1.1 CogAT Level 8 Structure, Primary Administration & Grade 2 Format

1.1 CogAT Level 8 Structure, Administration & Grade 2 Format

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), authored by David F. Lohman and published by Riverside Insights, is a group-administered reasoning test used by many school districts for talent identification and instructional planning. Riverside builds a separate test level for each primary grade, and Level 8 is the level designed for Grade 2 (most children are 7 or 8 years old when they take it). Schools may test a student off level when that student works well above or below grade peers, but most second graders take Level 8.

This section sets out what Riverside actually publishes about Level 8: the nine subtests, the exact item counts, the completion criteria, how the test is paced, and what a second grader sees on the page or screen. Every later chapter builds on these facts.

---

Where Level 8 Sits in the CogAT Ladder

CogAT is organized by level, not by grade name. Forms 7 and 8 are equivalent forms: they share the same levels, subtests, item counts, score types and reports, so a school can retest with the other form.

Levels 5/6, 7 and 8 are the primary levels. Riverside's description is precise: with one exception, the subtests use only pictures, and language appears only in the directions. The exception is Sentence Completion, where the child listens to a sentence or question read aloud in English or Spanish and then picks a picture. Students never read words at Level 8. The closest thing to "reading" is in the Quantitative Battery: Level 8 Number Puzzles present one equation with numerals, such as 9 = 1 + 3 + ?, and some Number Series practice items print the count under each string of beads.

---

The Three Batteries and Nine Subtests

Level 8 contains 156 items in nine subtests, three per battery. The counts, minimum-attempted criteria and estimated minutes below come from Riverside's CogAT planning table (published in the DataManager help center). The answer-choice column describes Riverside's Level 8 Practice Activities, the closest public view of the real item formats.

Battery totals: Verbal 54 items (about 40 minutes), Quantitative 50 items (about 45 minutes), Nonverbal 52 items (about 37 minutes). Added together, Riverside's estimates come to about 122 minutes of testing time. That figure does not include handing out materials or logging in, which Riverside says can add 5 to 7 minutes per session, or the few minutes each subtest's practice questions take.

Completion criteria

Riverside's minimum-attempted values equal exactly half of each subtest's items. They are used when scores are checked for completeness; they are not a passing score. Riverside's Score Interpretation Guide adds two warning rules that matter at Level 8:

• A student who omits ten or more items but answers at least 80 percent of attempted items correctly is flagged with the "many items omitted" symbol (^). Those scores are treated as minimum estimates of the child's ability.
• If a whole class at Level 5/6, 7 or 8 shows a difference of ten or more between the number of items and the number attempted on a battery, Riverside treats that as a likely administration irregularity, and the battery and composite scores should not be used.

---

Untimed, Paced Administration

Riverside states that Levels 5/6–8 are designed to measure how well, rather than how rapidly, children solve reasoning problems, so the subtests are not timed. Level 9 and above give 10 minutes per subtest (90 minutes in total).

How a Level 8 session runs depends on the mode the school chooses:

A student who starts in one mode finishes in that mode. Riverside also asks schools to fit the pace to the students rather than the students to the pace. A class with very different working speeds may be split into two testing groups.

Riverside's scheduling rules for young children are short and specific:

1. No more than one battery per sitting. The Verbal, Quantitative and Nonverbal batteries are given in separate sittings.
2. Short breaks between subtests are recommended, especially for younger students.
3. Practice questions come first. Each subtest opens with practice questions. Before testing begins, the administrator may repeat, explain or give extra examples.
4. No help on items once testing starts. The administrator may answer questions about procedures (where to mark, how to move on) but may not explain or identify pictures in a test item.
5. No calculators, even when an IEP normally allows one. Riverside explains that the quantitative subtests measure holding and transforming numbers in working memory.

---

Finding Your Place in a Level 8 Booklet

Riverside's Level 8 practice booklets help children find the right page with a picture across the top ("the page with the stars across the top"). Each question has a number. At Level 7 a small picture beside each question number marks the item, but Riverside's Paper Folding practice script notes that this item-indicator art disappears at Level 8. Teachers often give each child a plain card to hold under the current row, and Riverside's Paper Folding practice script asks teachers to supply a two-inch-by-four-inch marker card. Online, children click or tap an answer, or type the number or letter of its position; in the audio mode they then select Go to move on, while in the proctor-led mode the administrator advances the class.

---

What This Means for Preparation

• Know the counts. Practice sets that mirror Level 8 should weight Picture Analogies, Sentence Completion, Picture Classification, Number Analogies, Number Series, Figure Matrices and Figure Classification at 18 items each, Paper Folding at 16 and Number Puzzles at 14.
• Practice with three or four choices. Level 8 items do not use the five-choice format of Level 9 and above, so a blind guess has a one-in-three or one-in-four chance.
• Practice listening. Sentence Completion is the only subtest where the question itself is heard rather than seen.
• Practice simple number sentences. Level 8 Number Puzzles ask for the missing number in one equation, so a child needs to treat the equal sign as "both sides are the same amount."
• Expect three separate sittings. A second grader will usually meet one battery at a time, often on different days.