Here you can review our free STAAR sample questions. We have included one question per topic for each grade as well as explanations for each answer. Our aim is to help you understand what types of questions you may be asked on the test, and to give you a chance to practice them.
STAAR Reading Test Practice Question-3rd Grade |
Read the passage. |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (A). Since the passage is phrased in the first person—"We believe", "we created"—you know it was written by the company that makes the dolls. The passage gives facts that highlight the doll's good features. The last paragraph hints that the doll's price is low for its quality. This paragraph also speaks to "you" as a person who will have the doll: "The actual name is up to you!" All of these are characteristics of a text meant to sell a product. Answer (B) is incorrect because the passage does not only provide facts about the doll. It is also trying to persuade you to buy it by hinting at its low price and speaking to "you" as someone who will have the doll. Answers (C) and (D) are incorrect because the passage does not explain how to play with the doll or how it is produced. * The passage is based on texts found on www.lammily.com |
For more practice like this, check out our 3rd Grade STAAR PrepPack. It includes 2 full-length tests that cover the types of questions asked on the STAAR (Reading and Math), 4 Math quizzes, and 3 Reading quizzes. Each quiz focuses on a different sub-topic, so you can master all the material one topic at a time.
STAAR Math Test Practice Question-4th Grade |
Sam wants to grow his own vegetable garden. The plot of land Sam plowed for his garden has two obtuse angles. Which figure could be the one Sam plowed? |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (C). The easiest way to solve this problem is to try and draw it. If you start with a straight line and form an obtuse angle at each end of the line, this means that the new lines extend outward from the straight line and away from one another, as opposed to acute angles, in which the lines extend inward toward each other. After drawing two connected obtuse angles, one will see that none of the shapes above can be formed besides the trapezoid. You can also solve the problem mathematically: An obtuse angle is an angle that is greater than 90°. Since all the angles in both a rectangle and a square are equal to 900, you know these figures cannot be the right ones. An obtuse triangle contains one obtuse angle, but its other two angles are always acute—less than 90°. This is because the sum of a triangle's angles must always equal 1800. Thus, if one angle is greater than 90°, the sum of the other two angles must be less than 90°. Therefore, there can only be one obtuse angle in an obtuse triangle. Once you’ve ruled these three options out, you can know for certain that the answer is a trapezoid. A trapezoid can have two obtuse angles, so it fits the question's description. |
STAAR Reading Test Practice Question-4th Grade |
Read the paragraph. |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (B). The passage discusses the effect of technology on kids in that it limits the effort they need to put forth. The cause is amount of time children spend using technology and media, and the effect is the diminishing of their creativity, imaginations, and bodies. Therefore, the correct answer is (B). Answer (A) is incorrect because the paragraph does not compare two things or ideas. It focuses specifically on the effects of technology, and nothing else is being compared to this. Answer (C) is incorrect because even though the paragraph presents the effects of technology on children as a problem, it does not offer a solution. Answer (D) is incorrect because the passage does not present certain ideas as more important than others. |
STAAR Writing Test Practice Question-4th Grade |
Read the sentence. |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (D). Names of specific places and names of months should always be capitalized. Therefore, the word "street" should begin with a capital letter as it is part of the name of a specific place, Baker Street, and the word "june" should begin with a capital letter as it is a month. Thus, the correct answer is (D). |
Do you want to practice more questions like these? Our 4th Grade STAAR PrepPack includes three full-length tests that cover the topics of Reading, Math, and Writing, as well as three quizzes for the Reading and Writing tests, plus four quizzes for Math test. The quizzes cover different sub-topics to provide a targeted practice experience for each subject you will encounter on the test.
STAAR Math Test Practice Question-5th Grade |
Rosie has a long ribbon that is 31.76 inches in length. She wants to cut it into eight matching ribbons of equal length. What is the length of each ribbon in inches? |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (B). To solve this question, you must use long division. You want to divide 31.76 by 8. 8 ⟌ 31.76 First, try to divide 8 into 3. 8 cannot go into 3 since it is larger than 3, so you put a 0 as your first digit in the answer on top, above the 3. 0 8 ⟌ 31.76 3 Since 8 did not go into 3 at all, you must bring the 3 down together with the next digit, 1, and try to divide 8 into 31. 0 8 ⟌ 31.76 31 The number 8 goes into 31 three times, so you must put a 3 above as your next digit in the answer. When 8 went into 31 three times, it only reached 24, so it still had 7 left to reach 31. Therefore, you must bring down that 7 and put it before the next digit, and that forms the next number that 8 needs to divide into: 77. 03 8 ⟌ 31.76 77 The number 8 goes into 77 nine times, reaching 72, with 5 left to reach 77. So put the 9 on top as your next digit and bring the 5 down with the 6, forming the last number you need to divide 8 into: 56. Remember to keep your decimal point in the same place above. 03.9 8 ⟌ 31.76 56 The number 8 goes into 56 exactly 7 times. So put the 7 on top as your final digit in the answer, and there is no remainder to bring down. You are left with your final answer. 03.97 8 ⟌ 31.76 56 Or: 3.97 |
STAAR Reading Test Practice Question-5th Grade |
Read the passage. |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (D). The setting of a story is the place, time, and duration the story takes place in. The only relevant detail that is mentioned in the story is the forest. Therefore, answer (D) is correct. Answers (A) and (B) are incorrect because even though they contain details from the story, those details are not the setting of the story. Answer (C) is incorrect because the passage does not mention that the story happens in late evening. |
STAAR Math Test Practice Question-6th Grade |
As part of a local survey, Merry asked 700 people from his village to name their favorite food. The results showed that 28 of the villagers like mushrooms best. What percentage of the villagers surveyed prefer mushrooms to all other food? |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (D). To solve this question, you must set up a fraction of 28 over 700. 28/700 To get the percentage, you must make sure the denominator is equal to 100, since all percentages measure the value out of 100. In order to get the denominator from 700 to 100, we must simply divide by 7, as 100 goes into 700 seven times. 700/7=100 To make sure the fraction remains the same proportion, we must also divide the numerator (28) by 7. 28/7=4 After dividing each by 7, we are left with: 4/100 This is equal to 4%, so we know that is the correct answer. |
STAAR Reading Test Practice Question-6th Grade |
Read the paragraph. |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (A). The passage describes the city of Genoa and uses many adjectives to create a mental image of the city; it appeals to the senses and describes the sights, smells, and sounds of the city. One technique that the author uses in the text is personification—assigning the qualities of a person to something that is not human. The two examples of personification that can be found in the text are: "…the water waltzing in the light wind" and "the whisper of the waves." Water cannot waltz; this verb is used to describe the movement of the water. Similarly, waves cannot whisper; this verb is used to describe the sound of the waves. Therefore, the correct answer is (A). Answer (B) is incorrect because a simile is a comparison, saying one thing is like another, often with the word "like" or "as." The passage does not contain similes. Answer (C) is incorrect because an irony is the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of their literal meaning, for example, saying "It will be just fine" when you actually mean "It will be terrible." The passage contains no irony. Answer (D) is incorrect because an alliteration is a series of words that begin with the same sound. The passage contains no alliteration. |
STAAR Math Test Practice Question-7th Grade |
Belladonna wants to buy a new cake pan to bake a seed cake for her guests. The pan should be cylinder in shape, 9 inches in radius, and 162π in volume. What would be its height in inches? |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (A). The formula used to calculate the volume of a cylinder is the area of the base times height. To find the height of a cylinder, you need to divide the volume by the area of the base. First, find the area of the circular base. Since you know the radius of the base is 9, you need to multiply 9 squared by π, which is 81π. Now that you have the area of the circular base, you need to divide the volume of the cylinder, 162π, by the area of the base, 81π. The result of 162π / 81π is 2, which is the correct answer. |
STAAR Reading Test Practice Question-7th Grade |
Read the paragraph. |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (D). The correct meaning of "play devil's advocate" is "present counter arguments to a cause, even while agreeing with it." Even if you do not know this phrase, you can understand its meaning from the paragraph: the narrator and her friend want a Black History class, and the narrator must argue the case in front of the school board. She is nervous about what she will be asked and asks Laura to help her practice; therefore, Laura probably presented arguments against the cause to help the narrator see what she might be asked. You know from the context that, even though she presented counter arguments, Laura agrees with the cause because she helped organize the petition. Therefore, the correct answer is (D). Note that answer (C) is incorrect because Laura helped the narrator organize the petition, so it is unlikely that she disagrees with the cause. |
STAAR Math Test Practice Question-8th Grade |
Look at the scores of the final English exam: What is David's score, if the mean is 75? |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is (B).
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STAAR Reading Test Practice Question-8th Grade |
Read the following passage from Mark Twain’s TOM SAWYER and answer accordingly: After dinner all the gang turned out to hunt for turtle eggs on the bar. They went about poking sticks into the sand, and when they found a soft place they went down on their knees and dug with their hands. Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole. They were perfectly round white things a trifle smaller than an English walnut. They had a famous fried-egg feast that night, and another on Friday morning. |
Answer & Explanation ▼ | ▲ The correct answer is A. Imagery. Imagery is a literary device used to help the reader better visualize what things look like, and it is accomplished through descriptive language of appearances. The passage uses imagery when it describes the eggs as “perfectly round white things” and states that they are “a trifle smaller than an English walnut.” This indeed helps the reader visualize the eggs as it describes their color and size, painting a vivid image in the mind of the reader. Option B is incorrect because there is no hyperbole in the passage. Hyperbole is a literary device in which authors exaggerate the truth in order to emphasize something or create a strong impression. Though the words used in hyperbole are not meant to be taken literally, the idea behind the impression they create is accurate. One might get confused and think that the author uses hyperbole when he writes, “Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole.” However, there is no reason to believe that this is an exaggeration. It does emphasize that a lot of eggs can be found in one hole, but not through hyperbole. The author seems to be giving an estimate of the actual number of eggs, not emphasizing a point by exaggerating. If it had said that there were a million eggs, that would clearly be an exaggeration because it would be impossible, or at least highly improbable, if understood literally. Since there is no exaggeration, this is not an example of hyperbole. Option C is incorrect because there are no metaphors in the passage. The eggs are described by comparing their size to that of English walnuts, but this is not a metaphor. A metaphor compares two things by saying figuratively that one thing is the other, such as saying, “That man is a tank,” meaning that he is a powerful force. However, saying that a certain aspect of something is similar or equivalent to that of something else, such as an egg being the same size as a walnut, is not a metaphor. Option D is incorrect because the passage is not an allegory. An allegory is a literary work or passage that, in addition to its literal meaning, has a deeper level (or levels) of understanding. Each character or event in the work (or anything else found in the story) represents either a different character or event, or some kind of broader idea. For example, an animal that leads its peers could be representing the leader of a country in real life, the jungle they live in could represent the country that he leads, and doves that fly around in the story could represent the idea of peace in that country. This is clearly not taking place in the passage. Note: If you chose allegory, it is possible that you confused it with the literary device “alliteration.” This is when there are words close together that begin with the same sound. Alliteration is, in fact, used in the passage, with the phrase “famous fried-egg feast.” However, alliteration is not one of the answer choices. |
The STAAR is a standardized test provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) taken in grades 3-8 throughout the state of Texas, and it is designed to keep track of students’ academic progress. There are two sections that all grades take – Mathematics and Reading Language Arts (RLA). The tests are designed to cover all of the areas that Texas students should have learned based on what grade they are in. 5th graders also take a science test, and 8th graders take one for science and social studies. These grades are specifically chosen in order to map their progress over a period of a few years.
In the current STAAR test after the redesign, new creative question types are introduced, such as filling out diagrams, and the content is also updated. Topics from separate fields appear in the reading passages in the RLA test, so the content stays relevant, but these topics are not actually tested there along with the reading skills. The most impactful change to the actual content and structure of the test is that there is no longer a writing test taken in 4th and 7th grade. Instead, writing will be integrated into the RLA tests taken by every grade:
While in the past, students were asked to respond to a specific prompt and given the freedom to respond how they see fit, they must now produce evidence-based writing in what is referred to as an extended constructed response. Students will be asked to read a passage with no instruction, question, or prompt, and to construct an extended response in the creative direction of their choice. Their response will be in the form of argumentative writing, informational text, or correspondence—making sure to skillfully and accurately cite information from the passage that supports or propels their writing—and it will be assessed for its development of ideas, communication skills, and adherence to grammar and writing norms. Finally, one last change has been made with regard to time limits. While students were given up to four or five hours in the past, they are now allowed to take as much time as they need until the end of the school day.
Based on the most recent tests released by the TEA, we have gathered some essential information about the Mathematics and Reading Language Arts tests. The Math test covers a range of topics, including Numbers and Operations, Algebraic Reasoning, Geometry and Units of Measurement, and Data Analysis. Students may also encounter questions that assess their foundational skills, such as their ability to identify and work with mathematical symbols and concepts. Similarly, the Reading test assesses students' comprehension and analysis skills across a range of genres, including Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Drama. It also includes questions related to Vocabulary, Author's Purpose, and Literary Elements.
For 3rd grade—if the 2022 released tests are viewed as a blueprint—the math test includes 32 questions, and the reading test contains 34. The passages vary in size, each one serving as the basis for a series of questions, and the number of questions per passages varies as well. For every successive grade, two more questions are introduced on each test, such that a 4th graders must answer 34 math questions and 36 reading questions, and 8th graders encounter 42 questions on the Mathematics test and 44 on the RLA. The tests are designed to take about three hours in total, but as mentioned above, there is no limit to the amount of time a student has to complete them, other than the end of the regularly scheduled school day.
Here are four tips to help you prepare your child for the day of the STAAR Test:
The STAAR is an important test that can influence and shape your child's future academic development. Make sure your child is ready for the test by preparing with TestPrep-Online’s STAAR Practice Pack for 3rd Grade and 4th Grade. TestPrep-Online’s practice packs offer sample questions, detailed explanations, and flexibility to help your child pinpoint and strengthen his or her academic abilities. Start preparing today!
Please note: we do not provide the real STAAR tests on this website. Our tests are simulations, written to closely match the test style and content of the actual test. We also provide full written solutions for our STAAR practice questions, whereas the official STAAR practice papers do not come with explanations. For official STAAR practice papers, visit the STAAR website.