6 × n = 42. What is n?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 3.2.2.2
A bus leaves at 8:50 and arrives at 10:25. How long is the ride?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 3.3.3.1
In a picture graph, each sun stands for 2 sunny days. April's row has 7 suns. How many sunny days did April have?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 3.4.1.1
Show all 22 questions (19 more)
Grade 3 mathematics, continued
Lena read 3/8 of a book. Omar read 5/8 of the same book. Which is true?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 3.1.3.3
Round 4,682 to the nearest hundred.Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 3.1.1.4
Six friends share 24 stickers equally. How many stickers does each friend get?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 3.1.2.4
Grade 4 mathematics 6
A room is made of two rectangles: one is 5 meters by 4 meters and the other is 3 meters by 2 meters. What is the area of the room?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 4.3.2.4
A rule says: multiply the input by 3, then add 2. What is the output when the input is 6?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 4.2.1.1
A Venn diagram sorts a class: 8 students play only soccer, 5 play only basketball and 3 play both. How many students play soccer?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 4.4.1.1
What is 58 × 34?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 4.1.1.3
Which decimal is the greatest?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 4.1.2.5
Which fraction is equivalent to 4/6?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 4.1.2.1
Grade 5 mathematics 6
A storage bin is 8 inches long, 5 inches wide and 4 inches high. What is its volume?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 5.3.2.4
Five quiz scores are 4, 7, 7, 9 and 13. What is the mean?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 5.4.1.1
What is 2/5 + 1/4?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 5.1.3.1
What is 3.45 + 2.7?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 5.1.3.1
What is 437 ÷ 12?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 5.1.1.1
What is the value of 6 + 4 × (5 − 2)?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 5.2.2.1
Grade 5 science 4
A rabbit eats clover. Where did the energy stored in the clover first come from?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 5P.3.1.1.2
A student stirs 20 grams of sugar into 200 grams of water until the sugar cannot be seen. What does the mixture weigh?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 5P.2.2.1.1
In an ecosystem, which living things change matter that is not food into matter that is food?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 5L.3.1.1.3
Why does the Sun look so much brighter than the other stars in the sky?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 5E.4.1.1.1; NASA Science, Sun: Facts
How this list was compiled: Outline: Procedures Manual for Minnesota Statewide Assessments 2026-27 (Minnesota Department of Education, October 2026), https://mn.mypearsonsupport.com/policies-and-procedures/, and the Subscore Report User Guide (August 2026), https://mn.mypearsonsupport.com/additional-services/, both on the Minnesota Assessment Hub, with the department's pages Statewide Testing and Minnesota's Academic Standards-Based Assessments, https://education.mn.gov/MDE/fam/tests/, all read 2026-10-08. Each mathematics question names the benchmark it practices in the Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, read 2026-10-08 in the copy the Minnesota STEM Teacher Center keeps (a site of SciMathMN and the Minnesota Department of Education), https://stemtc.scimathmn.org/. The answers are arithmetic on the numbers in the question, worked out a second time. Each science question names its benchmark in the Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019; final with examples and emphasis statements, May 2022), https://stemtc.scimathmn.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/Minnesota_Academic_Standards_in_Science-Final_101322.pdf, and, where a fact is used, the public page it was checked against (NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Human Genome Research Institute), all read 2026-10-08. The share of each part follows the department's test specifications (Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11, September 2019; MCA-IV Test Specifications for Science, July 2025), linked from https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/test/spec/ and read 2026-10-08 in the Internet Archive's copy of 6 March 2026. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site from Minnesota's published academic standards. Nothing is copied or reworded from an MCA test, a released or sample item, a Student Readiness Tool or another practice test.
Grades 6 to 8: all 22 questions
Grade 6 mathematics 6
A car travels 150 miles on 5 gallons of gas. How many miles does it travel per gallon?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 6.1.2.3
A jar holds 4 red, 6 yellow and 10 blue beads. One bead is picked without looking. What is the probability that it is yellow?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 6.4.1.2
Two angles of a triangle measure 55° and 65°. What is the measure of the third angle?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 6.3.2.2
What is 4/5 ÷ 1/10?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 6.1.3.1
What is 45% of 120?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 6.1.3.3
Grade 7 mathematics 6
A paint mix uses 3 cans of blue for every 5 cans of white. How many cans of blue go with 20 cans of white?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 7.1.2.5
A photo 4 inches wide and 6 inches tall is enlarged by a scale factor of 3. What is the area of the enlargement?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 7.3.2.2
Twelve tiles are lettered A to L, one letter on each. One tile is picked without looking. What is the probability that it shows a vowel?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 7.4.3.2
What is −8 + 5 × (−3)?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 7.1.2.1
y is proportional to x, and y = 12 when x = 4. Which equation shows the relationship?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 7.2.2.1
Grade 8 mathematics 6
A 25-foot wire runs straight from the top of a pole to the ground, 7 feet from the base of the pole. How tall is the pole?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 8.3.1.1
A line of best fit is y = 2x + 15. What value of y does it predict when x = 20?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 8.4.1.2
What is the slope of the line through (2, 1) and (6, 9)?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 8.2.2.2
Which is 0.0038 written in scientific notation?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 8.1.1.5
Which point is the solution of the system y = 3x and x + y = 20?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 8.2.4.7
Grade 8 science 4
A student winds wire around a nail to make an electromagnet. With 10 turns it lifts 4 paper clips, with 20 turns it lifts 8, and with 30 turns it lifts 12. What do the data show?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 8P.1.1.1.2
The air inside a closed jar is warmed. What happens to the molecules of the air?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 8P.1.2.1.4; NASA Glenn Research Center, Kinetic Theory of Gases
During a lunar eclipse, what blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 6E.4.2.2.1; NASA Space Place, Lunar Eclipses and Solar Eclipses
Which part of a cell holds the chromosomes?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 7L.3.1.1.1; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Nucleus
How this list was compiled: Outline: Procedures Manual for Minnesota Statewide Assessments 2026-27 (Minnesota Department of Education, October 2026), https://mn.mypearsonsupport.com/policies-and-procedures/, and the Subscore Report User Guide (August 2026), https://mn.mypearsonsupport.com/additional-services/, both on the Minnesota Assessment Hub, with the department's pages Statewide Testing and Minnesota's Academic Standards-Based Assessments, https://education.mn.gov/MDE/fam/tests/, all read 2026-10-08. Each mathematics question names the benchmark it practices in the Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, read 2026-10-08 in the copy the Minnesota STEM Teacher Center keeps (a site of SciMathMN and the Minnesota Department of Education), https://stemtc.scimathmn.org/. The answers are arithmetic on the numbers in the question, worked out a second time. Each science question names its benchmark in the Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019; final with examples and emphasis statements, May 2022), https://stemtc.scimathmn.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/Minnesota_Academic_Standards_in_Science-Final_101322.pdf, and, where a fact is used, the public page it was checked against (NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Human Genome Research Institute), all read 2026-10-08. The share of each part follows the department's test specifications (Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11, September 2019; MCA-IV Test Specifications for Science, July 2025), linked from https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/test/spec/ and read 2026-10-08 in the Internet Archive's copy of 6 March 2026. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site from Minnesota's published academic standards. Nothing is copied or reworded from an MCA test, a released or sample item, a Student Readiness Tool or another practice test.
High school: all 12 questions
Grade 11 mathematics 8
$500 is invested and grows by 4% each year. What is it worth after 2 years?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 9.2.2.2
A 45-45-90 triangle has legs of length 5. How long is its hypotenuse?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 9.3.3.5
A cone has a radius of 3 and a height of 4. What is its volume?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 9.3.1.1
Show all 12 questions (9 more)
Grade 11 mathematics, continued
An outfit is one of 3 shirts, one of 4 pairs of pants and one of 2 hats. How many different outfits are possible?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 9.4.3.1
If f(x) = x² − 3x, what is f(−2)?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 9.2.1.1
In a right triangle, the side opposite angle A is 3, the side next to angle A is 4 and the hypotenuse is 5. What is sin A?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 9.3.4.1
What is the 6th term of the geometric sequence 3, 6, 12, …?Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, benchmark 9.2.2.4
High school life science 4
A cell divides by mitosis. What is the result?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 9L.3.1.1.2; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Mitosis
In a pond study, a predator caught 15 of 50 fish that swam alone and 4 of 50 fish that swam in a school. What does this evidence support?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 9L.4.1.1.1
Mice live on dark rock, where owls catch light mice more easily. At first 20 of every 100 mice have dark fur. Many generations later, 80 of every 100 do. What explains the shift?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 9L.2.1.1.2
Which mutations can be passed on to offspring?Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019), benchmark 9L.4.1.1.2; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Mutation
How this list was compiled: Outline: Procedures Manual for Minnesota Statewide Assessments 2026-27 (Minnesota Department of Education, October 2026), https://mn.mypearsonsupport.com/policies-and-procedures/, and the Subscore Report User Guide (August 2026), https://mn.mypearsonsupport.com/additional-services/, both on the Minnesota Assessment Hub, with the department's pages Statewide Testing and Minnesota's Academic Standards-Based Assessments, https://education.mn.gov/MDE/fam/tests/, all read 2026-10-08. Each mathematics question names the benchmark it practices in the Minnesota Academic Standards, Mathematics K-12, 2007 version, read 2026-10-08 in the copy the Minnesota STEM Teacher Center keeps (a site of SciMathMN and the Minnesota Department of Education), https://stemtc.scimathmn.org/. The answers are arithmetic on the numbers in the question, worked out a second time. Each science question names its benchmark in the Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (2019; final with examples and emphasis statements, May 2022), https://stemtc.scimathmn.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/Minnesota_Academic_Standards_in_Science-Final_101322.pdf, and, where a fact is used, the public page it was checked against (NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Human Genome Research Institute), all read 2026-10-08. The share of each part follows the department's test specifications (Mathematics Test Specifications for MCA-III, Grades 3–8 and 11, September 2019; MCA-IV Test Specifications for Science, July 2025), linked from https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/test/spec/ and read 2026-10-08 in the Internet Archive's copy of 6 March 2026. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site from Minnesota's published academic standards. Nothing is copied or reworded from an MCA test, a released or sample item, a Student Readiness Tool or another practice test.
How it works
Unofficial practice for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments: mathematics for grades 3 to 8 and 11, and science for grade 5, grade 8 and high school. Every question is our own. Not affiliated with the Minnesota Department of Education.
Read the full guide
What is in each grade band
Grades 3 to 5 and grades 6 to 8 each hold six mathematics questions for every grade, plus four science questions for the grade that takes the science test. High school holds eight grade 11 mathematics questions and four in life science, the subject of the high school science test. Questions run in grade order.
Reading
Reading is tested in grades 3 to 8 and 10 and is not on this page: every reading question is asked about a passage.
Questions and answers
What grades take the MCA in Minnesota?
Reading in grades 3 to 8 and 10, mathematics in grades 3 to 8 and 11, and science in grades 5 and 8 and once in high school, the department's testing page says.
Where are the MN MCA practice tests online?
This page is unofficial online practice. The state's own practice is the Student Readiness Tools on the Minnesota Assessment Hub, which show how the online test and each kind of question work. The button under the questions opens them.
Are the MCA tests timed?
No. The department's manual says the MCAs are not timed. Schools usually plan 1.5 to 2 hours for a mathematics test in grades 3 to 8 and about 1.5 hours in grade 11.
How is the MCA scored?
Results come as one of four levels. Mathematics uses Does Not Meet, Partially Meets, Meets and Exceeds the Standards; reading and science use Beginning, Intermediate, Meets and Advanced. The top two levels count as proficient.
Are these real MCA questions?
No. Every question was written for this site from Minnesota's academic standards, and none is a released or sample item. Each explanation names the benchmark it practices.