Edward FitzGerald's English version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, whom he calls "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia", includes: "The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, / Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit / Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, / Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it." Which theme do the lines state?Edward FitzGerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, first edition, quatrain 51 (Project Gutenberg eBook 246). Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator d
George Bernard Shaw's play about a phonetics professor and a Cockney flower girl takes its title from a figure of Greek myth. Which figure?Wikipedia, "Pygmalion (play)". Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator n
In the last stanza of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" the speaker says, "I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence", that taking the road "less traveled by" has "made all the difference". Which word most leaves open whether the speaker will look back with satisfaction or with regret?Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken", in Mountain Interval, 1916 (Project Gutenberg eBook 29345). Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator g
Show all 54 questions (51 more)
Reading literature, continued
The narrator of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" asks at the start, "but why will you say that I am mad?" and a few lines later, "How, then, am I mad?" What is the effect of opening the story this way?Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale Heart", in The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2 (Project Gutenberg eBook 2148), the term is defined in Wikipedia, "Unreliable narrator". Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator e
Pride and Prejudice opens: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." The next sentence says such a man is considered "the rightful property" of some one of the neighbours' daughters. Which technique is at work in the opening sentence?Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, chapter 1 (Project Gutenberg eBook 1342), verbal irony is defined in Wikipedia, "Irony". Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator i
Read the opening of a poem by Emily Dickinson: "Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul, / And sings the tune without the words, / And never stops at all". Which figure of speech organizes these lines?Emily Dickinson, "Hope is the thing with feathers", in Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete (Project Gutenberg eBook 12242). Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator f
Shakespeare drew on the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, two lovers kept apart by their parents, for Romeo and Juliet and for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Whose telling is the oldest surviving account of that tale?Wikipedia, "Pyramus and Thisbe". Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator m
Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 begins: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red, than her lips red". It ends: "And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare, / As any she belied with false compare." What is the speaker doing?William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130, in Shakespeare's Sonnets (Project Gutenberg eBook 1041), the custom of praise by comparison is described in Wikipedia, "Sonnet 130". Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator i
Which pair of American works, published within a decade of each other, both attack slavery, the first as an autobiography and the second as a novel?Wikipedia, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Framework section: Competency 0001, Reading Literature, performance indicator j
Reading informational text 9
An editorial argues: "Two students from one high school were caught cheating last month. Clearly the students at that school cannot be trusted." What is the flaw in the reasoning?Wikipedia, "Faulty generalization". Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator m
The Declaration of Independence says that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed". It then lists charges against the King, each beginning "He has", and only after that declares the colonies independent. What role does the list play in the argument?National Archives, Declaration of Independence: A Transcription. Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator l
The Declaration of Sentiments of 1848 says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal". Why does it echo the Declaration of Independence so closely?Wikipedia, "Declaration of Sentiments". Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator o
The Gettysburg Address, given on November 19, 1863, begins: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." To which year and document does the opening point?Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (Project Gutenberg eBook 4), the words of the Declaration are in the National Archives transcription. Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator n
In an oration at Rochester on July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass told his audience: "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." Which device carries his point of view?Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", extract in My Bondage and My Freedom (Project Gutenberg eBook 202), the term is defined in Wikipedia, "Antithesis". Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator i
In the Gettysburg Address Lincoln says that "we cannot dedicate", "we cannot consecrate", "we cannot hallow this ground". Which rhetorical device is the repeated "we cannot"?Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (Project Gutenberg eBook 4), the term is defined in Wikipedia, "Anaphora (rhetoric)". Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator j
Later in the address Lincoln says: "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced." How does this sentence develop the central idea?Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (Project Gutenberg eBook 4). Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator d
Thoreau opens his essay on civil disobedience by saying that he heartily accepts the motto "That government is best which governs least" and would like to see it "acted up to more rapidly and systematically". What does the added clause show about his purpose?Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (Project Gutenberg eBook 71). Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator g
Which sentence is an objective summary of the Gettysburg Address?Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (Project Gutenberg eBook 4). Framework section: Competency 0002, Reading Informational Text, performance indicator e
Writing arguments 6
A draft argues for a longer school day and mentions the opposing view only to call it "obviously wrong". Which revision best meets the standard for developing counterclaims?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W1b. Framework section: Competency 0003, Writing Arguments, performance indicator c
A student is drafting an argument about school start times. Which opening sentence introduces a precise claim and distinguishes it from an opposing claim?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W1a. Framework section: Competency 0003, Writing Arguments, performance indicator a
A student will argue for a later curfew before a town council whose members worry mainly about safety. What does the standard on audience ask the writer to do?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W1b. Framework section: Competency 0003, Writing Arguments, performance indicator d
A writer has a claim, two reasons with evidence, a counterclaim and a rebuttal. Which order sequences them most logically for a skeptical reader?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W1a. Framework section: Competency 0003, Writing Arguments, performance indicator b
Which final sentence best concludes an argument that a town should keep its library open on Sundays?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W1e. Framework section: Competency 0003, Writing Arguments, performance indicator f
Which transition best clarifies the relationship between these sentences in a student's argument? "Opponents say that uniforms limit self-expression. ______, students in uniform still choose their own activities, friends and words."New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W1d. Framework section: Competency 0003, Writing Arguments, performance indicator e
Writing informative and explanatory texts 6
A lab report says: "We put the stuff in the thing and it got hot." Which revision uses exact wording and the vocabulary of its subject?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W2c. Framework section: Competency 0004, Writing Informative and Explanatory Texts, performance indicator e
A report explains how to scan a poem's meter. Its sections are: (1) scanning a full stanza, (2) what a syllable is, (3) stressed and unstressed syllables, (4) how syllables group into feet. Which order lets each element build on what precedes it?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W2a. Framework section: Competency 0004, Writing Informative and Explanatory Texts, performance indicator b
A student writes: "Dickinson presents hope as dependable." Which sentence supports the analysis with evidence drawn from the poem "Hope is the thing with feathers"?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W5; the poem is quoted from Project Gutenberg eBook 12242. Framework section: Competency 0004, Writing Informative and Explanatory Texts, performance indicator h
Which detail best develops the sentence "The school garden has grown since it opened"?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W2b. Framework section: Competency 0004, Writing Informative and Explanatory Texts, performance indicator c
Which opening sentence best introduces an explanatory report on how a school's new recycling program works, and indicates what will follow?NYSTCE Field 003: English Language Arts, Test Design and Framework, September 2014: Competency 0004, Writing Informative and Explanatory Texts, performance indicator a
Which sentence maintains the formal style expected in an explanatory essay?NYSTCE Field 003: English Language Arts, Test Design and Framework, September 2014: Competency 0004, Writing Informative and Explanatory Texts, performance indicator j
Writing narratives 6
A passage reads: "Keys, where, the blue bowl, no, she moved it, always moving things, and the bus, the bus at ten past, was it ten past". Which technique is the writer using?Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness". Framework section: Competency 0005, Writing Narratives, performance indicator f
A personal narrative tells how the writer lost a race after months of training. Which ending grows out of what was experienced and reflects on it?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W3e. Framework section: Competency 0005, Writing Narratives, performance indicator e
A story opens in the middle of a chase and explains how the chase began only later, through dialogue. What is this way of sequencing events called?Wikipedia, "In medias res". Framework section: Competency 0005, Writing Narratives, performance indicator c
A writer wants the moment before a door opens to feel slow and tense. Which choice of pacing serves that aim?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W3b. Framework section: Competency 0005, Writing Narratives, performance indicator b
Which opening best engages and orients the reader of a narrative by setting out a situation and introducing a narrator?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W3a. Framework section: Competency 0005, Writing Narratives, performance indicator a
Which revision of "The kitchen smelled nice" uses sensory language to give a vivid picture?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W3d. Framework section: Competency 0005, Writing Narratives, performance indicator d
Researching to build and present knowledge 6
A draft cites the same website in every paragraph and no other source. Which problem does New York's grades 11–12 research standard name?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W7. Framework section: Competency 0006, Researching to Build and Present Knowledge, performance indicator e
A paragraph of a research paper is made of four long block quotations joined by "and". Which revision follows the standard for integrating information?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W7. Framework section: Competency 0006, Researching to Build and Present Knowledge, performance indicator d
A student researching the current rules for flying drones finds a detailed hobbyist blog post from ten years ago and the regulator's present web page. For this task, what is the main limitation of the blog post?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W7. Framework section: Competency 0006, Researching to Build and Present Knowledge, performance indicator c
A student rewords a paragraph from an article sentence by sentence and gives no citation. Is this plagiarism?Wikipedia, "Plagiarism". Framework section: Competency 0006, Researching to Build and Present Knowledge, performance indicator e
A student's research question is "What is the history of American literature?" What is the best revision?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12W6. Framework section: Competency 0006, Researching to Build and Present Knowledge, performance indicator a
For a paper on daily life in a Civil War army camp, which of these is a primary source?Wikipedia, "Primary source". Framework section: Competency 0006, Researching to Build and Present Knowledge, performance indicator b
Speaking and listening 6
A discussion has produced two opposed readings of a poem. What does the standard ask a participant to do next?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12SL1d. Framework section: Competency 0007, Speaking and Listening, performance indicator f
A speaker says, "Anyone who cares about children will support this budget." What should a listener who is evaluating the reasoning notice?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12SL3. Framework section: Competency 0007, Speaking and Listening, performance indicator h
A student who talks casually with teammates must speak at a school board meeting. Which standard applies?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12SL6. Framework section: Competency 0007, Speaking and Listening, performance indicator i
A student will present survey findings on reading habits to classmates. Which use of digital media is strategic in the sense of the standard?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12SL5. Framework section: Competency 0007, Speaking and Listening, performance indicator j
Before a group project begins, which step matches New York's standard for collegial discussion?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12SL1b. Framework section: Competency 0007, Speaking and Listening, performance indicator b
During a seminar a classmate says, "The narrator is obviously lying." Which response best probes reasoning and evidence?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12SL1c. Framework section: Competency 0007, Speaking and Listening, performance indicator c
Language 6
A student finds that two respected usage guides disagree about a point of grammar. Which understanding from New York's grades 9–12 conventions skills fits the case?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), Appendix A, core conventions skills for grades 9 to 12. Framework section: Competency 0008, Language, performance indicator a
A student lists what a character does each morning. Which version of the sentence keeps the list parallel?Wikipedia, "Parallelism (grammar)", the skill is in New York's core conventions skills for grades 9 to 12. Framework section: Competency 0008, Language, performance indicator b
Read: "The speaker's laconic reply, just two words, ended the long debate." Which words in the sentence are the context clue to the meaning of "laconic"?New York State Education Department, English Language Arts Learning Standards (2017), standard 11-12L4a. Framework section: Competency 0008, Language, performance indicator c
Which sentence contains a comma splice?Wikipedia, "Comma splice". Framework section: Competency 0008, Language, performance indicator b
Which sentence is in the passive voice?Wikipedia, "English passive voice". Framework section: Competency 0008, Language, performance indicator f
Which sentence uses the subjunctive mood?Wikipedia, "English subjunctive". Framework section: Competency 0008, Language, performance indicator f
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the eight selected-response competencies of the NYSTCE Field 003: English Language Arts Test Design and Framework, September 2014, authorized for distribution by the New York State Education Department (https://www.nystce.nesinc.com/content/docs/NY_fld03_objs.pdf, read 2026-10-10): Reading Literature 15 selected-response items, Reading Informational Text 15, and 10 each for Writing Arguments, Writing Informative and Explanatory Texts, Writing Narratives, Researching to Build and Present Knowledge, Speaking and Listening, and Language. The bank holds 60% of each: 9, 9 and six sets of 6. Every quotation was read on 2026-10-10 in the public domain text the question names (Project Gutenberg editions of Dickinson, Frost, Shakespeare, Poe, Austen, FitzGerald, Thoreau, Lincoln and Douglass, and the National Archives transcription of the Declaration of Independence); standards were read in the New York State English Language Arts Learning Standards of 2017 (nysed.gov); and 19 Wikipedia articles, named on their questions, were read for literary history and for terms of rhetoric and grammar. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site. Quoted lines are from works in the public domain in the United States.
How it works
This ELA CST practice test has 54 questions of our own on the eight selected-response competencies of New York's English Language Arts (003) framework. It is unofficial and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the New York State Education Department or Pearson.
Read the full guide
What the real test asks
The framework of September 2014 plans 90 selected-response items: 15 each on reading literature and reading informational text, and 10 each on arguments, explanatory writing, narratives, research, speaking and listening, and language. They are designed for up to 135 minutes and carry 80% of the score.
Timing here
Exam mode asks all 54 questions in 81 minutes, the pace of 90 in 135.
A practice test for CST ELA reading
The reading questions quote public domain texts inside the question: Dickinson, Frost, Shakespeare, Poe, Austen, Lincoln, Douglass and Thoreau among them. Each answer names the edition or page it was checked against.
Read the quoted lines before the choices. Most reading questions turn on one word or phrase in the excerpt.
Questions and answers
What is on the CST ELA practice test?
The same eight competencies as the real test, at 60% of the framework's count: nine questions on each of the two reading competencies and six on each of the other six.
What score do you need to pass the ELA CST?
The test's own page gives 520. That is a scaled score, not a number of right answers, so you see how many you got right here and no pass verdict.
Does the ELA CST have an essay?
Yes. The real test has one constructed-response item on pedagogical content knowledge, designed for up to 60 minutes and worth 20% of the score. This page has selected-response questions only and does not mark writing.
Are these real NYSTCE English Language Arts questions?
No. Every question is our own, written to New York's Test Design and Framework of September 2014. None is copied or reworded from the real test or from the sample questions in its preparation materials.