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CogAT vs NNAT
The CogAT and the NNAT are the two ability tests schools most often use to screen for gifted programs. The CogAT measures verbal, quantitative and nonverbal reasoning in three batteries; the NNAT3 is entirely nonverbal, built from one item type. Both report age-based standard scores with a standard deviation of 16.
Want your own number? The test is 25 visual puzzles, about 12 minutes, no sign-up.
Side by side
| CogAT (Form 7 and 8) | NNAT3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher and authors | Riverside Insights; David Lohman, with Joni Lakin on Form 8 | Pearson; Jack Naglieri |
| What it measures | Verbal, quantitative and nonverbal reasoning | Nonverbal reasoning only |
| Item types | Nine subtests at upper levels, e.g. Verbal Analogies, Number Series, Figure Matrices, Paper Folding | One type: pick which of five options completes a design |
| Grades | K to 12 (picture-based items at K to 2) | K to 12, Levels A to G |
| Timing | Primary levels untimed; Levels 9 and up: 10 minutes per subtest, 90 in total | 30 minutes for 48 items |
| Main score | Standard Age Score: mean 100, SD 16 | Naglieri Ability Index: mean 100, SD 16, range 40 to 160 |
Sources: Riverside Insights for the CogAT (Riverside: CogAT Form 8) (Riverside: CogAT testing times) (Riverside: CogAT score descriptions) (Riverside CogAT test descriptions) and Pearson for the NNAT3 (Pearson: NNAT3) (NNAT3 Manual A to D).
One broad battery or one focused test
The CogAT samples three kinds of reasoning. At Levels 10 and up its nine tests are Verbal Analogies, Sentence Completion, Verbal Classification, Number Analogies, Number Puzzles, Number Series, Figure Matrices, Paper Folding and Figure Classification (Riverside CogAT test descriptions). That breadth gives a profile across verbal, quantitative and nonverbal reasoning. The NNAT3 does one thing: every item asks which of five options completes a design, from a single rectangle with a piece missing up to 3-by-3 arrays (NNAT3 Manual A to D). That focus keeps language out of the way, at the cost of measuring a narrower slice of ability.
Try one · Abstract Reasoning
Which tile completes the grid?
Tap the option you think is right, or show the answer.
Show the answer
The missing tile has three outlined stars (option 6).
How to solve it
- Start with the first row and name what changes from tile to tile.
- Every row and every column contains each shape (star, square and cross) exactly once.
- Every row and every column contains each number of shapes (one, three and two) exactly once.
- The fill (outline) stays the same in every tile.
- Check the rules on the second row, then apply them to the third.
- So the missing tile has three outlined stars.
That was 1 puzzle. The full test has 25.
The nonverbal parts compared
The CogAT Nonverbal Battery has three subtests: Figure Matrices, where students apply the relationship in a 2 x 2 matrix; Paper Folding, where they imagine a sheet folded, punched and unfolded; and Figure Classification, where they find how three figures are alike (Riverside Nonverbal Battery help). So even the CogAT's nonverbal score mixes matrix reasoning with spatial visualization, while the NNAT3 stays with pattern completion.
What research found when both were used
A 2008 study gave the Raven, an earlier NNAT and CogAT Form 6 to 1,198 elementary children, about 40% of them English learners (Lohman, Korb and Lakin 2008). It found norming errors that led the NNAT to overestimate both high and low scorers, a standard error of measurement twice as large for the NNAT as for the Raven or the CogAT, and that none of the three nonverbal tests predicted achievement very well for English learners (Lohman, Korb and Lakin 2008). Both tests have been revised since (NNAT3 in 2016, CogAT Forms 7 and 8), so the findings do not directly describe today's editions, but they are a good reason to look at more than one measure. The CogAT also has a short Screening Form that uses one subtest from each battery and gives a single score (Riverside: CogAT Form 8).
Which will your child take?
The district decides. For the full picture of each test, read the CogAT guide and the NNAT3 guide; the OLSAT is the third common option. For what a high score means for gifted programs, see what gifted means.
Sources
- Riverside Insights. Cognitively Speaking: Introducing CogAT Form 8. info.riversideinsights.com/hubfs/Cog%20Speakings/Cognitively%20Speaking%20-%20Introducing%20CogAT%20Form%208.pdf
- Riverside Insights online help. CogAT testing times. onlinehelp.riversideinsights.com/Help/Elevate2SHP/Topics/011_Plan_Your_CogAT_Testing_Program/CogAT_Testing_Times.htm
- Riverside Insights DataManager help. CogAT score descriptions. info.riversideinsights.com/datamanager-onlinehelp/cogat-score-descriptions
- Riverside Insights, Nonverbal Battery Subtest Items, online help, 2023 onlinehelp.riversideinsights.com/Help/Elevate/Topics/011_Plan_Your_CogAT_Testing_Program/Nonverbal_Battery_Subtest_Items.htm
- Riverside Insights, CogAT Test Descriptions, April 9, 2025 info.riversideinsights.com/datamanager-onlinehelp/cogat-test-descriptions
- Pearson. Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, Third Edition (NNAT3), product page. www.pearsonassessments.com/store/en/usd/p/100001822.html
- Naglieri, J. A., NNAT3 Manual Levels A to D, 2018 Norms Update, NCS Pearson www.pearsonassessments.com/content/dam/school/global/clinical/us/assets/nnat3/nnat3-manual-levels-a-d.pdf
- Lohman, D. F., Korb, K. A., & Lakin, J. M., Identifying Academically Gifted English-Language Learners Using Nonverbal Tests: A Comparison of the Raven, NNAT, and CogAT, Gifted Child Quarterly 52(4), 275 to 296, 2008 (abstract via ERIC EJ809671) doi.org/10.1177/0016986208321808