Hello reader, this is another installment of our CogAT series of Blog posts. In this episode we are talking about the relationship with the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) to the Intelligence Quotient Test (IQ Test!)
You may be wondering how does CogAT score compare to IQ and maybe even how could you convert from CogAT to IQ. The quick and short answer is that we are comparing apples and oranges here (intelligence and cognition?) and it isn’t as straight forward as converting A to B.
The CogAT test measures a child’s ABILITY! and we love the CogAT because we can train for it. A lot of the skills in the CogAT can be practiced and improved upon. Even running the student through one of our CogAT training apps one time would create a familiarity that should increase the test score.
Also with the word ability comes other related words like ‘motivation’ or ‘self-control’ if a student can be trained or has natural will power to concentrate on a problem then they are more likely able to score well. This is likely a big reason why so many school districts are using the CogAT to determine admission into gifted and talented programs. It’s one thing to be smart but another to be able to apply effort into the academics.
If you haven’t already, be sure to take a look at our post on how the CogAT is scored. One of the things the CogAT will tell you is if you have a strength or weakness in a particular area. The CogAT developers themselves advertise that the CogAT should be used to inform future training for shoring up a student’s weak areas.
Anyway, an IQ test measures intelligence in various ways. The IQ test consists of a number of tasks to measure short-term memory, analytical thinking, mathematical ability and spatial recognition. The IQ test doesn’t measure information that you should have learned or your ability to reason through a problem.
Ok so you came here to compare CogAT scores and IQ scores and I haven’t delivered yet. I just gave you 300 words on how the tests are different. What we can say is that both tests will place the student in a distribution. Statistically speaking in the IQ test the student is placed in a normal distribution (a bell curve) where the majority of individuals fall +/- 15 points from the mean (average) score of 100. Your designation as ‘gifted’ would start to apply when you are a standard deviation above the mean. About 5% would be ‘gifted’ while 2.5% would be nearly 2x standard deviation and would be ‘very gifted’
CogAT scores place you in a Stanine which is a distribution that almost kinda-sorta fits the image of a bell curve. The Stanine basically separates the testers into 9 sections (stanine = STAndard NINE). The middle part of that curve is 20% of the test takers. Then we have 17%, 7% and 4% categories above and below this middle section. To be ‘gifted’ you are going to want to score in the top 4% of the test takers.
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