After the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) is held, the student or the child is provided with scores as well as a profile. These scores and the profile are then analyzed and interpreted to understand the position, standing as well as development of the child or the student appearing for the exam. The profile that is provided to the student has two boxes. Each box compares the performance of the child in one way or the other. The first box helps to compare the child’s performance with other children who are of the same age and the second box helps to compare the performance of the child with respect to the children of the same grade but nationwide. It is worth noting that the students are provided with scores namely stanines ad percentile ranks for the exam. These stanines and the percentile ranks are usually the same are mostly the same or similar for the age as well as the grade if the child who appeared for the exam is of the right age for the grade in which he or she is in. Only in a situation where the child is younger or is older than the age correct for the specified grade will the age percentile or the stanine will differ from that of grade percentile or grade stanine.
The CogAT profile that is provided to the students helps to determine the strengths and the weaknesses of the students. This profile is usually a letter ranging from alphabet ‘A’ to alphabet ‘E’. The ‘A’ profile shows or represents that the student has performed similar in all the three segments of the test namely, verbal, non-verbal and quantitative. If the student gets a profile ‘B’, it means that the student either has a strength or a weakness among the three segments of tests appeared for. If the student scores the profile ‘C’, it means that the student has both, strength as well as weakness among the three segments. Last but not the least, if the student is given profile ‘E’, it means the same as profile ‘B’ or profile ‘C’ with a difference that the strength and the weakness that the student has is at more extreme than profile ‘B’ and profile ‘C’.
Let us see an example. IF the student’s score in the CogAT exam is 7C(V+Q-), how will be interpret the same. It means that the student has scored a stanine of 7, i.e he or she has performed averagely. The profile he has been given is ‘C’ hich means the student has one strength and one weakness among the three sets of exam. The strength of the student is Verbal segment denoted by ‘V+’ and the weakness of the student is the quantitative set, denoted by ‘Q-‘. Once the strength and the weakness of the student is known, it is easy to work on the weak areas of the student to develop and improve the same.