CogAT 6th Grade Practice Test

The questions on the 6th-grade CogAT are designed to challenge your child’s critical thinking and decision-making skills. To answer each question correctly, students must carefully evaluate every answer choice. As they progress in grade level, they’re expected to apply core math operations—such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—especially on subtests like Number Puzzles. A strong understanding of the order of operations is also essential when solving complex equations. You might think of these combined skills as a mental “balancing act.”

For the verbal section, your child can benefit from ongoing practice in reading comprehension, vocabulary building, and developing the ability to identify relationships and categories between words and ideas. Below, you’ll find sample questions modeled after the ones your sixth grader is likely to encounter on the CogAT.

1) Quantitative Battery: Number Puzzles

In the CogAT Number Puzzles subtest, students encounter math problems that test relationships and arithmetic skills. It challenges their reasoning and problem-solving. They encounter incomplete number puzzles, requiring careful selection from provided choices. This subtest assesses their quantitative reasoning and pattern identification skills.

Example #1:

In this section, you will be given a mathematical equation. Choose the answer that should replace the ? or the ☈ symbol.

16 + 85 + 69 = (69 + 85) + ☈

a. 57       b. 16       c. 101       d. 81       e. 154

2) Non-Verbal Battery: Figure Classification

The CogAT Figure Classification subtest assesses students’ non-verbal reasoning, emphasizing pattern and relationship recognition among abstract shapes. Students must identify the figure that completes the pattern or matches the given figures. This subtest measures spatial awareness, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Example #2:

Tell your child to look at the first three figures. They go together in some way. Choose one more figure in the rest of the row that goes with the first three figures in the same way.

3) Verbal Battery: Verbal Analogy

The CogAT Verbal Analogy subtest assesses students’ ability to identify word and concept relationships. Students encounter word pairs with specific relationships and select another word from options that shares the same relationship with a given word. This subtest evaluates verbal reasoning, vocabulary, and comprehension of word relationships.

Example #3:

The first two words in the sentences below go together in a certain way. Choose the answer that goes with the third word in the sentence, the same way that the first and second words go together.

Won is to one as weight is to _____.

A. wait        B. height        C. state       D. wheat       E. eight

4) Quantitative Battery: Number Series

Example #4:

Look at the numbers in each row below. There is a rule that governs the order in which the numbers occur in the series. Figure out the rule and then choose the number that comes next from the answer choices below.

10.61     10.48     10.35     10.22     10.09     ____

A. 9.99       B. 9.98       C. 9.97       D. 9.96       E. 9.95

5) Non-Verbal Battery: Paper Folding

In the CogAT Paper Folding subtest, students view images of paper folding and hole punching. Their main task is predicting the paper’s final outcome when unfolded. This subtest assesses spatial visualization, including complex actions, and requires logical deductions from visual information. Overall, it challenges critical thinking and visual analysis, making it a crucial component of CogAT for non-verbal assessment.

Example #5:

On the top row, you will see how a square piece of paper is folded sometimes once, sometimes twice, sometimes three times. Holes are then punched after the paper has been folded. Choose the answer in the second row that shows how the folded piece of paper would look after it is unfolded.

Answers:

1) b

2) C – The exact same figures are always diagonally across from each other

3) A

4) D – Subtract 0.13

5) E

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