A marble figure stands so that the parts of the body are counterpoised, the tilt of the shoulders balanced against the tilt of the hips. Which Italian term names this?The National Gallery, London, glossary, Contrapposto. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
A motet has four voice parts, each singing its own independent melody at the same time. Which musical texture is this?Wikipedia, Polyphony. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
How are the seventeen syllables of a traditional Japanese haiku divided over its three lines?Academy of American Poets, glossary of poetic terms, Haiku. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
How many iambic feet make up one line of iambic pentameter?Academy of American Poets, glossary of poetic terms, Iambic pentameter. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
In ballet, what is a pas de deux?Wikipedia, Pas de deux. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
Show all 50 questions (45 more)
Vocabulary and concepts, continued
In buon fresco, what does the painter apply the paint to?The National Gallery, London, glossary, Fresco. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
Sonata form generally has three main sections. In which order do they come?Wikipedia, Sonata form. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
Which building system holds up strong horizontal elements on strong uprights set far apart?Wikipedia, Post and lintel. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 1 (vocabulary and concepts basic to the humanities)
Historical periods, styles and movements 14
Hagia Sophia, completed in AD 537 and among the first buildings with a fully pendentive dome, is considered the epitome of which architecture?Wikipedia, Hagia Sophia. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
In which work does Plato give the analogy of the cave, where education turns the soul from shadows toward the Forms?Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Plato: The Republic. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Mexican muralism began as a government-funded project to paint the nation's past, present and future on public walls. In the wake of which event did it begin?Wikipedia, Mexican muralism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
The Rosetta Stone carries one decree of 196 BC in hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek. Who announced in Paris in 1822 that he had transliterated the Egyptian scripts?Wikipedia, Rosetta Stone. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
To which event of 1937 is Picasso's Guernica a response?Wikipedia, Guernica (Picasso). Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which church near Paris, its choir rebuilt between 1140 and 1144, is considered the first Gothic building?Wikipedia, Gothic architecture. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which movement, strongest between about 1780 and 1830, set a new emotionalism and a feeling for the natural world against classical restraint?Tate, Art Terms, Romanticism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which Muslim philosopher did the West call "The Commentator" for his many commentaries on Aristotle?Wikipedia, Averroes. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which painting, shown at the first group exhibition in Paris in 1874, gave Impressionism its name?Tate, Art Terms, Impressionism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which school of thought holds that existence precedes essence: a person has no nature given in advance and makes who they are in living?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which style, strongest in Rome from around 1630 to 1680, is linked above all with the Catholic Counter-Reformation?Tate, Art Terms, Baroque. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which system of medieval Europe structured society around land held in exchange for service, with lords, vassals and fiefs as its key concepts?Wikipedia, Feudalism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which three orders of classical architecture originated in Greece?Wikipedia, Classical order. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Which two artists invented Cubism in around 1907 to 1908?Tate, Art Terms, Cubism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 2 (historical periods, styles and movements)
Interrelatedness of arts and ideas 8
A scholar trades his soul to the Devil for knowledge and pleasure. The legend is the basis of a drama by Goethe and of an opera by Gounod. Who is the scholar?Wikipedia, Faust. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
A seventeenth-century portrait includes a skull, an hourglass and a guttering candle. What are the objects there to tell the viewer?Tate, Art Terms, Memento mori. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
Cubism drew in part on the late work of which painter, who can be seen showing things from slightly shifted viewpoints?Tate, Art Terms, Cubism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
Leonardo da Vinci drew a man in two overlapping positions inside a circle and a square. From whom does the drawing take its name?Wikipedia, Vitruvian Man. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
Walter Gropius founded a school of art, architecture and design at Weimar in 1919. What was it called?Tate, Art Terms, Bauhaus. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
What does the term Japonisme describe?Tate, Art Terms, Japonisme. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
Which movement emerged in Britain in the mid 1950s, reached its peak in the 1960s and took its imagery from Hollywood movies, advertising and pop music?Tate, Art Terms, Pop art. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
Who invented the single-point system of linear perspective, in which receding parallel lines meet at a vanishing point?The National Gallery, London, glossary, Perspective. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 3 (interrelatedness of arts and ideas)
Beliefs and values in the humanities 13
Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in Tuscan. What lasting effect did the poem have on language?Wikipedia, Divine Comedy. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
During the Counter-Reformation, which council laid down the kind of imagery it thought would serve the Catholic Church best?The National Gallery, London, glossary, Counter-Reformation. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
For what purpose does a Navajo medicine man make a sandpainting on the floor of a hogan?Wikipedia, Sandpainting. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
In A Room of One's Own, published in 1929, what does Virginia Woolf say a woman must have if she is to write fiction?Wikipedia, A Room of One's Own. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
In an Egyptian relief the king is carved far larger than his servants. What does the difference in size show?Wikipedia, Hierarchical proportion. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
In the adult acting companies of Shakespeare's England, who performed the female roles, and why?Wikipedia, Boy player. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
The nine central scenes of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling come from which book of the Bible?Wikipedia, Sistine Chapel ceiling. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
Socialist realism was imposed on Soviet artists under Stalin. What did the doctrine mean for painting in practice?Tate, Art Terms, Socialist realism. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
What did religious and imperial authorities oppose during the two periods of Byzantine Iconoclasm, about 726 to 787 and 814 to 842?Wikipedia, Byzantine Iconoclasm. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
What may the carvings on a totem pole of the Pacific Northwest Coast symbolize or commemorate?Wikipedia, Totem pole. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
What was the purpose of the Federal Art Project, which ran in the United States from 1935 to 1943?Tate, Art Terms, Federal Art Project. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
Which geometric arrangement of symbols, born in the religions of India, serves in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism as a map of deities and an aid to meditation?Wikipedia, Mandala. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
Why are the carvings, paintings and stained glass of a medieval church sometimes called a "Poor Man's Bible"?Wikipedia, Poor Man's Bible. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 4 (a culture's beliefs and values and their expression in the humanities)
Aesthetic principles 4
In 1757 Edmund Burke described an artistic effect that produces the strongest emotion the mind can feel and has terror as a source. What did he call it?Tate, Art Terms, Sublime. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 5 (aesthetic principles used by major cultures)
In the Poetics, Aristotle says that tragedy arouses pity and fear so as to end in a cleansing of those passions. What is that effect called?Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle: Poetics. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 5 (aesthetic principles used by major cultures)
Which maxim, coined by the architect Louis Sullivan, says that the look of a building should relate first to its purpose?Wikipedia, Form follows function. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 5 (aesthetic principles used by major cultures)
Which term of Japanese aesthetics names a subdued, austere beauty?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Japanese Aesthetics. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 5 (aesthetic principles used by major cultures)
Instruction, assessment and resources 3
A class includes English learners and students with reading disabilities. The teacher presents a Renaissance painting as an image, a spoken description and a short text. Which Universal Design for Learning principle is at work?CAST, Universal Design for Learning Guidelines. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 6 (instructional techniques, assessment and resources)
A humanities teacher leads a seminar on Antigone by probing students with questions until they reach conclusions on their own. Which method is she using?Wikipedia, Socratic method. Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 6 (instructional techniques, assessment and resources)
Students will stage a short scene from a Greek tragedy. Which tool sets out the criteria and the levels of quality by which each performance is scored?Wikipedia, Rubric (academic). Written to FTCE Humanities K–12 (022), competency 6 (instructional techniques, assessment and resources)
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the Competencies and Skills and Blueprint of FTCE Humanities K–12 (022) in the test information guide on the FTCE/FELE website, https://www.fl.nesinc.com/studyguide/FL_SG_obj_022.htm (copyright 2018 State of Florida, Department of State; site run by Pearson), read 2026-10-13: approximately 80 multiple-choice questions in six competencies weighted 15, 28, 17, 26, 7 and 7 percent. This bank holds 50 in those shares: 8, 14, 8, 13, 4 and 3. Every fact was read on the public page named under its question (each opened 2026-10-13): the Art Terms of Tate, the glossary of the National Gallery, London, the glossary of the Academy of American Poets, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the UDL Guidelines of CAST, and Wikipedia articles for works, periods and terms. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.
How it works
This free FTCE Humanities practice test follows Humanities K–12 (022): 50 questions of our own across its six competencies. Unofficial: this site is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Florida Department of Education or Pearson.
Read the full guide
Six competencies and their weights
Historical periods, styles and movements carry about 28% of the questions, and the way a culture's beliefs and values show in its arts 26%. The interrelatedness of arts and ideas carries 17% and basic vocabulary and concepts 15%. Aesthetic principles and teaching the humanities carry 7% each.
Timing
The real test provides no reference materials. Exam mode draws 48 of these 50 and allows 90 minutes, the real test's time per question.
Where the facts come from
Tate's Art Terms, the National Gallery's glossary, the Academy of American Poets, the Stanford and Internet encyclopedias of philosophy, CAST and Wikipedia. Each question links the page its answer was checked on.
More than half the test is two competencies: periods and movements, and how beliefs shape art. Learn each style with one work and one idea.
The outline names Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, African, Asian, Latin American and indigenous American contributions. Europe alone will not cover it.
Questions and answers
What is on the FTCE Humanities K-12 test?
More than one art. The outline names musical, visual, literary and performing arts, and asks for the significant artists, prominent philosophers, and political and economic systems of each period of Western culture, plus the effects of scientific discoveries and technology on the arts.
How many questions are on the FTCE Humanities test?
About 80 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours 30 minutes, taken on computer by appointment, year round. The FTCE site notes that some questions may be tryouts for later tests and do not count toward the score.
What is the passing score for FTCE Humanities K-12?
A scaled score of at least 200, according to the test's page on the FTCE site. Because that is a scale and not a percent, this page reports your number right and gives no pass verdict.
Is there a free FTCE Humanities study guide?
Yes. The test information guide for Humanities K–12 is free on the FTCE/FELE site and lists the skills under each competency. Questions here are tagged by competency, so a weak topic points to the part of the guide to read.