you need but it teaches the type of reasoning that the test is looking for.  Book 2 is for Gr 4-8.  Don’t expect your child to be ready to do everything in this book.  Remember that is the reasoning behind the problems which is important, not the computation.  Mathematical Reasoning through Verbal Analysis has a separate instructor/answer guide.  You won’t need this for the answers but it has all the discussion points.  For the CogAT it is this reasoning that is important and for busy parents it’s nice to have discussion points and vocabulary laid out.

 

For children who prefer software Math Blockout is an option.  Math Blockout teaches algebraic analysis which is one of the subtests on the quantitative battery.  It is a very simple program providing practice with equation building.  Since it only teaches algebraic analysis it is unlikely to be sufficient on its own.


For children who like software Think Ahead Games is an optional extra.  Children find a path through a grid by matching game board pieces by color or size.  Among the skills built are sequencing, classifying and recognizing patterns.  These are all tested for in the nonverbal subtests.


Another extra is Think Analogies (book) or Thinkanalogy Puzles (software).  Verbal Analogies are covered in Building Thinking Skills.  Think Analogies explains how different types of analogies work in detail and provides more examples.  This is particularly important for children who do not have American English as their first language.  They may miss some subtleties in verbal analogies without additional practice. 


We always recommend Mind Benders for any multi-choice test.  These are deductive logic puzzles.  This is the skill you use in multi-choice testing to eliminate (a) and (b) as impossible even though you don’t know the answer thereby improving the chance of guessing correctly.  They are also great for practicing the type of reading required for multi-choice testing where every word matters.  Many able children skim read.  For testing they need to practice slowing down and taking account of every word.  A3 would be a good place to start but we have titles above and below this in difficulty.  There are 14 titles in the Mind Benders series.
 
Finally we've included two traditional test preparation titles in the list below.  If your child hasn't had a lot of experience taking standardized tests it can be helpful to expose them to this prior to testing.  Spectrum Test Prep is a traditional test preparation book written for parents.  Spectrum Test Practice contains additional practice tests.  Spectrum Test Prep has less background information (like get a good night sleep and eat breakfast) and more practice tests.  The format of the practice tests in the Test Prep title is more that of real tests including bubble sheets.  Remember that these are traditional test preparation books.  The questions test areas like reading comprehension and mathematics skills.  They were not written for the CogAT.
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Brain Stretchers Book 1
Brain Stretchers Book 1
Our Price: $10.99

Grade(s): 5-9
Activities: 32
Pages: 75

Brain Stretchers gets students excited about strengthening their core math skills, logical thinking, and problem solving.

These activities teach numeric and geometric concepts using fun charts, pictures, grids, figures, and word problems. Your students will ask to do these math activities every day! Answers included.
Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural
Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural
Our Price: $29.99

Grade(s): 7-12+
Activities: 259
Pages: 280

Building Thinking Skills®provides highly effective nonverbal reasoning activities to improve vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as visual and auditory processing. This exceptional skill set provides a solid foundation for academic excellence and success on any assessment test.
Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Verbal
Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Verbal
Our Price: $29.99

Grade(s): 7-12+
Activities: 350
Pages: 384

Building Thinking Skills®provides highly effective verbal and nonverbal reasoning activities to improve vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as visual and auditory processing. This exceptional skill set provides a solid foundation for academic excellence and success on any assessment test.
Math Analogies Book 2
Math Analogies Book 2
Our Price: $11.99

Grade(s): 4-5
Pages: 48

Understanding analogies and the ability to reason analogically are important problem-solving skills. There are few resources to assist children in the explict use of analogous reasoning with quantitative and spatial information. This series fills that void.
Math Blockout! Fund Operations software
Math Blockout! Fundamental Operations Software
Our Price: $19.99

Grade(s): 2-12+
Activities: Unlimited

Math Blockout improves students' mental computation, problem solving, logical thinking, and probability skills.

Using mathematical reasoning and game strategy, players earn points as they create equations that block out numbers on the game board. They receive one point for blocking out a number and one for each blocked-out number next to it.
Mathematical Reasoning Book 2. Teacher
Mathematical Reasoning Book 2, Parent
Our Price: $13.99

Grade(s): 4-8
Activities: 283

Instruction/Answer Guide includes concept overviews, answers, and focus questions that lead students to think mathematically as they verbalize the steps of working through concrete and abstract processes.
Mathematical Reasoning Book 2, Student
Mathematical Reasoning Book 2, Student
Our Price: $24.99

Grade(s): 4-8
Activities: 283
Pages: 296

Mathematical Reasoning™ helps your child devise strategies to solve a wide variety of math problems. These books emphasize problem solving and computation to build the math reasoning skills necessary for success in higher level math and math assessments.
Instruction/Answer Guide is sold separately.
Mind Benders: A3
Mind Benders A3
Our Price: $9.99

Grade(s): 3-6
Activities: 14
Pages: 30

Deductive reasoning puzzles teach children logic and improve reading comprehension and test scores.
Scratch Your Brain C1
Scratch Your Brain C1
Our Price: $15.99

Grade(s): 6-8
Activities: 118
Pages: 88

Scratch Your Brain® contains a variety of engaging, often humorous activities, puzzles, patterns, sequences, writing multi-step solutions, and more. It also encourages brainstorming and teaches students there is usually more than one way to solve a problem. Activities are sequenced by difficulty throughout each chapter to allow students to gradually build their skills.
Spectrum Test Prep Grades 6
Spectrum Test Prep Grade 6
Our Price: $9.99

Boosts confidence and helps learners improve test scores by offering children the preparation they need for standardized tests.
Think Ahead Games software
Think Ahead! Games Software
Our Price: $18.99

Grade(s): 3-12+
Activities: unlimited

Think Ahead Games strengthens skills in sequencing, classifying, comparing/contrasting, evaluating alternatives, generating solutions, and recognizing patterns. Using either figures or numbers, students practice their mental mapping ability in order to outmaneuver their opponent. Adjustable difficulty settings make the software fun and challenging for kids and adults.
Think Analogies B1
Think Analogies B1
Our Price: $11.99

Grade(s): 6-8
Activities: 49
Pages: 56

Think Analogies® clearly, easily, and effectively teaches students how to analyze and classify analogies by relationship, category, and structure.
ThinkAnalogy Puzzles B software
ThinkAnalogy Puzzles B Software
Our Price: $21.99

Grade(s): 6-8
Activities: 20


ThinkAnalogy® Puzzles is a fun, engaging program that helps students truly understand the basis of an analogy. These activities develop razor-sharp analogy, vocabulary, word analysis, and comprehension skills for the highest academic and test performance.

In each activity students analyze 30 potential analogy pairs, evaluate word meanings and relationships to find the best matches, then classify each analogy by type. The deeper analysis required to classify an analogy produces a better understanding of analogies and develops a host of critical thinking skills.
Word Roots A2 software
Word Roots A2 Software
Our Price: $25.99

Grade(s): 4-12+
Activities: 32

Learn Latin and Greek prefixes, suffixes and root words for improved vocabulary.