A Guide for Parents to Prepare Their Child Well for CogAT
CogAT is used by many nations regularly to assess students’ cognitive development levels. Many schools use CogAT results to determine if a student is eligible for the advanced learning provided by the Gifted and Talented program.
Parents can play an integral role in helping their child prepare for the CogAT, also known as the cognitive abilities test. A thorough understanding of the exam format and the assessment questions asked can aid them to prepare their youngster better for the gifted test.
Test-taking is a skill, and deliberate practice is one of the greatest methods to get better at it. It is still worthwhile to give the Gifted exam a shot even if you don’t agree with the overall idea. This test is like a godsend that can help you determine your child’s verbal, nonverbal, and quantitative reasoning skills so you can work on them further.
Be aware of the format of CogAT
CogAT consists of three batteries – verbal, non-verbal, and quantitative. Each of these batteries has three different sections which have their own sets of questions to test your child’s cognitive abilities.
Practice analogies, sentence completion, and picture classification make up the three sections of the verbal battery. In this section, your little one will be asked to complete patterns or identify similarities and differences among various objects.
Number analogies, number puzzles, and number series are the three sections of the quantitative battery. Questions on fundamental mathematical concepts, numbers, and shapes are asked in this battery.
The last battery is the nonverbal which includes three sections – figure matrices, paper folding, and figure classification. The CogAT nonverbal battery consists of spatial relations, analogies, and sequences.
Understanding the basics
As parents, you play a big role in helping your loved one prepare for the Gifted test. The first step is to understand what the test measures and how the scores are used. This will provide greater insight into how to best support your child’s learning needs.
For example, if he/she struggles with visual-spatial skills, you can help strengthen this area by providing activities and games that help build these skills. Another way to prepare for the CogAT is by letting your younger one practice tests on Gifted Test Prep.
This will let the youngster experience how the CogAT works and the types of questions being asked. This will also boost test-taking confidence since he/she will be more familiar with the format and questions while taking the actual test. Regular practice will help you gauge your child’s strengths and weaknesses as well.
Create a stress-free environment
You are your champ’s biggest cheerleader so it is imperative that you be relaxed and keep a lively atmosphere around. Find out about the CogAT exam date in advance so you have ample time to prepare.
Apart from this, make sure that your kid is well-rested and gets a nutritious breakfast on the morning of the exam. This will help to keep the mind and body fresh during the assessment.
Track how your child is doing while practicing the CogAT sample questions. In order to help students prepare for the gifted exam in grades K–5, Gifted Test Prep App gives access to 5500+ CogAT practice questions from all the sections. Your child will learn how to compare ideas, recall past events, draw conclusions, and take appropriate action by practicing CogAT questions.
Work on weak links
While practicing, your child is bound to make mistakes. When your child makes a mistake, he/she can look at it from different angles and come up with different solutions. Making and revising mistakes is an important part of your child’s development as it allows him/her to think outside the box. It helps your child remember the information necessary to do well in the assessment.
Keep dedicated time every day to eliminate these mistakes. You can go through the revision tab on the Gifted App to run through the questions that your child marked incorrectly while practicing. Let your child learn to solve problems, think critically, and develop resilience.
Give your child a preview of the actual CogAT Test
Going through the questions at home and attempting them in the actual exam is quite different. At home, you may not realize the time taken by your child to answer the questions.
Here, CogAT screening tests come in handy where your precious will answer questions that can be asked in the actual CogAT exam format making him/her more comfortable with the assessment. Practice screening tests on Gifted Test Prep and get an idea of the time required to devote to each section and the important topics that need more focus.
Insights to practice better
It is not enough to just practice. Eventually, you have to notice where your child is falling behind. The Insights tab of the Gifted will help you check a few important parameters to improve your kid’s performance.
See the number of questions your little one has attempted
The attempts and efforts section shows give a brief idea of your child’s practice session. It consists of – a question graph and a time graph. The question graph shows the daily attempted questions while the time graph shows the time spent answering those questions. This will help you understand if your child is practicing enough or needs to dedicate more time to CogAT preparation.
Identify your child’s performance in each section
Observing your young one’s strengths and weaknesses will aid you to figure out the battery and section that needs more attention.
The performance insights section displays the percentage of correctly answered questions out of all the questions that were attempted for each section of the individual battery. The date range option will assist you to measure the regular progress and direct you in evaluating the areas where your child excels and where close attention is needed.
As a parent, it is important to understand how your child’s educational opportunities will be impacted by CogAT exam results. A strong CogAT score may result in your child being enrolled in a more challenging math or language class in addition to being accepted into the gifted education program.
Even if your child may be exceptional at critical thinking and spatial reasoning, this won’t be there on his/her report card. However, it will show up in the results of the cognitive abilities test.
With the help of the Gifted Test Prep App, you can encourage your kid to showcase his/her intelligence and pave the way to join a gifted and talented program.