CogAT Scores Explained: SAS, Percentile Ranks, and Stanines

You get your child's CogAT results and see a page full of numbers: SAS 118, 87th percentile, stanine 7. What does any of it mean? Here's a plain-English breakdown.

Standard Age Score (SAS)

The SAS compares your child to other children of the same age (within a few months). The scale is designed so that 100 is exactly average for any age group. The standard deviation is 16, meaning:

Most gifted programs require an SAS of 125–132+ (roughly 95th percentile or higher), though this varies by district.

Percentile Rank

The percentile rank tells you what percentage of same-age students your child scored above. A 90th percentile score means your child scored higher than 90% of peers — and lower than 10%.

Important: Gifted programs typically use a cutoff of 95th or 97th percentile. The difference between 90th and 97th percentile is significant — it represents roughly 11 SAS points (from ~121 to ~132).

Stanine

Stanine (short for "standard nine") is a 9-point scale:

Gifted programs generally look for stanine 8 or 9.

Battery vs. Composite Scores

The CogAT reports scores for each of the three batteries (verbal, non-verbal, quantitative) separately, plus an overall composite. Some districts require a high composite score; others require a high score in a specific battery. Check your district's specific requirements.

A child might score in the 99th percentile on non-verbal but 70th on verbal — which matters if your district weighs batteries differently. Knowing the breakdown helps you focus preparation.

What If the Score Isn't High Enough?

Many districts allow retesting after one year. In the meantime, continued practice builds the reasoning habits that underlie the score. A child who practices consistently for 6–12 months typically sees meaningful improvement on retesting.