• 40 questions

Grade 3 MCAS Math Practice Test

Forty grade 3 math questions weighted like the MCAS test design, with multiplication and division the largest share.

A baker sets out 6 trays with 8 rolls on each tray. Which expression gives the total number of rolls?

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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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Bank checked October 9, 2026.

The real test: MCAS math, grade 3

Questions
40
Points
48: 36 one-point questions and 4 constructed-response questions worth 3 points each.
Sessions
Two. No calculator is allowed in either session in grades 3 to 6.
Reporting categories
Operations and Algebraic Thinking 30%, Number and Operations in Base Ten 15%, Fractions 20%, Measurement and Data 25%, Geometry 10%, each within 5 points.
Question types
Multiple choice, multiple select, technology enhanced, short answer and constructed response.
Questions that do not count
Five more 1-point questions and one more constructed-response question are field test or equating questions.
Results
Four achievement levels: Exceeding, Meeting, Partially Meeting and Not Meeting Expectations.

Checked October 9, 2026 against MCAS Test Information for Grades 3-8 Mathematics and the MCAS achievement level descriptors, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Rules change, so confirm with the agency itself before your test.

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Next step Next year: MCAS math, grade 4More practice on the same standards

All 40 questions

Operations and Algebraic Thinking 12

  • 45 pencils are shared equally among 9 students. What does 45 ÷ 9 tell you? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.A.2
  • A baker sets out 6 trays with 8 rolls on each tray. Which expression gives the total number of rolls? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.A.1
  • A class has 4 boxes of 12 markers. The class gives away 15 markers. How many markers are left? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.D.8
  • A garden has 7 rows of tomato plants with 6 plants in each row. How many tomato plants are in the garden? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.A.3
  • A pattern starts 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and keeps going up by 4. Which statement is true of every number in the pattern? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.D.9
  • Lena buys 3 packs of 8 juice boxes and 5 single juice boxes. Which equation gives j, the total number of juice boxes? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.D.8
Show all 40 questions (34 more)

Operations and Algebraic Thinking, continued

  • Mia has 72 stickers. She puts 8 stickers on each page of her book. How many pages does she fill? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.A.3
  • Sam knows that 4 × 9 = 36. Which fact does he also know without doing any new work? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.B.5
  • What number makes this equation true? 7 × ? = 63 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.A.4
  • Which expression has the same value as 7 × 8? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.B.5
  • Which is equal to 56 ÷ 7? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.C.7
  • Which multiplication fact helps you solve 54 ÷ 6 = ? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.OA.B.6

Number and Operations in Base Ten 6

  • A school library has 615 books. Students check out 238 of them. How many books are still in the library? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NBT.A.2
  • What is 8 × 60? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NBT.A.3
  • What is 358 + 467? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NBT.A.2
  • What is 476 rounded to the nearest 10? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NBT.A.1
  • What is 805 − 467? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NBT.A.2
  • What is 849 rounded to the nearest 100? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NBT.A.1

Number and Operations: Fractions 8

  • A number line from 0 to 1 is cut into 4 equal lengths. Which number names the third tick mark to the right of 0? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.2
  • A pan of cornbread is cut into 8 equal pieces. Tom eats 3 pieces. What fraction of the cornbread does Tom eat? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.1
  • Ava and Ben have pizzas of the same size. Ava eats 2/3 of hers and Ben eats 2/6 of his. Who eats more pizza? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.3d
  • Jo eats 1/2 of a sandwich. Which fraction names the same amount? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.3b
  • Which comparison of two fractions is true? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.3d
  • Which fraction is equal to 4/6? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.3b
  • Which fraction names the same point on a number line as the whole number 3? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.3c
  • Which sentence describes the fraction 1/6? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.NF.A.1

Measurement and Data 10

  • A bag of apples has a mass of 3 kilograms. What is the mass of 6 bags of the same size? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.A.2
  • A bar graph shows the pets of a class: 12 dogs, 9 cats, 4 fish and 6 birds. How many more dogs and cats are there than fish and birds? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.B.3
  • A class measures 10 leaves to the nearest fourth of an inch. The lengths in inches are 2, 2 1/4, 2 1/4, 2 1/2, 2 1/2, 2 1/2, 2 1/2, 2 3/4, 3 and 3. On a line plot, which length has the most marks? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.B.4
  • A jug holds 24 liters of water. The water is poured equally into 4 buckets. How many liters go into each bucket? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.A.2
  • A rectangle has a perimeter of 26 centimeters. Its length is 8 centimeters. What is its width? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.D.8
  • A rug is a rectangle 9 feet long and 6 feet wide. What is the area of the rug? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.C.7b
  • A soccer practice starts at 3:25 p.m. and ends at 4:10 p.m. How long is the practice? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.A.1
  • An L-shaped room is made of two rectangles that do not overlap. One is 5 meters by 4 meters and the other is 3 meters by 2 meters. What is the area of the whole room? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.C.7d
  • In a picture graph, each star stands for 5 books. The row for March has 7 stars. How many books does the row for March show? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.B.3
  • Ruth starts reading at 6:48 p.m. She reads for 27 minutes. What time does she stop? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.MD.A.1

Geometry 4

  • A rectangle is split into 6 parts with equal areas. What fraction of the area of the rectangle is each part? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.G.A.2
  • A shape has 4 sides. Only 1 pair of its sides is parallel. Which shape can it be? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.G.A.1
  • A shape is a square. What must be true of it? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.G.A.1
  • Rhombuses, rectangles, squares and trapezoids all belong to one larger group of shapes. What is that group? Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics (2017), grade 3, standard 3.G.A.1

How this list was compiled: Outline: MCAS Test Information for Grades 3-8 Mathematics, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, https://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/tdd/testdesign/g3-8-math.docx, linked from Mathematics Test Design and Development, https://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/tdd/math.html?section=testdesign, read 2026-10-09. Each question names the grade 3 standard it practices in the 2017 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics, https://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/math/2017-06.pdf, read 2026-10-09. No released item and no practice test of the department was read. The answers are arithmetic on the numbers in the question, worked out a second time. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site. Nothing is copied or reworded from an MCAS test, a released item, a practice test of the department or another practice test.

How it works

Unofficial practice for the grade 3 MCAS mathematics test in Massachusetts. The 40 questions here were written for this site from the 2017 curriculum framework, and no released item was used. This site is not affiliated with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Read the full guide

What the 3rd grade math MCAS covers

The test design gives five reporting categories. Operations and Algebraic Thinking is the largest at 30 percent: multiplying and dividing within 100, unknown factors and two-step word problems. Measurement and Data is 25 percent: time to the minute, grams, kilograms and liters, scaled graphs, area and perimeter. Fractions is 20 percent, Number and Operations in Base Ten 15 and Geometry 10. Each share can vary by 5 points.

How each answer was worked out

Every question lists the grade 3 standard it practices, such as 3.MD.C.7, from the Massachusetts framework. The steps are printed under each answer, and each result was computed twice.

  • Grade 3 fractions use only the denominators 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8.

Questions and answers

How many questions are on the grade 3 math MCAS?

40 questions count, for 48 points: 36 one-point questions and 4 constructed-response questions worth 3 points each. Students also answer 5 more one-point questions and 1 more constructed-response question as field test or equating questions.

Can 3rd graders use a calculator on the math MCAS?

No. The test is given in two sessions, and in grades 3 to 6 calculators are not allowed in either one.

Where are the state's 3rd grade MCAS math practice tests?

The department posts practice tests and released questions of its own for each grade, and the box under the questions links to that page. The 40 questions on this page are different ones.

Does this MCAS practice test for 3rd grade math have constructed-response questions?

No. All 40 questions here are multiple choice. The real test also has multiple-select, technology-enhanced, short-answer and constructed-response questions, which this page cannot mark.

How is the grade 3 MCAS math test scored?

Results are reported as one of four achievement levels: Exceeding Expectations, Meeting Expectations, Partially Meeting Expectations or Not Meeting Expectations. A percent on this page is practice, not an achievement level.

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