Which reasoning skills questions might be included in high ability assessments?

The inclusion of analogies in high ability assessments is essential because they test students' reasoning and critical thinking skills. Analogies require the ability to recognize relationships between different concepts or words and to apply that understanding to new situations. This kind of reasoning is vital for higher-level cognitive tasks, as it demonstrates a student's capacity to think abstractly and make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.

While multiplication facts and reading comprehension assess different skills—numerical proficiency and comprehension skills respectively—they do not focus specifically on reasoning processes in the way analogies do. Summative assessments, on the other hand, are broader evaluations of student learning and do not specifically target reasoning skills alone. Therefore, analogies serve as a precise tool for evaluating a student's ability to engage in higher-level thinking and relationship recognition, making them particularly fitting for high ability assessments.