CogAT Grade 2 cheat sheet

Verbal analogies follow the pattern A is to B as C is to D; the relationship between the first pair must be copied exactly onto the second pair.

Common Grade 2 analogy relationships: opposite meaning (hot/cold), category member (apple/fruit), function (hammer/nail), part-to-whole (wheel/car), and young-to-adult (puppy/dog).

Sentence completion: the missing word must fit both the sentence's meaning and its grammar, so a noun blank takes a noun and an action blank takes a verb.

Classification (odd-one-out): three words share a category and one does not; the shared category must be nameable in a single phrase, such as 'things that fly' or 'colors'.

Opposites at this level are usually single-word antonyms of common words: up/down, empty/full, begin/end, noisy/quiet, rough/smooth.

Word order in a sentence carries meaning: 'The dog chased the cat' differs from 'The cat chased the dog' because the subject and object swap roles.

Plurals and verb endings change meaning: 'one box' versus 'two boxes', and 'he jumps' versus 'they jump', so a blank's surrounding words signal the correct form.

A word can belong to more than one category (a bat is an animal and a sports object), so the correct answer must fit the category shared by all three given words.

Number series rule types: add a constant (2, 5, 8, 11 adds 3), subtract a constant, skip-count by 2s, 5s, or 10s, or alternate between two rules.

When a series grows by different amounts each step, check whether the jumps themselves form a pattern (for example +1, +2, +3).

Analogy number pairs use the same operation on both sides: if 3 relates to 6 by doubling, then 5 relates to 10 by doubling.

Relational equality: a balance stays true only if the same operation is applied to both sides, so 4 + 3 = 5 + 2 because both sides equal 7.

Place value in two-digit numbers: the left digit counts tens and the right digit counts ones, so 47 = 4 tens + 7 ones = 40 + 7.

Doubles facts anchor mental math: 6 + 6 = 12, 7 + 7 = 14, 8 + 8 = 16; near doubles adjust by one, so 6 + 7 = 13.

Counting by 10s changes only the tens digit (23, 33, 43, 53), while counting by 1s changes only the ones digit unless a ten is crossed.

Comparison symbols: the wide open side faces the larger number, so 8 > 5 and 5 < 8 describe the same relationship.

Figure analogies apply the same transformation to the second figure that changed the first into the second: rotation, size change, color change, or added/removed part.

Figure classification groups three figures by a shared visible attribute - same shape, same number of sides, same fill, or same orientation - and the odd figure lacks it.

Paper folding: a hole punched through folded paper appears in every layer, so the number of holes equals the number of layers the punch passes through.

Reflections flip a figure left-right or top-bottom and reverse its orientation, while rotations turn a figure without mirroring it.

Counting attributes is a reliable check: number of sides, corners, dots, or stripes often forms the pattern in a series.

Series of figures usually change by one repeated step, such as adding one side each time (triangle, square, pentagon) or turning a quarter turn each time.

A shape's position can carry the pattern: items may alternate top/bottom, inside/outside, or left/right across a sequence.

Symmetry check: a figure has a line of symmetry when folding along that line makes the two halves match exactly.