For the student appearing for the CogAT test, parents of the students and the teacher of the student, it is important to understand the CogAT scores so that they are able to judge the student’s ability, assess the student’s development of reasoning abilities. The said test helps everyone to assess the verbal, quantitative and the nonverbal reasoning of the student. Once the parents and the teachers are able to understand the CogAT score of the student, they will be able to work together to improve the student’s scholastic as well as intellectual development. Let us now see as to what steps should the taken to understand the CogAT scores well. Firstly while analyzing the Test scores, one should have a clear picture and should be able to differentiate between the various tests norms. The two basic tests norms are age norms and grade norms. Both these norms are used to calculate the score of the student and judge as well as compare the student with other students of the same age or of same grade.
Once the norms are clear, it is important to use the CogAT Universal Scale Scores (USS) as the basis of computing other scores. USS is calculated on the basis of the number of correct answers. Once the scores are computed, it is important to interpret the same so that one gets to know whether the student is average, below average or above average in his age group. It is then important to understand the child’s exact placement among all the students appearing for the exam with the help of the Percentile Rank Score. A percentile Rank score helps to determine as to how many percent students did the specific student bypassed in the said exam.
While understanding the CogAT scores, when the said person has analyzed the ability and the percentile score of the student, it is time to use the CogAT Stanine scores which will help to determine the broader grouping of the student’s scores. Stanine scores the group at a scale of 1 to 9, where 9 represents the group with the highest scores and 4 to 6 represents group having avera strength or 1ge score.
Once the student and the parents understand the stanine scores also, the next step is to assess the relative strengths as well as weaknesses of the students with the CogAT score profile. These profiles are represented with letters ‘A,B,C or E’. Where A stands for same performance in all the 3 types of the test, B stands for 1 weakness among the three types of exam. Profile C means that the student has both 1 strength and 1 weakness and E stand for an extreme strength or an extreme weakness. Once the individual is able to understand and interpret all the above specified scores or profiles, it will be easy to understand the exact position of the student in terms of logics, reasoning etc and help the student to improve on the areas of his or her weaknesses.