Practice Tests MTLE Communication Arts

Unofficial practice for both subtests of Minnesota's MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) test, codes 202 and 203.

Subtest

Subtest 1 (202): media literacy and reading. Subtest 2 (203): listening and speaking; components of writing and research.

A campaign poster reads only “Freedom. Strength. A brighter tomorrow.” and gives no facts or reasons. Which propaganda technique 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.

Print covers the next 25 questions. Share this set copies a link to the same questions in the same order.

Exam mode: 25 questions, 30 minutes.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board or Pearson. Bank checked October 13, 2026.

Next step More reading and literatureMore writing and research

Subtest 1: all 25 questions

Media literacy 5

  • A campaign poster reads only “Freedom. Strength. A brighter tomorrow.” and gives no facts or reasons. Which propaganda technique is this? Wikipedia, Glittering generality. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • An advertisement says, “Four million people have already switched. Why haven't you?” Which effect is it counting on? Wikipedia, Bandwagon effect. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • Before filming a public service announcement, students sketch each shot in order on a sheet of panels. What is this planning tool called? Wikipedia, Storyboard. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0002
Show all 25 questions (22 more)

Media literacy, continued

  • For a month every local newscast leads with stories on road repairs, and residents begin to name roads as the top issue facing the city. Which theory of mass media does this illustrate? Wikipedia, Agenda-setting theory. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • For a video essay that criticizes a film, a student borrows a 20-second clip. The copyright statute lists four factors for judging whether such a use is fair. Which of these is among them? 17 U.S.C. 107 (Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use). Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0002

Reading 20

  • A columnist proposes a later school start. A reply says, “My opponent wants students to sleep all day and learn nothing,” and attacks that. Which fallacy is this? Wikipedia, Straw man. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • A linguist records how teenagers in Duluth really use the word “like” in speech, without ruling the usage right or wrong. Which approach to language is this? Wikipedia, Linguistic description. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • A reader pauses mid-chapter to ask whether she understands the argument and decides to reread a section. What is this awareness of one's own thought processes called? Wikipedia, Metacognition. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • A speaker opens by noting her twenty years as a nurse before she argues for a new clinic. Which rhetorical appeal is she making? Wikipedia, Modes of persuasion. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • A speech begins five sentences in a row with the words “We will not”. Which rhetorical device is this? Wikipedia, Anaphora (rhetoric). Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • A student speaks one dialect with her grandmother and shifts to another variety of English for a class presentation. What is this shifting by social setting called? Wikipedia, Code-switching. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • A teacher shows that “photography” joins Greek photo-, light, with -graphy, writing, so students can work out other words built the same way. What are words composed from Greek and Latin combining forms called? Wikipedia, Classical compound. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • An editorial says, “Either we ban phones in every school or we give up on learning.” Which fallacy wrongly limits the options? Wikipedia, False dilemma. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • English spellings often differ from how words are said. Which series of changes, mainly between 1400 and 1700, altered every Middle English long vowel and is the major reason? Wikipedia, Great Vowel Shift. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • In a play, the audience knows that a character's friend has betrayed him while the character still trusts the friend. What is this effect called? Wikipedia, Irony. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • In the Italian sonnet form named for Petrarch, into which two parts do the fourteen lines divide? Wikipedia, Petrarchan sonnet. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • Shakespeare wrote much of his plays, and Milton all of Paradise Lost, in unrhymed iambic pentameter. What is this form of verse called? Wikipedia, Blank verse. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • “Strong-willed” and “pig-headed” both mean stubborn, yet one admires and the other complains. What is the emotional association a word carries beyond its literal meaning? Wikipedia, Connotation. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • To check her understanding of a dense paragraph, a student rewords it in her own language while keeping its meaning. What is this strategy called? Wikipedia, Paraphrase. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • Which 1958 novel by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe tells the story of Okonkwo, a leader of the Igbo clan of Umuofia, and takes its title from a poem by W. B. Yeats? Wikipedia, Things Fall Apart. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007
  • Which 1967 novel by the Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez tells the story of several generations of the Buendía family in the fictitious town of Macondo? Wikipedia, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007
  • Which author, born in Little Falls, Minnesota, and an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, writes novels, poetry and children's books with Native American characters and settings? Wikipedia, Louise Erdrich. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007
  • Which event opens the Middle English period, when the language grew out of Old English under the influence of Old Norse and Anglo-Norman French? Wikipedia, Middle English. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • Which German term, built from words for “formation” and “novel”, names a novel of a protagonist's growth from childhood into adulthood? Wikipedia, Bildungsroman. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • Which novelist, born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and the author of Main Street and Babbitt, became in 1930 the first author from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature? Wikipedia, Sinclair Lewis. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Subtest 1 (test code 202) of the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations field Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) in the test framework on the MTLE website (https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/Content/Worksheets/MN202_203_FrameworkWorksheet.html; test page https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/MN202_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-13): 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour, passing score 228; Media Literacy (objectives 0001 and 0002, 10 questions, 20%) and Reading (0003 to 0007, 40 questions, 80%). This set holds 25: 5 and 20. Every fact was read on the public page named under its question: 17 U.S.C. 107 at the Legal Information Institute and the named Wikipedia articles. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

Subtest 2: all 20 questions

Listening and speaking 6

  • A few students sit in an inner circle and discuss a question while the rest of the class sits around them and listens. Which discussion format is this? Wikipedia, Fishbowl (conversation). Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0010
  • A seminar leader never states her own view. She probes each speaker with questions and requests to clarify until the reasoning holds up or breaks down. Which method is this? Wikipedia, Socratic method. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0010
  • A speaker changes pitch, volume and intonation to give the same sentence a sarcastic meaning. What is this component of communication called? Wikipedia, Paralanguage. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0009
Show all 20 questions (17 more)

Listening and speaking, continued

  • Before answering a classmate, a student restates the classmate's point to confirm that the meaning came across. Which listening practice is this? Wikipedia, Active listening. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0008
  • Classical rhetoric names five canons, or phases of developing a persuasive speech: invention, arrangement, style, memory and which other? Wikipedia, Rhetoric. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0009
  • During a lecture, a student divides the page into a wide note-taking column and a narrower column for questions and keywords. Which note-taking system is this? Wikipedia, Cornell Notes. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0008

Writing and research 14

  • A draft reads, “Maria was nervous.” The revision reads, “Maria's pencil tapped the desk; twice she checked the clock.” Which narrative technique guided the revision? Wikipedia, Show, don't tell. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0015
  • A news report gives the basics of the story in its first sentences and less important detail after. What is this way of ordering information called? Wikipedia, Inverted pyramid (journalism). Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013
  • A reply to an essay on school lunches says only that its author “has never cooked a meal in his life”. Which tactic is this? Wikipedia, Ad hominem. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • A student presents a source's ideas and much of its wording as her own, with no credit to the source. What is this called? Wikipedia, Plagiarism. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0012
  • A student's narrative begins with the narrator already clinging to an overturned canoe; how the trip started comes out later in flashbacks. What is this plot device called? Wikipedia, In medias res. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0015
  • “The coach told the team to stretch, to hydrate and running laps.” Which principle of sentence construction does this sentence break? Wikipedia, Parallelism (grammar). Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0011
  • “Having finished the essay, the laptop was closed.” What is the error in this sentence? Wikipedia, Dangling modifier. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0011
  • In an expository paragraph, which sentence summarizes the main idea of the paragraph and usually comes first? Wikipedia, Topic sentence. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013
  • In Toulmin's model, a writer claims “I am a British citizen” on the ground “I was born in Bermuda”. What is the statement that authorizes the move from ground to claim called? Wikipedia, Stephen Toulmin. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • “It is nearly half past five, we cannot reach town before dark.” What is this joining of two independent clauses with only a comma called? Wikipedia, Comma splice. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0011
  • On a divisive issue, a writer first states the other side's position to that side's satisfaction and then looks for common ground. Which strategy of argument is this? Wikipedia, Rogerian argument. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • Students use the CRAAP test to judge whether a website is reliable enough to cite. What do its five letters stand for? Wikipedia, CRAAP test. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0012
  • Under each source in her list, a student writes a few lines that sum up the source and judge its worth. What has she made? Wikipedia, Annotated bibliography. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0012
  • Writing instruction traditionally names four modes of discourse. Which mode has the purpose of explaining or informing an audience about a topic? Wikipedia, Rhetorical modes. Written to the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Subtest 2 (test code 203) of the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations field Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) in the test framework on the MTLE website (https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/Content/Worksheets/MN202_203_FrameworkWorksheet.html; test page https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/MN202_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-13): 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour, passing score 227; Listening and Speaking (objectives 0008 to 0010, 15 questions, 30%) and Components of Writing and Research (0011 to 0015, 35 questions, 70%). This set holds 20: 6 and 14. Every fact was read in the Wikipedia article named under its question. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

These free practice tests for MTLE Communication Arts/Literature (Grades 5–12) give each of the two subtests a question set of its own. They are unofficial, written without any part played by the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board or Pearson.

Read the full guide

MTLE Communication Arts/Literature: the two subtests

The MTLE framework, read October 13, 2026, splits Subtest 1 into Media Literacy 20% and Reading 80%, and Subtest 2 into Listening and Speaking 30% and Components of Writing and Research 70%. Our 25 and 20 questions match those shares exactly: 5 and 20, then 6 and 14. A timed exam on either set runs at 50 questions an hour.

Authors from Minnesota and around the world

Objective 0007 asks about authors and works from around the world. The reading set goes from Chinua Achebe's Umuofia and Gabriel García Márquez's Macondo to two writers born in Minnesota, Sinclair Lewis of Sauk Centre and Louise Erdrich of Little Falls. It also asks about the Great Vowel Shift, the Petrarchan sonnet and blank verse.

Questions and answers

Are these MTLE Communication Arts practice tests free?

Yes. There is no charge and no account. The 45 questions were written for this page from the objectives of the published framework, each with the public source of its answer, and none is drawn from the real test or the official practice tests.

How long is the MTLE Communication Arts/Literature test?

Two subtests, each with 50 multiple-choice questions and 1 hour of testing time after a 15-minute tutorial. Both may be taken at one appointment, or one at a time.

What score passes MTLE Communication Arts/Literature?

The test page, read October 13, 2026, sets 228 for Subtest 1 and 227 for Subtest 2, and both must be passed. The score on this page is a plain count, with no pass or fail attached.

What does Subtest 2 of MTLE Communication Arts/Literature cover?

Eight objectives: listening strategies, speaking strategies and academic discussions, then the writing process, academic research, and the writing of informative texts, arguments and narratives.

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