|
CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) Levels G and H
The recommendations below are for the typical gifted child taking CogAT Level G or H in Grades 9-12. If your child has areas of particular weakness then you may wish to begin at an easier level. If you'd like recommendations for your situation please email or phone with some information about your child and we'd be happy to make suggestions.
For most children Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural, Building Thinking Skills Level 3 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 is not expected to be able to answer the most difficult questions on the CogAT. Preparing with material that is above grade level will better prepare a child to excel in the CogAT test.
The CogAT has three sections each with three subtests. Your preparation should cover verbal, non-verbal and quantitative analysis.
Building Thinking Skills Level 3 is our number one recommendation. This comprises two books at a Gr 7-12 level covering verbal and nonverbal reasoning. Most of the work in these books will be easy for your gifted child but they provide the most comprehensive coverage of verbal and non-verbal reasoning that we know of.
The third set of subtests in the CogAT is the quantitative battery. For this 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.
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.
Think Ahead Games is another option for students who prefer software. As with Math Blockout the skill coverage is relevant but limited. Students 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 of the CogAT.
Verbal Analogies are covered in the last chapter of Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Verbal. Thinkanalogy Puzzles explains how different types of analogies work in detail and provides examples at a higher level than those in Building Thinking Skills. 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. At this level this title is only available in software.
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 if your student has never done any deductive logic puzzles but B1 is the level you'd want them at prior to testing. There are 14 titles in the Mind Benders series so plenty of opportunity to provide your child with lots of practice if they need and/or enjoy these activities. |
|
|
