SAGES-2 Test (Screening Assessment for Gifted Elementary and Middle School Students) Online Preparation – 2025

What Is the SAGES-2 Test?

The SAGES-2 test is an abilities and accomplishment test that is used by a variety of schools to identify students for their gifted and talented programs from kindergarten up to 8th grade. There are two variants of the SAGES-2 that your child can take, and this is based on their grade level. Children in kindergarten to third grade will take one level of the test and will often be accompanied by a facilitator, whilst those in fourth grade and above take another test independently.

SAGES-2 Test Overview

The layout of the test is the same regardless of what version of the test your child does. Each test contains three subtests aimed to measure your child’s educational and scholarly capabilities. Subtests are broken down into achievement and aptitude. The achievement section features multiple-choice questions on mathematics, science, language, and social studies and is intended to gain an understanding of the knowledge your child has learned in school. The aptitude part is called reasoning and is designed to understand your child’s problem-solving skills, this part of the test uses images and shapes and requires your child to recognize the relationships between them.

How Does the SAGES-2 Test scored?

The SAGES-2 test is classed as a normed test, which means that it compares your child’s performance against other children in the same age and grade. As standards can vary from school to school and state to state, norming an exam is often the most effective way of getting a good comparison score, and, as the objective of the SAGES-2 is to understand how a child performs compared to their peers, this is a fantastic way to do it.

Understanding the SAGES-2 test scores:

SAGES-2 Test Preparation

The SAGES-2 (Screening Assessment for Elementary and Gifted Students) test features a variety of verbal and non-verbal questions across multiple grade levels meaning it is one of the easier gifted & talented tests that your child can prepare for. The main skills used throughout the test include recognizing patterns, comprehension, understanding space and shapes, mathematical equations, and memory – all of which you can help your child study and prepare for.

Understand the Types of Questions That Will Come Up on the Test

Although we do not know the exact questions that will come up on the test, we do know the subtest categories: mathematics, science, language, social studies, and reasoning. This helps to give you and your child a steer of what subjects you can be revising for test prep. As well as revision in the four key academic areas you can also practice past tests.

Past tests are a great way to familiarize your child with the format of questions and explain to them how certain answers came about.

Improve language

A strong, cohesive vocabulary and the ability to identify difficult words are crucial for the language part of the test. Students are required to fill in the blanks, assign words to pictures, and should be able to confidently define a word. To prepare your child for this subtest there are many things you can do including:

• Listening to audio books and reading regularly with your child – if you are reading and/or listening to books regularly with your child, this will help them expand their vocabulary. If there are any words your child is unsure of, test them and see if they can understand what the character in the book is saying – this adds a fun element to story time whilst getting them to learn new words too
• Play vocabulary games with your child – games such as pairs, or asking them to describe an object without saying what it is a great way to get your child to tap-in to their vocabulary and work on sentence structures
• Flashcards – flashcards are a great way to test your child’s vocabulary as they don’t have the written word beneath them meaning they need to tap into their memory

Practice Similarities and Differences

Another important part on the SAGES-2 test is the relationships between images and objects. Having your child practice what might come next is essential for them doing well on the reasoning section as a lot of the questions have been known to show patterns and ask what comes next. In a traditional reasoning question, your child would likely encounter a mixture of shapes e.g., a big square next to a little square, on the second row there would be a big triangle. Out of the options available to your child, they should select the little triangle – deciphering the relationship between the two.

Practice Mental Arithmetic and Basic Science Questions

A fundamental part of the SAGES-2 is the mathematics part, which is why it is particularly important to practice mental mathematics with your child such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Older children should focus on things like fractions, decimals, and patterns.

For the science part of the exam, you should help your child gain an understanding of basic scientific principals such as temperature, animals, plants, and foods. A wonderful way to expose your child to science and nature is to get outside and experience it. Ask them plenty of questions to make it less about learning and more about interacting.

In addition to familiarizing both you and your child with the subtests on the SAGES-2 test, online resources such as practice tests and study guides are a great way to prepare your little one for gifted and talented testing. Study guides and practice exams include questions like the ones on the official test and well as detailed explanations to the answers to allow your child to get acquainted with them without getting too stressed. Without the use of study guides and practice questions, the testing material could be overwhelming for your child, causing them to underperform on the test so it is best to go-in prepared by using as many online resources and practice tests as you can.