A library had 1,250 books. It got 375 new books and gave away 120. How many books does it have now?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.2
A pizza is cut into 8 equal slices. Tom eats 3 of the slices. What fraction of the pizza does he eat?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.3.1
A teacher puts 36 chairs in rows of 9. How many rows are there?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.4
Ana has 315 beads. Ben has 148 fewer beads than Ana. How many beads does Ben have?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.2
Each of 7 tables has 6 students. How many students is that?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.4
Show all 42 questions (37 more)
Number & Operation, continued
Lee eats half of a small pizza. Kai eats half of a large pizza. Which is true?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.3.2
There are 6 balloons. Five of them are red. What fraction of the balloons are red?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.3.1
What is 126 × 4?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.5
What is 2,468 + 1,357?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.1
What is 5,002 − 1,746?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.1
What is 6,351 rounded to the nearest thousand?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.1.4
What is the value of the digit 7 in 57,214?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.1.2
What number is 1,000 less than 23,450?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.1.3
Which division fact goes with the multiplication fact 8 × 5 = 40?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.3
Which is another way to show 4 × 6?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.2.3
Which list shows the numbers 8,790, 8,097, 8,907 and 8,709 in order from least to greatest?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.1.5
Which number is forty thousand, three hundred six?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.1.1
Which of the fractions 1/2, 1/3, 1/6 and 1/8 is the greatest?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.3.3
Which of these fractions is less than 4/6?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.1.3.3
Algebra 7
A rule is "multiply by 3". The inputs 1, 2 and 3 give the outputs 3, 6 and 9. What is the output when the input is 7?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.2.1.1
An input-output table has the inputs 2, 5 and 9 and the outputs 8, 11 and 15. What is the rule?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.2.1.1
Five friends each pay the same amount for a $40 gift. Which number sentence shows what each friend pays, p?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.2.2.2
Mia has 30 stickers. She puts 5 stickers on each page. In 30 ÷ 5 = n, what does n stand for?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.2.2.1
What number makes 45 ÷ □ = 9 true?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.2.2.2
What number makes □ × 8 = 72 true?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.2.2.2
Which story matches the number sentence 4 × □ = 28?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.2.2.1
Geometry & Measurement 10
A figure with four sides has a perimeter of 30 inches. Three of the sides are 6 inches, 8 inches and 9 inches. How long is the fourth side?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.2.2
A movie starts at 1:40 p.m. and ends at 3:05 p.m. How long is the movie?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.3.1
A triangle has sides of 7 centimeters, 9 centimeters and 12 centimeters. What is its perimeter?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.2.2
How many days are in 3 weeks and 4 days?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.3.2
How many vertices does a hexagon have?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.1.2
Kim buys a pencil for 65¢ and pays with $1. Which change uses the fewest coins?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.3.3
On a thermometer, each small mark is 1 degree. The liquid stops 3 marks above the line for 70°F. What is the temperature?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.3.4
Two sides of a rectangle meet at a corner. Which word describes those two sides?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.1.1
Which of these shapes has no parallel sides?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.1.1
Which tool is best for measuring the distance around a tree trunk?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.3.2.3
Data Analysis 6
A bar graph has bars for bus, walk and bike. Each bar shows how many students get to school that way. Which is the best title for the graph?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.4.1.1
A bar graph of favorite pets shows 12 for dogs, 9 for cats, 4 for fish and 3 for birds. How many more students chose dogs than fish?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.4.1.1
A line plot of shoe sizes has 2 Xs above size 3, 5 Xs above size 4 and 3 Xs above size 5. How many students does the line plot show?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.4.1.1
In a pictograph, each apple picture stands for 3 apples. Monday has 4 pictures and Tuesday has 6 pictures. How many apples were picked on the two days?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.4.1.1
In a tally chart, the row for soccer has 3 groups of five tally marks and 2 single marks. How many votes did soccer get?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.4.1.1
The scale of a bar graph is marked 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25. A bar stops at the fourth mark above 0. What number does the bar show?Minnesota Department of Education, Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11 (September 2019), benchmark 3.4.1.1
How this list was compiled: Outline: Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11, based on the Minnesota K–12 Academic Standards in Mathematics, 2007 version (Minnesota Department of Education, September 2019): the grade 3 strands, standards, benchmarks and item specifications, Table 2A (items per strand), Table 3A (items by type) and Table 4A (minimum and maximum item counts by standard, online adaptive test). The document is linked from the department's page Test Specifications, https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/test/spec/. That page and the document were read 2026-10-10 in the Internet Archive's copy of 25 August 2026 (https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/test/spec/). Test facts: Procedures Manual for Minnesota Statewide Assessments 2026-27 (Minnesota Department of Education, October 2026), https://mn.mypearsonsupport.com/policies-and-procedures/, read 2026-10-10. Each question names the benchmark it practices as the test specifications print it. Every numeric answer is arithmetic on the numbers in the question, worked out twice. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site. Nothing is copied or reworded from an MCA test, an item sampler or released item of the department, a Student Readiness Tool or another practice test.
How it works
Unofficial 3rd grade practice for the mathematics MCA, Minnesota's state test. All 42 questions were written for this site to the benchmarks in the test specifications; none is a state sample item. Not affiliated with the Minnesota Department of Education.
Read the full guide
What the 3rd grade math MCA covers
Minnesota's test specifications give grade 3 four strands, and the questions keep the state's item counts. Number & Operation is almost half: whole numbers to 100,000, rounding, four-digit adding and subtracting, multiplication and division facts, and fractions. Algebra is input-output rules and number sentences with an unknown. Geometry & Measurement is parallel and perpendicular lines, polygons, perimeter, time, making change and temperature. Data Analysis is tally charts, pictographs, bar graphs and line plots.
Kept inside the state's limits
The specifications set limits for each benchmark, and these questions keep them: coins up to a quarter, graph scales that count by 5 or less. The benchmark code, such as 3.1.2.4, is under each answer.
Fractions on the grade 3 MCA use only halves, thirds, fourths, sixths and eighths.
Questions and answers
How many questions are on the 3rd grade math MCA?
42 count toward the score on the online test, by the state's test specifications. Field test questions bring what a student sees to about 50, in four groups. This page has 42.
Is the 3rd grade MCA math test timed?
No. Minnesota's procedures manual says the MCAs are not timed, and a student may keep working while making progress. Schools typically schedule 1.5 to 2 hours for a math MCA in grades 3 to 8.
Can 3rd graders use a calculator on the math MCA?
On part of it. Calculator and non-calculator questions sit in separate groups, and a basic online calculator appears only in the groups that allow one. A handheld calculator is not allowed on the online test.
Is there an MCA practice test for grade 3 math from the state?
Minnesota has Student Readiness Tools, where students learn to move through the online test, use its tools and answer each kind of question. The box under the questions links to them. This page is separate, unofficial practice.
Will the 3rd grade math MCA change?
Yes. The state's manual gives spring 2027 as the last math MCA on the 2007 standards, which this page follows, and spring 2028 as the first on the 2022 standards.