CogAT Screener Practice Test & Free Samples

Is your child taking the CogAT Screening Form? Learn about the test’s format and question types and how it’s different from the full version of the CogAT. Try some free sample questions and find out how Elm Academy can help your child feel prepared and confident on test day.

Elm Academy Gifted & Talented Test Prep

What is the CogAT?

The Cognitive Abilities Test, or CogAT, is a standardized test that is often used to identify students for gifted and talented or other advanced programs. The test is multiple choice and is made up of three sections, called batteries: the Verbal Battery, Nonverbal Battery, and Quantitative Battery. Each battery contains three unique question types, meaning that the full version of the CogAT contains a total of nine question types.

Depending on the grade level, the test can take up to three hours to administer. While this offers a comprehensive evaluation of a student’s abilities, it can also be an inefficient use of time in some instances, which is where the CogAT Screening Form comes into play.

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What is the CogAT Screening Form?

The CogAT Screening Form, sometimes referred to as the CogAT Screener, is an abridged version of the CogAT designed to assess students more efficiently. While the full CogAT test includes a total of nine question types, the CogAT Screening Form contains only three question types, sampling one question type from each of the three batteries. The three question types included are the analogy portions of each battery, which are:

  • Quantitative Battery: Number Analogies
  • Verbal Battery: Verbal/Picture Analogies
  • Nonverbal Battery: Figure Matrices


While the full CogAT can take up to three hours, the CogAT Screener can be administered much more quickly. For Levels 5/6-8, time limits are more flexible, but students will be given roughly 11-15 minutes per section. For Levels 9-17/18, the time limit is more strict, and students will be given exactly 10 minutes per section.

This shortened version of the CogAT allows for a quicker and more efficient assessment of larger groups of students. Oftentimes, the full version of the CogAT is administered to the top-performing students soon after.

All of our CogAT courses can be used to effectively prepare for the CogAT Screening Form, since it is simply an abridged version of the full CogAT.

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CogAT Free Sample Questions

To give you a better understanding of the types of questions your child is likely to encounter on the CogAT Screener, here is a sample question for each of the three question types. You can also check out our free sample courses, which include short lesson excerpts from our CogAT courses and a 9-question quiz. 

Verbal Battery

Picture/Verbal Analogies

Picture Analogies questions are completely nonverbal and appear on Levels 5/6-8. Verbal Analogies questions appear on Levels 9-17/18. We have included a sample of each below:  

Picture Analogies - Level 5/6-8

CogAT 1st Grade Picture Analogies Free Sample

Answer: The correct answer is the snowflake. In the top row, the first picture is of a brick wall. The second picture is a single brick. Brick walls are made up of many bricks.

 

The bottom row should follow the same pattern. The first picture shows a snowman. The correct answer will be something that a snowman is made of, making the snowflake the right answer.

Verbal Analogies - Level 9-17/18

Decrease → Increase : Shallow →

 

a. Grow

b. Water

c. Deep

d. Wide

e. Reduce

 

Answer: The correct answer is deep. The first pair of words, decrease and increase, are opposites. The word decrease means to make something smaller, and the word increase means to make something larger. 

The second pair of words should follow the same pattern. The first word is shallow, meaning the next word must have the opposite meaning, making deep the correct answer. 

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Nonverbal Battery

Figure Matrices

Figure Matrices questions appear on all levels of the CogAT.

CogAT 3rd Grade Figure Matrices Free Sample

Answer: The correct answer is the fourth option. In the top row, there are 3 shapes in the first box: a large blue triangle, a smaller grey square, and an even smaller black circle. The same 3 shapes appear in the second box, but with a few changes. First, the triangle has switched from being the largest shape to the smallest shape. Second, the circle has switched from being the smallest shape to the largest. Third, the triangle is now upside down. The grey square does not change.

 

 

The bottom row should follow the same pattern. The first box has a large black pentagon, a smaller white trapezoid, and an even smaller grey plus sign. The correct answer will show these 3 shapes changing in the same way the shapes changed in the top row. First, the large black pentagon will become the smallest shape. Second, the plus sign will become the largest shape. Third, the pentagon will flip upside down. The white trapezoid does not change.

Quantitative Battery

Number Analogies

Number Analogies questions appear on all levels of the CogAT. However, they use a picture format for Levels 5/6-8. 

Number Analogies - Level 5/6-8

CogAT 1st Grade Number Analogies Free Sample

Answer: The correct answer is the 5 snowflakes. In the top row, the first box has 4 butterflies. The second box has 5 butterflies, meaning that 1 butterfly was added.

 

The bottom row should follow the same pattern. In the first box, there are 4 snowflakes. If we add 1 snowflake, this will give us 5 snowflakes as the correct answer.

Number Analogies - Level 9-17/18

[4 → 28]      [7 → 49]      [9 → ?]

 

a. 63

b. 56

c. 54

d. 72

e. 62

 

Answer: The correct answer is 63. The first pair of numbers is 4 and 28. The relationship is that 28 is 4 multiplied by 7 (4 x 7 = 28). The second pair of numbers is 7 and 49, and we have the same relationship here: 49 is 7 multiplied by 7 (7 x 7 = 49). The last pair of numbers must also follow the same pattern, meaning that the missing number will be 9 multiplied by 7, giving us 63 (9 x 7 = 63).

Elm Academy's CogAT Courses

Elm Academy offers practice resources for the CogAT and CogAT Screening Form which include a realistic full-length practice test, detailed lessons and quizzes for each question type, and a study guide for parents that includes recommended study schedules and tips. The quizzes and full-length test add up to over 200 total practice questions, each with a detailed explanation. Elm Academy’s courses offer the structure and detail to help your child prepare for the CogAT and perform to the best of their abilities. Our courses are entirely online, and can be accessed immediately upon purchase via desktop, tablet, or smartphone.

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You can also try our free sample courses to get a glimpse of what our full courses offer. 

CogAT Tutoring

Are you looking for one-on-one tutoring that perfectly complements our online courses? We’ve partnered with Tannenbaum Tutors to offer personalized, comprehensive CogAT tutoring to students across the country. Contact us to get a free 20 minute consultation today.

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Jon Tannenbaum Tutors
Daniela B
Daniela B
Great experience! My son who is 10 y.o. and gifted in math, enjoyed practicing all tests (verbal, quantitative, and non verbal). He had fun going through the lessons and quizzes (especially the long quizzes at the end of each category) over one weekend prior to taking the real CogAT tests at his school the very next week. He was well prepared and very excited to take the real tests. He was the only one who actually finished the real CogAT nonverbal test (the hardest, in my opinion) in his testing group at school. I loved how the lessons were structured and easy to follow. I highly recommend this program. Being prepared makes a big difference even for highly gifted children as my son.
Elizabeth Gleinser
Elizabeth Gleinser
As a tutor, I have used this course as a resource to prepare students. I would highly recommend, one of the best resources I’ve seen for this type of test. The curriculum is well-designed, clear strategies and a good amount of practice problems. I would recommend this to other tutors to supplement resources as well as to parents working with their children.
Nathaniel
I have used several books and online courses to prepare my child for the CogAT and this one is hands down the best. The lessons included on how to answer the questions are very thoughtful and helpful. I would recommend this course to any parent looking to prepare their child for the CogAT.
Jacob B
Jacob B
This course was very helpful for my son. Lots of practice questions. I liked that there were quizzes for all the question styles.
Natalie Mudoka
Natalie Mudoka
The best course out there for OLSAT. It has the correct amount of difficulty to challenge a child’s thought process and diverse questions to hone different reasoning skills. I had 8 days to prepare my child for GATE testing and this last minute prep was more than sufficient to get her to the finish line. I highly recommend it for all children irrespective of whether they are testing for a GATE program or not.
Matthew Bribitzer-Stull
Matthew Bribitzer-Stull
My daughter did this two days before taking the test. She was much more comfortable in the testing environment, knowing what kinds of questions to expect and scored in the 97th percentile overall. I would recommend this product to other parents hoping to prepare their kids for the CogAT.
Rachel Costello
Rachel Costello
This course was great preparation for my son, who ended up doing extremely well on his exam. I appreciate that he was able to understand what to expect before the test and I believe the practice helped build his confidence. We were able to identify potential trouble spots for him and work through them together at home in a low-stress environment. We liked the fact that we could access the lessons and quizzes at our leisure and that we could repeat sections as needed. My son enjoyed the course and was excited to receive his score after each quiz. According to him, he was very glad he was able to use this course and thought that the practice lessons and quizzes were very representative of the exam he was given at school. Thank you for providing this resource! Highly recommend!
Manahil Mohamed
Manahil Mohamed
All the questions were similar, and the exercises made my son feel safe and gave us experience in how to solve the exam. I thank this academy for the service.
Lilliana Cruz
Lilliana Cruz
Highly recommend. Since CogAT is now proctored in computer, online practice tests are the way to go. The explanations for the incorrect answers and the lessons were very helpful and straight to the point. Very good value and effective.

We hope you found this article helpful. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments. 

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