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CogAT Scores – Understand Your Child’s CogAT Test Results

CogAT scoring is based on your child’s age (not grade level). Your child will receive what’s called an SAS, or “Standard Age Score,” which compares your child’s score against other children in the same age range. The highest SAS that a child can receive on the CogAT® is 160, while 100 is considered to be an average score.

Here are all the steps used to calculate a child’s unique test score:

  • Raw Score. This is total number of questions answered correctly; however, incorrect answers do not cause points to be deducted from the overall raw score.
  • Universal Scale Score (USS). After the Raw Score is determined, it’s converted to a normalized standard score known as the Universal Scale Score. There are separate USS scores for each of the test’s three verbal, nonverbal and quantitative reasoning skills subsections (also called “batteries”). The Composite USS is determined by averaging these three different scores.
  • Standard Age Score (SAS). The Standard Age Score has a maximum possible score of 160; the average score is 100.
  • Percentile Rank (PR). School districts use this number to compare students that share the same age and grade level. A percentile rank of 80 means that child’s score was higher than 80% of students who took the same test. The average percentile rank is 50.
  • Stanine (S). A stanine is a very broad, simplified score ranging from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest possible), and it’s normalized for the child’s age and grade level.

CogAT Score Report
Each stanine is made up of a range of percentile ranks. The table below shows the percentile ranks that formulate each stanine and the associated ability level.

StaninePercentile RankDescription
996-99Very High
889-95Above Average
777-88Above Average
311-22Below Average
24-10Below Average
11-3Very Low

Tell us about your experiences

24 Responses


You noted that the highest possible SAS score on the Cogat is 160. How can one explain a child scoring higher than 160?

Hongjin Qiu

My kid has a score of 9E(v-) for the second grade. How is the explaination of the score? High or low? She is 8 years old.


go to for interpretation, 9E means that there might be an error or there is an extreme difference between verbal, nonverbal, etc. 9 is the highest achievement level with 9A being the highest possible

Agnes Trzesniowski

My daughter’s score is 7C(V+).
May you please help me interpret.


My child scored 8A. Please help me to interpret that. Thank you.


Do you take into account personality and interests, likes/dislikes? Ability to communicate with adults and other children? Passions? Empathy? This is the most cookie cutter approach to understanding a child’s intellect that I’ve ever seen.

Hi Julie – the CogAT test doesn’t assess the child’s EQ (emotional intelligence). It’s based solely on the cognitive ability of the child.


what does it mean when your childs score is unavailable because their birthdate was out of testing range?

edis morales

My kid has a score 4A for the 5 grade, how is the score high or low she is 10 1/2 years old ?


our child got 5E (N+) which is pretty much what we already knew.


I have some questions about the age score. My daughter just took the test, and was 7 years 2 months old at the time. How will this impact her age score? I don’t quite understand how exactly they are coming up with a percentile rank.

For example, if she had a 77 percentile grade score, how does that carry over into an age score? The school says they use whatever is higher between the grade score (2nd) and the age score. We get results in a couple of weeks.

Perry Ellison

When you get the score, please send them to You are mentioning a score “77% percentile grade score” which we have not heard used for this test previously and we want to insure we provide accurate information. If you could forward or scan and forward the score, we can help interpret those results for you.
Thank you,


My daughter had no score for the Verbal section and no Composite score, but it shows she attempted all 48 questions of the verbal section. What does that mean?

Perry Ellison

Please reach out to the administrator of this test. This sounds like it could be an error in their scoring.
Thank you,
Team TestingMom


My son has just been accepted into G and T and I am trying to find out what his scores mean.

Primary talent developmental cumulative behavioral scale 63
Cognitive abilities test: verbal/quantitative/nonverbal 95/92/79
Performan ce series reading 73
Performance series math 96

If 100 is average why is he considered G and T if his is 96?

Perry Ellison

Mike, We discussed this on chat the other day, but 100 is not the average when you are comparing National Percentiles. It would be the very top of the scale. If your child scored in the top 5% of children nationally, then that may be the parameter for your District to accept a student to the Gifted Program. This can vary from school district to school district. Please reach out to your district for more information regarding acceptance scores. Congratulations on your child being accepted!


What composite score qualifies a student as GATE on the COGAT? Or is it individual scores?

Perry Ellison

Hi Katherine,
Thank you for reaching out to us. This can vary significantly from District to District and we would now know what your school’s cutoff would be. We do recommend reaching out to your School District or GATE administrator for guidance. We see SAS scores from 120 and up and GPR scores of 95 and higher as general guidelines for acceptance, but that is once again, just a guideline.
Thank you,


My daughter was tested this spring at her school. They mailed me her results, but I only got her percentiles. They have marked her as High Ability – General Intellectual – Both English Language Arts & Math. So far the school is having her skip 1st grade and will be offering additional services in reading and math. What else should I look into to help challenge her with these scores?

Verbal – 93 percentile
Nonverbal – 96 percentile
Quantitative – 99 percentile
Composite – 99 percentile

Perry Ellison

Your child is scoring in the top 1% based on these scores. There is not any real room for improvement. The Composite Score cannot improve to 100%, so I would not make any recommendations as your child scored very well on this test.
Thank you,


Hello, Hoping you can help. My son just took the COGAT test this year in 1st grade. Can you help explain to me the results.

Composite: scaled score 92 31%
Non-Verbal: scaled score 94 35%
Quantitative: scaled score 81 12%
Verbal: scaled score 102 55%

Thank you. appreciate any feedback

Perry Ellison

Please go to for more information on your child’s scores. You can also reach out to your District or the Administrator of the test for more information on how they graded this test. Your scores do not look “normal” or what we usually see in scoring for this test, so there may be a “custom scale” scoring system at work here.
Thank you,
Team TestingMom


What is the magic formula used to calculate the USS, SAS, and stanines?


Verbal 9————— 99————99
Quantitative 8——— 95————96
Non Verb 7———— 84————86
VQN 9—————– 97————98

??? So where does that leave my daughter?

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