Visualizing Spatial Talent through Non-Verbal CogAt Tests

By | October 21, 2014

CogAT test also known as Cognitive Ability Tests are becoming a phenomenally popular mechanism to gauge and track the mental awareness, problem solving and reasoning abilities as well as its development spanning from their pre-school stage to Class 12 grade standard. These psychometric tests are broadly divided in to three subsets comprising verbal, quantitative and non-verbal batteries. The non-verbal battery which is the most exceptional and unconventional route to gaining insight about the inner functionality of the young minds is concerned about discerning their structural, geographical and dimensional competence. Although, comprehending what are non-verbal CogAt skills are not considered an intrinsic part of our formal schooling it plays a pivotal role in the assimilation of knowledge and its corresponding output since the instructional style of the reputed and progressive institutions are relying heavily on the child’s spatial abilities to convey complex educational messages and instructions.

Generally, the non-verbal CogAT battery comprises a set of fifteen to twenty five innovative questions testing the student’s deftness to identify and analyze geometrical shapes and figures. It is extremely effective tool for diagnosing children with dyslexic disorders pertaining to reading, writing, computing numbers, processing language or coordinating visual messages. Thus, in order to decode what are non-verbal CogAT skills, this test section is designed to possess three parts quintessentially revolving around figure classification, analysis and analogies. The students are expected to highlight the similarities, uniqueness or establish the analogy or relation between disparate shapes and figures in the given set of choices. In this questionnaire battery the students are also made to visualize certain spatial elements through different exercises.

In recent years the utility of decoding what are non-verbal CogAt skills is subject to lot of contentions since scientific research ascertains that this particular attribute cannot be understood in isolation and therefore effectively predict the rate of academic success amongst students and are deemed to be beneficial when administered in combination with quantitative and verbal tests. However, this segment contributes towards a comprehensive and holistic evaluation perspective which can further provide insightful inputs for developing efficacious educational programmes. It also grants an enlarged platform for student aptitude comparison and gives adequate information about their probability of imbibing certain academic virtues in future by drawing accelerated curriculum programmes for students with special instructional requisites. Certain experts in this field believe that non verbal tests are interchangeable with respect to verbal and quantitative calibers which collaboratively summarize the general abilities of the students. However, there are others who believe that non-verbal ability has to do very little with the success of the students but contributes towards balancing multiple perspectives concerning divergent student aptitude levels in order to accelerate their learning potential during their schooling tenure. Thus, non-verbal CogAt test serves to highlight the visual analysis and configuration abilities of the students for contributing towards their other abilities.