Verbal Cogat Practice: Everyday Activities to Help with the Verbal Subtest

You can practice for the CogAT® by putting a little extra effort into everyday activities. This week and next week, I will provide a few activities to help with the verbal portion of the test.

A Brief CogAT Overview

The CogAT Test, which is divided into three subtests, is designed to identify your child’s reasoning and problem-solving abilities. By assessing these skills, educators can determine student eligibility for gifted and talented programs. The exam is customized to cater to your child’s grade level, as it extends from kindergarten through the 12th grade. Today I want to draw your attention to the verbal component of the CogAT. When it comes to studying for this exam, there is a fun and diverse array of everyday activities that can help your child to effectively prepare! Although your child will be “prepping” for the exam, he or she may not even be aware of it because of the creative and engaging nature of these activities. All of these methods I will discuss soon can be completed by the student independently or with the entire family!

For a more complete overview of the test, please visit our CogAT Overview Page

What’s on the Verbal CogAT Practice Subtest Anyway?

Picture Analogies — Students are presented with a 2×2 matrix with three pictures with 1 empty cell. The question assesses your child’s ability to determine the relation between the 2 pictures located in the top two cells. Students are then advised to focus on the picture in the bottom row. From there, they examine their answer choices to satisfy the relationship with the bottom-row visual. The pictures at the bottom should be parallel to the pictures on top.

Sentence Completion — An educational facilitator presents students with an incomplete sentence or question. Based on the available options, students develop the necessary skills to select the picture that correctly completes the sentence or answers the question.

Picture Classification ‐ This section assesses your child’s ability to discover distinct similarities between a series of presented visuals. The objective is to select the one picture on the bottom that is in some way related to the visuals on top.

Everyday Activities that Help Your Child With the CogAT

CogAT Practice With Word Association Games

Word association games, such as “Apples to Apples,” are a fun and engaging way for your child to make comparisons or find links between ideas. The player has the opportunity to strategize and identify common or abstract relationships among the topics presented to them. As a result, the child has the potential to come away with a better understanding of how to analogize. This is especially important on the CogAT, since the student often must identify parallel relationships between sets of objects. The premise of the game is to choose seven red cards from the deck, which all contain a noun. The player must then reference a green card in the middle that contains an adjective. The player then chooses the red card in their deck that most closely matches the green card. With practice and consistency, the student should begin to discover even more nuanced links between the nouns and adjectives. “Apples to Apples” is a fantastic game to play with your child. You can also encourage them to get their friends involved in the fun!

CogAT Practice Through Reading

Reinforce vocabulary and word usage through reading! Books are invaluable for reinforcing listening skills, word fluency, and reading comprehension. Books are tools that encourage children to ask questions about tricky or unfamiliar words and concepts they encounter. Even if the student gets lost in the depths of the plot, they are gaining exposure to new and exciting vocabulary, ideas, and grammatical structures. If you are reading with your child, occasionally question them on the meaning of a word. Such questions may help to keep them engaged, alert, and thinking about the details of the story. For an older student, talk to your child about documenting vocabulary they are unsure of or want to learn more about. Referencing a thesaurus or dictionary is not only an excellent method of looking words up, but also encourages a form of self-advocacy through learning.

As you can see, there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to CogAT practice through everyday activities. These are only two things you can do to help practice for the verbal portion. I’ll be back next week with a few more activities to help you prepare for the verbal subtest of the CogAT! For now, you can view more of our CogAT resources below: