MTLE Social Studies Practice Test

Unofficial practice for the two subtests of Minnesota's MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) test, codes 052 and 053.

Subtest

Subtest 1 (052): social studies skills, world history, U.S. and Minnesota history. Subtest 2 (053): geography, government, economics, behavioral sciences.

A student has the median household income of every Minnesota county and wants a single map that colors each county by its figure. Which kind of map should she make?

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: 1 to 4 pick, Enter checks.

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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 12, 2026.

Next step More world and U.S. historyMore economics questions

Subtest 1: all 25 questions

Social studies skills 9

  • A chart shows that counties with more libraries per person also have higher incomes. A student writes that building libraries makes a county rich. What is wrong with the conclusion? Wikipedia, Correlation does not imply causation. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0002
  • A seminar compares how scholars writing in 1920 and in 2020 explained the causes of one war: their sources, methods and conclusions. What is this study of how historians work called? Wikipedia, Historiography. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • A student faults the Athenians of the fifth century BC for having no written bill of rights like the American one of 1791. Which error of historical thinking is this? Wikipedia, Presentism (historical analysis). Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
Show all 25 questions (22 more)

Social studies skills, continued

  • A student has the median household income of every Minnesota county and wants a single map that colors each county by its figure. Which kind of map should she make? Wikipedia, Choropleth map. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • A textbook sorts the American past into blocks with names such as the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. What is this sorting of the past into named stretches of time called? Wikipedia, Periodization. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • Before a chapter on Reconstruction, students skim the headings, turn each into a question, read for the answers, say them back and go over the chapter again. Which reading method are they using? Wikipedia, SQ3R. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • For a paper on the fur trade, a student reads a clerk's account book kept at a trading post in 1797 and a history of the trade published in 2015. How are the two sources classed? Wikipedia, Primary source. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • Researching a ballot question, a student saves the articles that agree with what she already thinks and passes over the rest. Which bias is shaping her research? Wikipedia, Confirmation bias. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0002
  • While reading about the causes of the Dust Bowl, students fill in a cause-and-effect web. According to Put Reading First, what do graphic organizers show a reader? Put Reading First, third edition (National Institute for Literacy). Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004

World history 8

  • A class is weighing how democratic classical Athens was. Which fact about who could take part should the students use? Wikipedia, Athenian democracy. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • A knight holds a manor from a lord and in return owes him service in war. Which system of medieval Europe does the arrangement illustrate? Wikipedia, Feudalism. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • A world history class maps crops, livestock and diseases crossing the Atlantic in both directions from the late 1400s on. What is this transfer between the hemispheres called? Wikipedia, Columbian exchange. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007
  • After World War II the United States sent $13.3 billion to 17 countries under the European Recovery Program, enacted in 1948. By what name is the program better known? Wikipedia, Marshall Plan. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0008
  • Excavations show that the people of one valley gave up seasonal camps for permanent villages with fields and stored grain. Which transition does this evidence record? Wikipedia, Neolithic Revolution. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • Fourteen countries met in the German capital in 1884 and 1885, as Leopold II of Belgium had asked, and signed a General Act. For what did the act set the rules? Wikipedia, Berlin Conference. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0008
  • In the charter sealed at Runnymede in 1215, what did King John promise the rebel barons? Wikipedia, Magna Carta. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • Two treaties signed at Osnabrück and Münster in October 1648 are known together as the Peace of Westphalia. Which war did they end? Wikipedia, Peace of Westphalia. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007

U.S. and Minnesota history 8

  • A lesson on 1965 asks what the Voting Rights Act did. Which statement is accurate? Wikipedia, Voting Rights Act of 1965. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0012
  • Grand Portage, on Lake Superior's north shore in what is now Minnesota, grew into one of the four main centers of the British Empire in North America. Centers of what? Wikipedia, Grand Portage National Monument. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0009
  • In 1870 the Minneapolis area had only a few mills of one kind; by 1900 Minnesota's ground 14.1% of the nation's grain. In which industry had Minneapolis come to dominate? Wikipedia, History of Minnesota. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0011
  • In 1944 the Farmer-Labor Party, the third party that had led Minnesota politics through the Depression, merged with the state's Democrats. What is the merged party called? Wikipedia, History of Minnesota and Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0012
  • In two treaties signed in the summer of 1851, Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, what did the Dakota agree to? Wikipedia, Dakota War of 1862. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0010
  • The Mesabi Range in northern Minnesota has been worked extensively since 1892. It is the chief mining district in the United States for which resource? Wikipedia, Mesabi Range. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0011
  • The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 created the Northwest Territory. What did it settle about the way the United States would grow westward? Wikipedia, Northwest Ordinance. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0009
  • On the second day at Gettysburg the 1st Minnesota, roughly 250 men, was ordered to charge a brigade that outnumbered it at least 5 to 1. Why was the order given? Wikipedia, 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0010

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Subtest 1 (test code 052) of the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations field Social Studies (Grades 5–12) in the test framework on the MTLE website (https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/Content/Worksheets/MN052_FrameworkWorksheet.html; test page https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/MN052_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-12): 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour, passing score 229; Social Studies Skills (objectives 0001 to 0004, 18 questions, 34%), World History (0005 to 0008, 16 questions, 33%) and U.S. and Minnesota History (0009 to 0012, 16 questions, 33%). This set holds 25: 9, 8 and 8. Every fact was read on the public page named under its question: Put Reading First and the named Wikipedia articles. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

Subtest 2: all 20 questions

Geography 6

  • A county planner keeps parcel lines, flood zones and roads as layers in software that stores, analyzes and displays geographic data. What is such a system called? Wikipedia, Geographic information system. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013
  • A teacher sets a Mercator wall map beside a globe, and students see Antarctica sprawled across the whole foot of the map. What does the comparison show about the projection? Wikipedia, Mercator projection. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013
  • The Köppen classification gives every climate a main group marked by a letter. Which letter marks the continental climates? Wikipedia, Köppen climate classification. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
Show all 20 questions (17 more)

Geography, continued

  • Near Hibbing, in northeastern Minnesota, lies a triple watershed. To which three bodies of water can rain that falls there drain? Wikipedia, Geography of Minnesota. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • Over fifty years the share of a country's people living in cities rises from 30% to 60%, and the share in the countryside falls. Which process do the figures describe? Wikipedia, Urbanization. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0015
  • War and failed harvests lead many families to leave their home country. In the study of migration, what are such conditions in the country of origin called? Wikipedia, Human migration. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0015

Government and citizenship 6

  • A governor may not also sit as the judge who decides cases under the laws she signed. Which principle keeps lawmaking, judging and executing the law in distinct hands? Wikipedia, Separation of powers. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0016
  • A proposed amendment has passed the House and the Senate by two-thirds votes. What must still happen before it is part of the Constitution? Wikipedia, Article Five of the United States Constitution. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0017
  • A tribal nation whose reservation lies inside Minnesota passes its own laws and runs its own government. On which concept does that authority rest? Wikipedia, Tribal sovereignty in the United States. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0018
  • The Minnesota Legislature is bicameral. How many seats do its Senate and its House of Representatives hold? Wikipedia, Minnesota Legislature. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0018
  • Minnesota writes its own traffic and school laws, while Congress regulates trade among the states. Which principle of American government does this division of power show? Wikipedia, Federalism in the United States. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0016
  • On election night no candidate for president reaches a simple majority of the 538 electoral votes. How many votes were needed, and who now elects the president? Wikipedia, United States Electoral College. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0017

Economics 4

  • At a farmers' market, sweet corn is priced above the level at which the amount offered equals the amount shoppers want. What do the sellers face, and which way will the price tend to move? Wikipedia, Economic equilibrium. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0019
  • During a slump, members of Congress debate a bill that raises federal spending on roads and lowers income taxes. To which kind of policy do the tools in the bill belong? Wikipedia, Fiscal policy. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0020
  • Minnesota's farms could grow many crops, yet the state ships out grain and buys fruit grown elsewhere. Which principle explains why trade pays even for a party that is more productive at everything? Wikipedia, Comparative advantage. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0020
  • One savings account pays interest only on the money deposited. Another also pays interest on the interest already earned. What sets simple interest apart from compound interest? Wikipedia, Compound interest. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0019

Behavioral sciences 4

  • A ninth grader thinks of herself as funny because she believes that is how her classmates see her. Which concept describes this way of forming a self-image? Wikipedia, Looking-glass self. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0021
  • A teacher of 15-year-olds builds a unit around the questions "Who am I? Who can I be?" To which of Erikson's psychosocial stages do the questions belong? Wikipedia, Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0021
  • A traveler calls another country's mealtime customs backward, judging them only by the customs he grew up with. Which term names this habit of mind? Wikipedia, Ethnocentrism. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0022
  • In a society, some norms mark the line between right and wrong, and people who break them may be punished or ostracized. What do sociologists call such norms? Wikipedia, Mores. Written to the MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0022

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Subtest 2 (test code 053) of the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations field Social Studies (Grades 5–12) in the test framework on the MTLE website (https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/Content/Worksheets/MN052_FrameworkWorksheet.html; test page https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/MN052_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-12): 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour, passing score 229; Geography (objectives 0013 to 0015, 15 questions, 30%), Government and Citizenship (0016 to 0018, 15 questions, 30%), Economics (0019 and 0020, 10 questions, 20%) and Behavioral Sciences (0021 and 0022, 10 questions, 20%). This set holds 20: 6, 6, 4 and 4. 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

This free MTLE Social Studies practice test gives Subtest 1 and Subtest 2 of the Grades 5–12 test a question set apiece. It is unofficial and has no tie to the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board or Pearson.

Read the full guide

MTLE Social Studies (Grades 5–12): the two subtests

The MTLE framework, read October 12, 2026, splits Subtest 1 into Social Studies Skills 34%, World History 33% and U.S. and Minnesota History 33%, and Subtest 2 into Geography 30%, Government and Citizenship 30%, Economics 20% and Behavioral Sciences 20%. Our 25 and 20 questions follow nearly those shares, and each timed exam runs at 50 questions an hour, the real pace.

Minnesota's own history, land and government

Subtest 1 names Minnesota history, so the sets ask about Grand Portage and the fur trade, the treaties of 1851, the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg, the Mesabi Range, Minneapolis flour milling and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor merger, then the triple watershed near Hibbing, the Legislature's seats and tribal sovereignty.

  • Objective 0004 is content-area reading: how to build students' reading skills in social studies, not history content.

Questions and answers

Does this MTLE Social Studies practice test cost anything?

No, and no account is needed. All 45 questions were written for this page from the objectives of the published framework, each with the public source of its answer. None comes from the real test or the official practice tests.

How long is the MTLE Social Studies test?

Each of the two subtests asks 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour of testing time, after a 15-minute tutorial. A candidate may sit one subtest or both at the same appointment.

What score passes MTLE Social Studies?

The test page, read October 12, 2026, sets 229 for Subtest 1 and 229 for Subtest 2, and a license needs both. A count of right answers here cannot be turned into that score, so no verdict is shown.

What does Subtest 2 of MTLE Social Studies cover?

Ten objectives. Geography: research skills, physical systems and human systems. Government: political science concepts, the foundations of U.S. government and how its levels operate. Economics: microeconomics and personal finance, then macroeconomics and international economics. Behavioral sciences: how identity forms, and culture and social institutions.

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