Free Online CogAT Kindergarten Test Preparation: Practice CogAT Level 5/6 Sample Questions & Tips – 2025
What Is the CogAT Kindergarten Test?
The CogAT, also known as the Cognitive Abilities Test, is a type of assessment that is used to qualify children from K-12th grade into gifted and talented programs. The CogAT Level 5/6 is administered to children who are enrolled in kindergarten. This test will be used to measure each student’s verbal, nonverbal, and quantitative skills. Although this test does include a verbal section, there will only be a few questions. Majority of the questions will include shapes and figures, and will mainly focus on the students’ reasoning skills. The questions that will be asked will include information that has not yet been taught to your child. Each child will be expected to use reasoning skills to solve each problem.
What Are the CogAT Kindergarten Test Sections?
The CogAT Kindergarten test will be split into three sections and will be comprised of 118 questions in total. Depending on your school district, each section of the test may be administered separately or together all at once. The questions on this test will be age-appropriate, and kindergarteners will not be tested on their reading skills. Instead, they will be asked various questions from the following sections.
Verbal Battery
The CogAT verbal battery will consist of three different subtests, including sentence completion, picture analogies, and picture classification. The kindergarteners will not be expected to read the instructions. Instead, a teacher will explain the instructions to the students before they start the test. Each section of the verbal battery section will include 14 questions.
- Sentence Completion: Because this test is being administered to kindergarteners, the sentence completion section will be completely optional. A teacher will read a sentence aloud to the students and will request that the students choose an answer that would best complete the sentence.
- Picture Analogies: Three pictures will be presented to the students. The first two pictures will go together in some way, and the third picture will be related to one of the answers. The students will need to look at the answers and find the picture that matches the third picture.
- Picture Classification: The students will be presented with three pictures that are related in some way. Then, the students will be provided with several answer options, and will need to choose a picture from the answers that is related to the other three pictures.
Nonverbal Battery
The CogAT nonverbal battery will consist of three subtests, including figure matrices, figure classification, and paper folding. The subtests will include geometric shapes and will require the students to use their spatial reasoning skills. Because this test is nonverbal, there will not be a language-based assessment. The figure matrices and figure classification section for kindergarteners will each include 14 questions, while the paper folding section will only include 10 questions.
- Figure Matrices: The questions in this section will include a 2×2 table. Inside of each box, there will be a shape or figure. The two boxes in the top row will have figures that are related in some form to each other. The bottom row will have one box filled with a shape, and one box that is left empty. The students will need to find the answer in the presented options that includes a picture that would match the figure in the bottom row.
- Paper Folding: An image of a piece of paper will be presented. The piece of paper will follow several folding steps, and could possibly contain hole punches. The students will need to imagine how the piece of paper would look once unfolded, and choose the answer that they believe represents how the piece of paper would look.
- Figure Classification: A row of three images will be presented to the students. These images will be of shapes or figures that are similar to each other. The students will need to look through the answers and choose a shape that is most similar to the other three images.
Quantitative Battery
The CogAT quantitative battery will assess each student’s problem-solving skills and quantitative reasoning ability. The battery will consist of three subtests, including number analogies, number puzzles, and number series. The number series and number analogies section will each include 14 questions, while the number puzzles section will only include 10 questions.
- Number Series: The questions in the number series section will include an image of an abacus toy with rods of beads. The last rod of the abacus toy will be missing the beads. Your child will need to figure out the pattern between the first few rods of beads, and then match the pattern with an answer. The answer will include a rod of beads that follows the pattern of the first few rods of beads.
- Number Puzzles: Children will be presented with pictures that are supposed to signify math problems. The students will need to solve the simple equations by choosing an answer that equals the amount of the math problem.
- Number Analogies: During the number analogies section, the test will include a 2×2 table with four different boxes. Three of the boxes will be filled, and one will not. The top row of boxes will have shapes that are related through a mathematical relationship. The bottom row will have one box with a shape that is related to one of the answer options. Your child will need to figure out the mathematical relationship, and choose the answer that would fit into the empty box.
How to Read CogAT Kindergarten’s Score Report
Although the CogAT is named after the school grades, each child will only be scored based off of their age. You will receive a “Standard Age Score,” or SAS, that compares your student’s scores with other same-age children. The test results will go through several steps before the final score has been calculated.
- Raw Score: A raw score on the score report is just the number of correct answers out of the total amount of questions. Therefore, a score of 115/118 simply means that your child correctly answered 115 questions out of 118 questions.
- Universal Scale Score (USS): The raw score will be normalized and converted into a standard score referred to as USS. Each section of the CogAT will receive a separate USS score. Then, a Composite USS score is calculated by taking the average of the three separate USS scores.
- Standard Age Score (SAS): The highest possible SAS score is 160, but on average a student will receive a 100.
- Percentile Rank (PR): The number that will determine eligibility for a gifted and talented program is the percentile rank. Your child’s score will be compared with other same-age children, and will then be assigned a personalized percentage. Their percentage will mean they did better than or the same as that percentage of students nationwide.
- Stanine (S): The stanine score will be shown as a simple number between 1 and 9 and will be associated with each child’s ability level. 1 is the lowest score and 9 is the highest.
CogAT Kindergarten Tips
- Identify areas of weakness. No two students are alike. This means that there is not a single section of the exam that is considered harder than others. Your child will first need to practice with online study guides, and then identify their areas of weakness. In order to strengthen these areas, they should repeatedly test themselves on any subjects that they struggle with.
- Focus on a single section of a shape, rather than the entire thing. If your child is struggling to identify patterns or relations between shapes, teach them how to focus on a single section. This will help them to recognize smaller patterns or relations that are similar across the puzzle.
How to Prepare for the CogAT Kindergarten Test?
The CogAT Kindergarten Test has three sections that are then split into three different subsections. The wide variety of testing topics can make this test harder to study for compared to other aptitude tests. The simplest countermeasure to this issue is to continuously practice with online practice exams. Most online practice exams will cover every test topic and will also provide you with essential example questions. A good online resource will also include answers with explanations that will serve as a guide during your preparation process. In order to achieve the highest score obtainable on the CogAT Kindergarten Test, make sure your child prepares at least 2 months in advance for the test. That way, they will walk into school on testing day and will not only feel confident, but also prepared to ace the exam.
CogAT Kindergarten Test Sample Questions:
Pattern Completion Example 1:
Look at the pattern in the orange triangle. A piece of it has been removed. To complete the pattern, choose the piece below the pattern that goes where the question mark is. Which of the following answer options completes the design?
Explanation: The triangle is monotone orange, therefore the part which has been removed must be the same color as the triangle. The only answer choice that conforms to these requirements is answer choice D. It is helpful to use colors to see that they stay consistent throughout the entire picture and missing section. You can also use process of elimination to remove answer choices that are incorrect.
Pattern Completion Example 2:
Look at the pattern in the green-purple circle. A piece of it has been removed. To complete the pattern, choose the piece below the pattern that goes where the question mark is. Which of the following answer options completes the design?
Explanation: The circle has been diagonally divided into equal parts; half green, half purple. Therefore, the part which has been removed must be half green and half purple too and halved diagonally. The only answer choice that conforms to these requirements is answer choice B. It is helpful to use colors to see that they stay consistent throughout the entire picture and missing section. You can also use process of elimination to remove answer choices that are incorrect.
Reasoning by Analogy Example 1:
Look at the figures below. They are related in some way. Choose a figure from the answer row that corresponds to the figure on the bottom in the same way as the figures on top correspond to each other.
Explanation: Look at the top row. You can see there are two small red triangles each halved by a thin black line, which goes from the tip of the triangle all the way to the bottom. Now, look at the bottom row. There is one blue triangle also halved by a line. The only answer choice that conforms to these requirements is answer choice D. The triangle in option D is also blue and has a black line from the tip to the bottom, hence this choice will complete the analogy of 2 red and 2 blue triangles.
Reasoning by Analogy Example 2:
Look at the figures below. They are related in some way. Choose a figure from the answer row that corresponds to the figure on the bottom in the same way as the figures on top correspond to each other.
Explanation: Look at the top row. You can see there are two yellow boxes. One of them has a large, blue rectangle inside and the other one has a small, blue rectangle inside. Now, look at the bottom row. There is one big, blue circle inside a yellow box, therefore, following the analogy on the top row, the fourth box should have a small blue circle inside a yellow box. The only answer choice that conforms to these requirements is answer choice A.