Grade 8 science weighted as Ohio's blueprint weighs it: Earth science first, then physical and life science.
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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Bank checked October 10, 2026.
The real test: Ohio's State Test in science, grade 8
Time limit
150 minutes
Parts
Part 1 and Part 2, 75 minutes each, in the spring testing window.
Points
54 to 56 on a form. The blueprint counts points, not questions.
Reporting categories
Earth Science 21 to 23 points (38 to 43%), Physical Science 16 to 18 (29 to 33%), Life Science 16 to 18 (29 to 33%).
Kinds of thinking
Recalling accurate science 25 to 40%, interpreting and communicating science concepts 30 to 50%, demonstrating science knowledge 10 to 25%, designing technologi
Content
Nine grade 8 content statements of Ohio's Learning Standards for Science: four in Earth science, two in physical science and three in life science.
A boulder in a farm field is made of rock unlike the bedrock under it. The nearest matching bedrock is far to the north. What most likely carried the boulder?U.S. Geological Survey, Glossary of Glacier Terminology, "Erratic"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.3
A flood erodes a riverbank and carries the soil away. Which two Earth systems are interacting?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.3
A ridge of unsorted rock and sediment was left where the edge of a glacier once stood. What is this landform called?U.S. Geological Survey, Glossary of Glacier Terminology, "Moraine"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.3
A winding ridge of sand and gravel was laid down by a stream that flowed under a glacier. What is it?U.S. Geological Survey, Glossary of Glacier Terminology, "Esker"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.3
As Earth formed, heavier elements gathered at its center and lighter elements stayed nearer the surface. What is this process called?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.1
Show all 50 questions (45 more)
Earth Science, continued
At the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, two plates pull away from each other and new crust forms between them. Which type of plate boundary is this?U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth, "Understanding plate motions"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.2
Earth is divided into three chemical layers. Which list names them in order from the surface to the center?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.1
Fossils of sea animals are found in a rock layer on a hilltop far from any ocean. What does this suggest about the area?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.4
Fossils of the same land animal are found on two continents that an ocean now separates. Which kind of evidence for plate tectonics is this?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.2
The Hawaiian Islands are volcanic, yet they formed far from any plate boundary. Which feature explains them?U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth, "Hotspots"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.2
The Mariana Trench marks a boundary where one plate dives under another. What happens to crust at this kind of boundary?U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth, "Understanding plate motions"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.2
Ohio's standards name three earlier ideas that led to the theory of plate tectonics. Which one is credited to Wegener?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.2
One idea says the processes seen on Earth today are similar to those that worked in the past. What is this idea called?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.4
The San Andreas Fault lies where the Pacific Plate grinds horizontally past the North American Plate. Which type of plate boundary is it?U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth, "Understanding plate motions"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.2
Scientists drill long cores out of ice sheets. What do the cores help document?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.4
Thermal energy from Earth's core drives convection currents that move the plates above them. In which layer do these currents flow?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.1
Three undisturbed sedimentary layers are stacked: shale at the bottom, sandstone in the middle and limestone on top. Which layer formed most recently?U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time, "Rocks and Layers"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.4
Which method gives the absolute age of a rock?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.4
Which of these is a main source of heat in Earth's interior?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.1
Why are index fossils useful for working out the age of a rock layer?U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time, "Fossil Succession"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.ESS.4
Physical Science 15
A force diagram of a box shows 12 newtons up, 12 newtons down, 8 newtons to the right and 3 newtons to the left. What is the net force on the box?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.2
A force on a satellite always points toward the center of Earth. Into what path can this force curve the satellite?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.2
A hockey puck slides across the ice while all the forces on it are balanced. What does the puck do?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.2
A rider on a moving bus holds a pencil still in her hand. Why does a person on the sidewalk see the pencil as moving?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.2
A student builds an electromagnet and then switches off the electric current. What happens to the electromagnet?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
A swimmer glides through the water after pushing off the wall of a pool. Which force from the water opposes her motion?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.2
Between which pair of objects is the gravitational force easiest to detect?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
In a force diagram, what does the length of an arrow represent?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.2
Iron filings are sprinkled on a sheet of paper that lies over a bar magnet. What does the pattern they form show?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
Two bar magnets attract when held one way and repel when one of them is turned around. What decides which happens?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
Two objects are moved farther apart. What happens to the gravitational force between them?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
Two students push a cart to the right with forces of 30 newtons and 20 newtons. Friction pushes to the left with 10 newtons. What is the net force on the cart?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.2
What decides whether two charged objects attract or repel each other?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
What does the field model explain?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
What is weight?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.PS.1
Life Science 15
A living species looks very different from its distant ancestors in the fossil record. What best explains the difference?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.1
A new plant grows from one parent plant, and all of its genes come from that single parent. Which kind of reproduction is this?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.2
An offspring is produced by sexual reproduction. How much of its nuclear genetic information came from its mother?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.2
The environment of a species changes. Which statement describes a species that then goes extinct?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.1
How does the genetic information in a skin cell compare with that in a muscle cell of the same organism?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.2
In some traits, such as roan color in horses and cows, both inherited versions of the trait are expressed in the offspring. What is this pattern called?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.3
Some fossils show organisms that are intermediate between an ancestral form and its descendants. What are these organisms called?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.1
Suppose a gene has a dominant allele T and a recessive allele t. Which plant shows the recessive trait?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms, "Recessive Traits and Alleles"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.3
Suppose purple flowers (P) are dominant over white flowers (p) in a plant. A PP plant is crossed with a pp plant. What color are the flowers of the offspring?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms, "Dominant"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.3
Suppose round seeds (R) are dominant over wrinkled seeds (r). An Rr plant is crossed with an rr plant. What fraction of the offspring are expected to have wrinkled seeds?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms, "Recessive Traits and Alleles"; Ohio's Learning Standards for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.3
What does sexual reproduction give offspring that asexual reproduction does not?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.2
Where are the instructions that determine an organism's traits encoded?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.3
Which of Mendel's laws is known as his first law?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.3
Which two specialized cells merge in sexual reproduction?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.2
Why does diversity within a species make the species more likely to last through a change in its environment?Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (2018), grade 8 content statement 8.LS.1
How this list was compiled: Outline: Grade 8 Science Test Blueprint (updated 6/30/2020), https://oh-ost.portal.cambiumast.com/content/contentresources/en/Ohio_Sci_G8_Blueprint.pdf, listed under Science Test Blueprints on the Ohio's State Tests portal of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, https://oh-ost.portal.cambiumast.com/resources/general-resources/blueprints, read 2026-10-10. Each question names the grade 8 content statement it practices in Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science (adopted 2018), linked from https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Science/Ohios-Learning-Standards-and-MC, read 2026-10-10. The fact in an answer is one that the content statement or its content elaboration gives, or is worked out from the numbers in the question. Where a question also names a page of the U.S. Geological Survey or the National Human Genome Research Institute, the fact was read on that page the same day. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site. Nothing is copied or reworded from an Ohio's State Test, a released item, a practice or sample item of the state or another practice test.
How it works
An unofficial 8th grade Ohio science practice test: 50 questions in the three reporting categories of the state's blueprint. All were written for this site; none is a state item. Not affiliated with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
Read the full guide
What the 8th grade Ohio science test covers
Earth science carries the most weight, 38 to 43 percent: Earth's interior and seismic waves, plate tectonics, the processes that shape the surface, and the geologic record. Physical science is 29 to 33 percent: gravitational, electric and magnetic fields, and how forces change motion. Life science is 29 to 33 percent: evolution and extinction in the fossil record, sexual and asexual reproduction, and inherited traits.
Where to check an answer
Each answer names its content statement, such as 8.ESS.2, in Ohio's Learning Standards for Science. Where a fact goes past the statement's own text, the question names the U.S. Geological Survey or National Human Genome Research Institute page it was read on.
Questions and answers
Is this the Ohio 8th grade state science practice test?
No. The state's own practice tests are on its portal for Ohio's State Tests, and the button under the questions opens it. The 50 questions here are separate, unofficial practice.
How long is the 8th grade science Ohio State Test?
150 minutes. The state's testing times give Part 1 and Part 2 as 75 minutes each, in the spring.
How many questions are on the Ohio 8th grade science test?
The blueprint counts points, not questions: 54 to 56 on a form. So this page does not guess a question count. It has 50 questions of its own.
Which grades take a science test in Ohio?
The state's testing times list a science test in grade 5 and in grade 8, and Biology as an end-of-course test. The grade 8 blueprint lists grade 8 content statements only.