The CogAT score report is one page, and somehow it manages to be confusing. There are three batteries, a composite, three or four different kinds of score for each, and a code like 8B (V+) that nobody explains. Here is the whole thing, decoded, and then the part that matters: what your district does with it.
The six numbers on the report
For each battery — Verbal, Quantitative, Nonverbal — and for the composite, the report lists some or all of these:
| Score | What it is | The scale |
|---|---|---|
| Raw score | Questions answered correctly | Out of the number of items |
| Universal Scale Score (USS) | The raw score converted to one scale shared by every level of the test | Used to build the other scores; you can ignore it |
| Standard Age Score (SAS) | How your child compares with children of the same age, nationally | Average 100, most children between 84 and 116 |
| Age Percentile Rank (APR) | The percentage of same-age children who scored at or below yours | 1 to 99 |
| Grade Percentile Rank (GPR) | The same, against children in the same grade | 1 to 99 |
| Stanine | The percentile squashed into nine bands | 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest) |
The SAS and the percentile are the two you will hear about, and they say the same thing in two languages. An SAS of 100 is the 50th percentile. An SAS of 116 is about the 84th. An SAS of 128 is about the 96th, and 132 is about the 98th. A five-year-old with an SAS of 120 is reasoning better than roughly nine in ten children their age.
Why there are two percentiles
The age percentile compares your child with children born within a few months of them. The grade percentile compares them with everyone in kindergarten, including children almost a year older. For a young-for-grade kindergartener, the age percentile is the fairer one, and it is the one most districts use — but check, because a few use grade norms.
Stanines, and what "top 4%" actually means
A stanine is a percentile bucket. The bands are not equal:
| Stanine | Percentiles | Share of children |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | 96 to 99 | 4% |
| 8 | 89 to 95 | 7% |
| 7 | 77 to 88 | 12% |
| 6 | 60 to 76 | 17% |
| 5 | 40 to 59 | 20% |
| 4 | 23 to 39 | 17% |
| 3 | 11 to 22 | 12% |
| 2 | 4 to 10 | 7% |
| 1 | 1 to 3 | 4% |
A stanine of 9 means the top four percent. Districts that phrase their cutoff as "stanine 8 or 9" are asking for roughly the top eleven percent on that battery.
The composite
The composite (sometimes labelled VQN) combines all three batteries into one score. Some reports also show partial composites — VQ, VN, QN — because some districts qualify children on two batteries rather than three. Which one your district looks at is on its advanced-learning page, and it makes a real difference to a child with one strong and one weak battery.
The ability profile: "8B (V+)"
This code is the most useful thing on the page, and the least explained. It has three parts.
- The number is the median stanine across the three batteries — the overall level. 8 means the middle battery landed in stanine 8.
- The letter describes the shape:
- A — all three batteries at about the same level.
- B — one battery noticeably aBove or Below the other two.
- C — a Contrast: one battery clearly high and another clearly low.
- E — an Extreme contrast between two batteries.
- The bracket names the battery that stands out and the direction. (V+) is a verbal strength; (Q−) a quantitative weakness; (V+ N−) both.
So 8B (V+) reads: a strong reasoner overall, stronger still in verbal. 7C (Q+ N−) reads: solid overall, notably strong with numbers and notably weaker with shapes. The letter exists for the teacher. An A-profile child and an E-profile child with the same composite need different classrooms, and the profile is how the report says so.
What the district actually does with it
This is where reports and reality part ways, because every district writes its own rules. The common patterns:
- A cutoff on the composite, usually somewhere from the 90th to the 98th percentile.
- A cutoff on any single battery, so a child with a 97th-percentile nonverbal score qualifies even with an average verbal score. This is common in districts with many English learners, because the nonverbal battery does not depend on language.
- The CogAT as one input, combined with an achievement test, a teacher rating scale, or a portfolio. Here a strong CogAT gets your child into the conversation; it does not end it.
- Local norms, where the cutoff is set relative to children in the same school or district rather than nationally. Increasingly common, and a reason the same score can qualify in one district and not the next.
Read your district's page for two things: the number, and which number.
A worked example
Verbal SAS 112, 77th percentile · Quantitative SAS 128, 95th · Nonverbal SAS 120, 88th · Composite SAS 122, 91st · Profile 7B (Q+)
This child reasons above average across the board and is genuinely strong with numbers. In a district with a 95th-percentile composite cutoff, they miss. In a district that qualifies on any single battery at the 95th, they are in on quantitative. In a district that uses the CogAT as a screen and then looks at classroom work, they are firmly in the conversation. Same child, same morning, three outcomes — which is why the district's rule matters more than the national scale.
If the number is lower than you expected
Three things are worth knowing.
It was one morning. Kindergarteners are not reliable test-takers, and test publishers themselves are candid that young children's scores are less stable than older children's. Tiredness, a new classroom, a fascinating window — any of them can move a five-year-old's score by a stanine.
Most districts re-screen. Many test again in second grade, and nearly all accept a parent or teacher referral in a later year. A miss in kindergarten is rarely the last word.
There is usually an appeal route. Districts often allow a re-test in the next window, a private evaluation, or a portfolio. The page that names the cutoff usually names the appeal process too.
And one thing worth remembering: the score describes reasoning on one day. It does not describe the child.
Ten minutes a day, read aloud, all nine subtests
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