CogAT Questions for 3rd grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade and 6th Grade Explained

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - September 29th, 2011

If you have an older child, the CogAT questions for students in 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade and 6th grade include: 

CogAT Verbal Questions – 3 subtests

 Verbal Classification – The student is given a list of 3 words that are alike in some way.  The student must decide how the words are alike.

•  Example:  purple    pink    yellow
• Choices:   color; ink; red; rainbow; marker
• Answer:  color

 Sentence completion – The student is given a sentence with a word left out and must choose the best word to complete the sentence.

•  Example: The apple doesn’t fall ____ from the tree.
• Choices: away; apart; far; near
• Answer: far

Verbal analogies – The student is give 3 words in bold.  The first two go together in a particular way.  The third word goes with a fourth word in the same way.  The student must choose the word from among answer choices that goes with the third word in the same way.

•  Example:  Big is to little as high is to
• Choices: low; tall; short; near
• Answer: low

CogAT Quantitative Questions – 3 subtests

•  These subtests assess a student’s quantitative reasoning and mathematical problem solving abilities.

Quantitative Relations – The student is given two math problems numbered 1 and 2 and 3 answer choices.  The student must choose whether or not the answer to 1 is greater than the answer to 2, less than the answer to 2 or equal to the answer to 2.

• Example: 1. 1 + 1   2. 2 + 0
• Choices: a) 1 is greater than 2; b) 1 is less than 2; c) 1 is equal to 2
• Answer:  c

 Number Series – the student is given a series of numbers that follow a rule.  They must determine what the rule is and decide what number comes next.

•  Example: 2  4  6  8  ___
• Choices:  9; 10; 11; 12; 14
• Answer: 10

Equation building – the student is given numbers and signs. They are asked to combine the numbers and signs in a way that will result in one of the answer choices. 

• Example: 1  2  2  –  +
• Choices:  1; 3; 5; 7
• Answer:  1 – 1 + 2 – 2 = 1

CogAT Non-Verbal  Questions– 3 subtests

Figure Classification – the student is shown a picture of 3 shapes.  Next to that are 4 answer choices that are also shapes.  The student must determine what is the same about the first 3 shapes and choose 1 shape from among the 4 that is the same as the first 3.

• Example: Student is shown a picture of 3 shapes divided in quarters.  For answer choices, there are 4 shapes that have two lines through them.  Only one has been divided in quarters by those lines.  That is the answer.

Figure Analogies – the student is shown a box divided into quarters.  There are two shapes in the top two boxes that are the same in some way.  There is a third shape in the bottom left box and 4 answer choices.  The child must choose the shape that goes with the third shape in the same way the top two shapes go together. [note: the question will be harder than this, but this is the essence of how this section works.]

• Example: Student is shown a matrix with a big circle in the top left box and a small circle in the top right box.  There is a big square in the bottom left box.  Answer choices are: triangle, small circle, small square, large square.  Answer is the small square. [note: the question will be harder than this, but this is the essence of how this section works.]

Figure Analysis

• The student is shown how a square piece of dark paper is first folded and then, where holes are punched after the paper has been folded.  They must choose between 4 pictures that show how that piece of paper might look when the paper is unfolded.  Only one shows how it would really look and that is the answer.  This one is hard to picture so we included an example below.  Answer is E.