• 50 questions

ILTS Social Science Sociology and Anthropology Practice Test

Unofficial practice for ILTS field 249, where two fifths of the test is sociology and anthropology.

After marriage a couple settles with or near the wife's parents. Which residence pattern is this?

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: A to D pick, Enter checks.

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Exam mode: 40 questions, 78 minutes.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Illinois State Board of Education or Pearson. Bank checked October 15, 2026.

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Social science foundational skills 10

  • A class studies the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s. Which item is a secondary source? Wikipedia, Secondary source (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0002
  • A pollster divides a state's voters into urban, suburban and rural groups and draws a random sample from each. Which sampling method is this? Wikipedia, Stratified sampling (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0001
  • A researcher checks interview findings against survey results and attendance records before drawing a conclusion. What is this practice called? Wikipedia, Triangulation (social science) (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0002
  • A study in a scholarly journal is marked "refereed". What does that tell a reader about how it was checked before it appeared? Wikipedia, Scholarly peer review (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0002
  • A teacher gives sentence starters and a partly filled outline for the first source analysis, then withdraws them as students gain skill. What is this support called? Wikipedia, Instructional scaffolding (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0003
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Social science foundational skills, continued

  • A unit on a mill town's decline uses wage tables, a map of rail lines, oral histories and union records. What does the mix of materials best show students? Own work: the answer rests on the text printed in the question and on the wording of the objective. Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0001
  • After two years of fieldwork a researcher writes a systematic account of the daily life and beliefs of one community. What is this kind of study called? Wikipedia, Ethnography (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0001
  • Before a university sociologist may interview teenagers about their friendships, which body reviews the plan to see that it is ethical? Wikipedia, Institutional review board (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0001
  • Each member of a home group reads a different article on a social institution, meets with an "expert" group on it, then teaches the home group. Which method is this? Wikipedia, Jigsaw (teaching technique) (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0003
  • To show how "status", "role" and "norm" relate, students write each term in a box and join the boxes with arrows labeled "is attached to" or "guides". Which organizer is this? Wikipedia, Concept map (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0003

Social science foundational knowledge 20

  • The "melting pot" model of immigrant life in the United States is built on which concept? Wikipedia, Cultural assimilation (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0009
  • A bakery pays $2 for flour and sells the loaf for $5. When GDP is worked out from production, what is done with the $2? Wikipedia, Gross domestic product (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0005
  • A country has private businesses and markets, and also public schools, public pensions and regulation. Which term describes its economy? Wikipedia, Mixed economy (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0005
  • A debate asks whether a child's temperament comes mainly from genes or from upbringing. By what name is this debate known? Wikipedia, Nature versus nurture (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0009
  • A federal law of 1887 let the president break up communal tribal landholdings into plots for heads of families and individuals. Which law was it? Wikipedia, Dawes Act (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0007
  • A graph stacks horizontal bars for each age group, males on one side and females on the other. What is it called? Wikipedia, Population pyramid (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0008
  • A household is made up of two parents and their children and no other relatives. What do social scientists call it? Wikipedia, Nuclear family (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0009
  • A town ordinance and a treaty that the United States has made cannot both be obeyed. How does Article VI of the Constitution rank the treaty? National Archives, The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0004
  • The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 applied only to areas of the Confederacy in rebellion. Which amendment ended slavery in the nation as a whole? National Archives, 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865) (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0007
  • Farm terraces cut into a hillside over many centuries show people and terrain shaping each other. Which term do geographers use for such "combined works of nature and of man"? Wikipedia, Cultural landscape (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0008
  • Great Zimbabwe, the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa, was the capital of a kingdom from the 13th century. Who erected its buildings? Wikipedia, Great Zimbabwe (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0006
  • Hundreds of languages spoken across central, eastern and southern Africa are remarkably alike. Which series of prehistoric migrations out of West-Central Africa does the likeness point to? Wikipedia, Bantu expansion (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0006
  • In which kind of state is the central government the supreme authority, with regional bodies holding only the powers it chooses to hand down? Wikipedia, Unitary state (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0004
  • Modern international relations rest on the principle that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its own territory. After which settlement of 1648 did the principle develop? Wikipedia, Westphalian system (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0004
  • Monsoon rains from South Asia rarely pass the Himalayas, and the Tibetan Plateau to the north is arid. What is the plateau an example of? Wikipedia, Rain shadow (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0008
  • President Lyndon Johnson signed a law on July 2, 1964, that the National Archives calls the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. What did it provide for schools? National Archives, Civil Rights Act (1964) (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0007
  • Restorers of vintage motorcycles in one city share a jargon, weekend rituals and values that mark them off from the wider society without opposing it. What do they form? Wikipedia, Subculture (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0009
  • Shaking hands on meeting and waiting in line at a counter are examples of what? Wikipedia, Social norm (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0009
  • Under an income tax, a person earning $200,000 pays a higher rate than a person earning $40,000. What kind of tax is this? Wikipedia, Progressive tax (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0005
  • Which charter of rights did King John of England seal at Runnymede in 1215? Wikipedia, Magna Carta (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0006

Sociology 10

  • A coal miner's son becomes a judge, and a researcher compares the son's social position with his father's. Which kind of mobility is being measured? Wikipedia, Social mobility (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0012
  • A protest campaign hires staff, opens offices and adopts formal rules. Which stage of a social movement's life cycle is this? Wikipedia, Social movement (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0011
  • A sociologist codes 300 children's picture books for how often fathers are shown doing housework. Which mode of inquiry is this? Wikipedia, Content analysis (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0010
  • A student who lost her job sees that plant closings across the region, not her own failings, explain it. Which idea of C. Wright Mills is she using? Wikipedia, Sociological imagination (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0010
  • A teacher's employer expects her to stay late on the night her child has a recital. What is the clash between her two roles called? Wikipedia, Role conflict (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0012
  • Fans of one school team feel loyalty to "us" and distrust of "them", the rival school. In sociology, what is the rival school to these fans? Wikipedia, In-group and out-group (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0011
  • Schools exist to teach knowledge and skills. They also bring young people together who later marry. In Robert Merton's terms, what is the second effect? Wikipedia, Manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0011
  • Which perspective studies how people build shared meanings through everyday face-to-face exchanges, such as what a handshake or a uniform "means"? Wikipedia, Symbolic interactionism (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0010
  • Which theoretical perspective, often linked with Karl Marx, holds that groups and classes in society interact through struggle more than through agreement? Wikipedia, Conflict theories (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0010
  • Which theory holds that being publicly called "delinquent" can push a person to see himself that way and to act the part? Wikipedia, Labeling theory (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0012

Anthropology 10

  • A child picks up the table manners, greetings and values of her own society from family and neighbors. What is this learning of one's own culture called? Wikipedia, Enculturation (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0015
  • A quinceañera, a bar mitzvah and a graduation each mark a person's move from one social status to the next. What did Arnold van Gennep call such ceremonies? Wikipedia, Rite of passage (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0014
  • A researcher studies how the honorifics of one language mark rank and shape daily social life. Which branch of anthropology is this? Wikipedia, Linguistic anthropology (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0013
  • After marriage a couple settles with or near the wife's parents. Which residence pattern is this? Wikipedia, Matrilocal residence (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0014
  • Horace Miner's 1956 essay on the "Nacirema" describes everyday American habits as the exotic rituals of a little-known tribe. What is the self-distancing meant to let American readers do? Wikipedia, Nacirema (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0015
  • One account of a ritual uses the meanings its own participants give it; another uses an outside observer's categories. What are the two viewpoints called? Wikipedia, Emic and etic (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0013
  • The paintings of large animals on the walls of Lascaux, in France, are evidence of symbolic culture in which period? Wikipedia, Lascaux (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0014
  • Paper and gunpowder were not invented in Europe; medieval Europeans took both up from other societies. What do anthropologists call this spread of cultural items from one culture to another? Wikipedia, Trans-cultural diffusion (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0013
  • The same clothing chains, films and fast food appear in cities around the world, and local variety shrinks. Which consequence of globalization is this? Wikipedia, Cultural homogenization (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0015
  • Which branch of anthropology would compare DNA from ancient bones with that of living people to trace human origins? Wikipedia, Biological anthropology (read 2026-10-15). Outline: ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology (249) test framework, objective 0013

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the test design and framework of Illinois Licensure Testing System (ILTS) field 249, Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology, as the ILTS site prints them (https://www.il.nesinc.com/Content/STUDYGUIDE/IL_SG_OBJ_249.htm and the test page https://www.il.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/IL249_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-15): Social Science Foundational Skills, 20%; Social Science Foundational Knowledge, 40%; Sociology, 20%; Anthropology, 20%; 100 multiple-choice questions (80 scorable), 3 hours 15 minutes of testing time, passing score 240. This bank holds 50 questions, spread 10, 20, 10, 10 over those subareas. Every fact was read on 2026-10-15 in the public page named under its question: the National Archives (the transcription of the Constitution and two milestone documents) and the Wikipedia article named for each remaining question. 1 question rests on the materials listed in the question and on the wording of the objective. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

A free ILTS Social Science: Sociology and Anthropology practice test: 50 questions of our own for field 249, timed if you choose. The page is unofficial; the site has no affiliation with the Illinois State Board of Education or Pearson.

Read the full guide

What field 249 weighs

By the framework read October 15, 2026: social science foundational skills 20%; foundational knowledge of government, economics, history, geography and the behavioral sciences 40%; sociology 20%; anthropology 20%. This bank holds 10, 20, 10 and 10. A timed round sets 40 against 78 minutes, the real pace.

What only this field asks

Objectives 0010 to 0015: sociological perspectives and inquiry; culture, groups and institutions; socialization, stratification and deviance; the branches and methods of anthropology; kinship and cultural change; identity, boundaries between groups and globalization.

The first nine objectives are shared

Objectives 0001 to 0009 read the same, word for word, in all six ILTS social science frameworks: economics, geography, history, political science, psychology and this one.

  • Fourteen of the fifteen objectives close with a teaching task, and the other is reading in the social science classroom.

Questions and answers

How many questions does ILTS 249 have?

One hundred, all multiple choice, taken on a computer. The framework scores 80 of them and marks the other 20 non-scorable, and the test page allows 3 hours 15 minutes of testing.

What is the passing score for ILTS Sociology and Anthropology?

A scaled total of 240 or above, where scores run from 100 to 300. The score report explanation adds that no subarea has a passing score of its own.

Are these real ILTS sociology and anthropology questions?

No. Every one was written here from the published framework and a public source, and none repeats a sample question from the ILTS study guide.

How soon can you retake the ILTS Sociology and Anthropology test?

After 14 days, the wait the ILTS retake policy, read October 15, 2026, gives for content-area tests. Each new attempt needs a new registration.

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