10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
The NYSTCE exam has 43 questions and runs 2 hours 15 minutes.
These 10 free NYSTCE questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
During a class activity, a second-grade student discloses information that gives his teacher reasonable cause to suspect abuse in the home. The student begs the teacher not to tell anyone. The teacher's FIRST legal obligation is to:
Correct answer: B - Report the suspicion personally to the Statewide Central Register
A fifth-grade student who arrived from the Dominican Republic two years ago converses easily with classmates and staff in English. He struggles significantly with the science textbook and with written assessments. His teacher is considering a referral for a learning disability evaluation. The MOST likely explanation for this pattern is:
Correct answer: C - Conversational fluency develops far faster than academic language
A student new to New York State submits a Home Language Questionnaire indicating that a language other than English is spoken at home, and the individual interview confirms the need for further screening. Which assessment is administered NEXT to determine whether the student is identified as an English Language Learner?
Correct answer: D - NYSITELL, which determines initial ELL identification
A newly arrived kindergarten student from Ukraine has attended class for three weeks. She follows classroom routines, responds to gestures, and points to indicate answers, but has not spoken in English at school. Her teacher's MOST appropriate response is to:
Correct answer: A - Continue providing comprehensible input and opportunities to respond nonverbally
A Committee on Special Education is considering placing a fourth-grade student with a learning disability in a special class for all academic instruction. Under the least restrictive environment requirement, this placement is justified ONLY if:
Correct answer: D - General education with supplementary aids and services cannot succeed
A kindergarten teacher says the word 'sun' aloud and asks students to say the word again without the /s/ sound. No letters or printed words are used at any point in the activity. This activity develops:
Correct answer: B - Phonemic awareness, an oral skill requiring no print
A third-grade student decodes grade-level text accurately and at an appropriate rate, but cannot answer questions about what she has just read. According to the Simple View of Reading, instruction should target:
Correct answer: C - Language comprehension, including vocabulary and background knowledge
A student's work shows 3/4 + 2/3 = 5/7 and 1/2 + 1/3 = 2/5. This error pattern MOST likely indicates that the student:
Correct answer: D - Is adding numerators and denominators as separate whole numbers
A teacher records weekly independent reading minutes for seven students: 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, and 480. Which measure of center BEST represents the typical student in this group?
Correct answer: C - The median, because it resists the extreme value
A functional behavioral assessment shows that a student's disruptive outbursts occur almost exclusively during independent writing tasks, and that they consistently result in the student being sent to the hallway. The function of this behavior is MOST likely:
Correct answer: C - Escape from a nonpreferred academic task demand
The NYSTCE exam also covers these domains. Drill them in the full free practice test:
The full bank has 1,020 more NYSTCE questions with explanations.
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