A box on a smooth floor is pushed to the right with 20 newtons and to the left with 12 newtons. What happens to the box?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.2, core idea PS2.A
A guitar string vibrates 220 times each second. After tuning, it vibrates 440 times each second. How does the sound change?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS4.1; National Park Service, Understanding Sound
A large truck and a small car collide head-on. How do the forces they exert on each other compare during the collision?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.1, core idea PS2.A
A song is sent over a long distance as an analog signal and as a digital signal. Why is the digital signal the more reliable of the two?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS4.3
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Physical Sciences, continued
A speaker is turned up so that its sound waves have a greater amplitude and the same frequency. What does a listener notice?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS4.1; National Park Service, Understanding Sound
A student builds an electromagnet and keeps the battery the same. With 20 turns of wire it lifts 4 paper clips, with 40 turns it lifts 8, and with 60 turns it lifts 12. What do the data show?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.3, core idea PS2.B
A student counts how many paper clips one magnet lifts when held 1, 2 and 3 centimeters above a pile. Which question is the student investigating?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.3, core idea PS2.B
A student moves a small compass to many spots around a bar magnet and draws the direction of the needle at each spot. What is the student doing?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.5, core idea PS2.B
A student plans a test of how the size of a push affects the change in a cart's motion. What should stay the same in every trial?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.2
A student standing on a skateboard throws a heavy ball forward with a force of 30 newtons. What force does the ball exert on the student during the throw?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.1, core idea PS2.A
Four objects are the same distance from a spacecraft. Their masses are 1, 15, 95 and 318 units. Which object pulls on the spacecraft with the greatest gravitational force?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.4
The same push is given to an empty wagon and to an identical wagon loaded with bricks. Which wagon's motion changes more?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.2, core idea PS2.A
Two magnets push apart when held one way. When one magnet is turned around, they pull together. What does this show?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.3, core idea PS2.B
Two strips of tape are given the same electric charge and held near each other without touching. The strips swing apart. What is this evidence of?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.5, core idea PS2.B
Two water waves have the same wavelength and frequency. Wave A has a greater amplitude than wave B. Which wave carries more energy?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS4.1, core idea PS4.A
What is always true of the gravitational force between two objects?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.PS2.4, core idea PS2.B
Life Sciences 19
A cliff shows rock layers that have not been disturbed. How do fossils in the bottom layer compare in age with fossils in the top layer?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.1; National Park Service, Geologic Principles: Superposition and Original Horizontality
A flower makes sweet nectar and a strong scent. How do these features help the plant reproduce?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS1.4, core idea LS1.B
A fossil skeleton is much like the skeleton of an animal living today, with a few clear differences. What can scientists infer?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.2, core idea LS4.A
A mutation changes a gene, but the protein the gene controls still works as before. What kind of effect does this mutation have on the organism?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS3.1, core idea LS3.A
A population of 200 mice has 50 with thick fur. After several cold winters the population is still 200, and 150 have thick fur. How did the share of mice with thick fur change?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.6, core idea LS4.C
A single-celled organism divides into two cells, and each cell is a new organism. No second parent takes part. How does the genetic information of each new organism compare with the parent's?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS3.2, core idea LS1.B
After a drought, the only seeds left for a bird population are large and hard. Only birds with larger beaks can crack them. What is most likely?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.4, core idea LS4.B
For many generations, a farmer breeds only the cows that give the most milk. What is this practice, and what does it do to the herd?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.5, core idea LS4.B
Fossils of one shelled animal are found in the five lowest rock layers of a cliff and in none of the layers above them. What does this pattern suggest?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.1, core idea LS4.A
How does a gene affect the traits of an organism?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS3.1, core idea LS3.A
In a dry year, the corn in a field grows shorter than the same variety grew in that field in a wet year. What kind of factor best explains the difference?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS1.5, core idea LS1.B
In a snowy habitat, predators see brown hares more easily than white hares. Which hares have the better chance of surviving and reproducing there?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.4, core idea LS4.B
In one bird species, males with brighter feathers attract more mates. How does this trait affect those males?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS1.4, core idea LS1.B
In one plant species the allele T (tall) is dominant and t (short) is recessive. Both parents are Tt. In a Punnett square for the cross, what share of the boxes is tt, a short plant?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS3.2
In sexual reproduction, what share of an offspring's genes comes from each parent?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS3.2, core idea LS3.B
On dark soil, birds eat the beetles they can see. Counts show that 30% of the beetles have dark shells in year 1, 55% in year 5 and 80% in year 10. What best explains the trend?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.6, core idea LS4.C
Pictures show that the early embryos of two species look much alike, although the adults look very different. What does the similarity suggest?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.3, core idea LS4.A
Two living animals have front limbs with the same arrangement of bones, although one uses its limbs to swim and the other to climb. What does the shared arrangement suggest?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS4.2, core idea LS4.A
Two varieties of one crop get the same water, light and soil, yet one variety grows taller. What best explains the difference?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.LS1.5, core idea LS1.B
Earth and Space Sciences 10
A data table lists the diameters of four solar system objects: A is 5,000 kilometers, B is 12,000, C is 144,000 and D is 2,400. About how many times as wide as object B is object C?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.3
A scale model of the solar system uses 1 centimeter for every 10 million kilometers. An object orbits 780 million kilometers from the Sun. How far from the model Sun does it go?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.3
Earth's shadow can fall on the Moon only when Earth is between the Sun and the Moon. In which phase is the Moon at that time?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.1; NASA Science, Eclipses and the Moon
Earth's solar system belongs to which larger system?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.2, core idea ESS1.A
In the model the standards describe, what did the solar system form from?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.2, core idea ESS1.B
The Moon goes around Earth about once a month. Why is there not an eclipse every month?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.1; NASA Science, Eclipses and the Moon
What holds the planets in orbit around the Sun?Oklahoma State Department of Education, Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.2, core idea ESS1.B
Which arrangement of the Sun, the Moon and Earth produces a solar eclipse?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.1; NASA Science, Types of Solar Eclipses
Which feature of Earth explains why summer and winter happen?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.1; NASA Space Place, What Causes the Seasons?
Why does the Moon show phases over a month?Oklahoma Grade 8 Science Test and Item Specifications 2025-26, standard 8.ESS1.1; NASA Science, Moon Phases
Unofficial practice for the grade 8 science test of the Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP). Every question was written for this site from the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science; none is a real test item. Not affiliated with the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Read the full guide
What the Oklahoma 8th grade science test covers
The state blueprint has three reporting categories, and this page keeps their shares. Life Sciences is the largest: reproduction, growth, genes and mutations, fossils, and how traits change in a population over time. Physical Sciences covers forces, collisions, gravity, electric and magnetic fields, and waves. Earth and Space Sciences covers Moon phases, eclipses, seasons, gravity in the solar system and the scale of its objects.
How the answers are checked
Under each answer is its standard, such as 8.PS2.2. The fact behind it is in the core idea or clarification the state prints with that standard in its item specifications. Eight answers also name a NASA or National Park Service page.
The real test asks three questions about one shared graph, table or model. Read the data before the question.
Questions and answers
Is this practice for the Oklahoma 8th grade science state test?
Yes. The state test is the Grade 8 Science test of the Oklahoma School Testing Program, OSTP, and the questions here follow its blueprint.
How many questions are on the Oklahoma 8th grade science test?
About 45 that count, in 15 clusters of three questions on one shared stimulus, worth about 48 points. A form also carries about 9 field-test questions in 3 clusters, and those do not count.
How long is the OSTP 8th grade science test?
It has two sections. The state estimates 50 to 60 minutes for each and 115 to 135 minutes in all, with login and directions, and suggests a maximum of 270 minutes.
Can you use a calculator on the Oklahoma 8th grade science test?
Yes. Students may use the scientific calculator built into the online test, or a scientific calculator that meets the state's calculator policy. No reference sheets are allowed; needed formulas are given in the questions.
What is a passing score on the Oklahoma 8th grade science test?
The state reports four performance levels: Advanced, Proficient, Basic and Below Basic. The percent on this page is practice and is not one of those levels.