• 45 questions

VA Earth Science SOL Practice Test

Earth Science questions split like Virginia's end-of-course blueprint, with the standard and the reason under every answer.

What are the four outer planets of the solar system mostly made of?

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

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Exam mode: 45 questions, no time limit.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Virginia Department of Education. Bank checked October 12, 2026.

The real test: SOL Earth Science, end of course

Questions
45
Items
45 that count plus 10 field-test items, 55 in all.
Largest category
Earth Materials and Processes: 13 items.
Other categories
Earth and Space Systems 12 items; Cosmology, Origins, and Time 10; Earth Resources and Human Interactions 10.
Course tested
Earth Science, 2018 standards ES.2 to ES.12. Each form samples them; all are tested within three years.
Calculator
Every online item has the Desmos Virginia Graphing calculator on the toolbar.
Scores
A scale of 0 to 600: 400 is the minimum for proficient and 500 is advanced.

Checked October 12, 2026 against the Test Blueprint, End-of-Course Earth Science, 2018 Science Standards of Learning, and the SOL Test Scoring & Performance Reports page, Virginia Department of Education. Rules change, so confirm with the agency itself before your test.

The state's own SOL practice items

Next step Review: SOL science, grade 8Another course test: biology

All 45 questions

Earth and Space Systems 12

  • How are tornadoes and hurricanes alike? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.12 c
  • How do the oceans affect the climate of places near a coast? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.10 c
  • The moon's gravity pulls ocean water toward it and makes a bulge on the near side of Earth. What makes the matching bulge on the far side? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.3 b
  • What are the four outer planets of the solar system mostly made of? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.2 c
  • What blocks the sunlight during a lunar eclipse? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.3 b
Show all 45 questions (40 more)

Earth and Space Systems, continued

  • What controls how much of the sun's energy reaches a given point on Earth's surface? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.12 a
  • What does Earth's magnetic field do for living things on the surface? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.3 a
  • What does upwelling bring to the surface of the ocean? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.10 a
  • Where does a river on a broad floodplain erode its bank at a bend? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.8 d
  • Which objects consist mostly of frozen gases and travel around the sun in highly elliptical orbits? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.2 c
  • Why do the Northern and Southern Hemispheres have opposite seasons? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.3 b
  • Winds are deflected as they move across Earth because the planet rotates. What is this called? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.12 b

Earth Materials and Processes 13

  • At which kind of plate boundary do two plates slide past each other horizontally? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.7 c
  • Groundwater slowly dissolves limestone and dolomite and leaves caves, sinkholes and underground drainage. What is this kind of landscape called? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.8 a
  • How do chemical sedimentary rocks form? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.5 a, b, c
  • What does the permeability of a rock or sediment describe? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.8 a, b
  • What mainly determines the size of the mineral crystals that form as molten material cools? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.4 c
  • Where do deep ocean trenches form? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.7 c
  • Which four elements are the major elements found in Earth's crust? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.4 a
  • Which igneous rocks have the larger crystals and a coarser texture? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.5 a, b, c
  • Which layer of Earth is liquid and mostly iron? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.7 a
  • Which process breaks rocks down chemically and physically by the action of water, air and organisms? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.5 d
  • Which province of Virginia has the oldest rocks in the state, igneous and metamorphic rocks about a billion years old? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.7 d
  • Which statement is true of every mineral? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.4 a
  • Which two features of the seafloor are related to plate tectonic processes? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.10 d

Cosmology, Origins, and Time 10

  • About how old is the universe, according to the big bang theory? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.2 a
  • Most of the fossils found in Virginia are of marine organisms. What does this suggest? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.9 d
  • What controls a star's evolution, how long it lasts and how it ends? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.2 b
  • What first added oxygen to Earth's early atmosphere? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.11 b
  • What have manufactured chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) done to the atmosphere? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.11 c
  • What makes a species useful as an index fossil? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.9 b
  • Which gas makes up about 78 percent of dry air? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.11 a
  • Which method gives a numerical age for a rock by measuring the products of radioactive decay? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.9 c
  • Which observation is evidence for the big bang theory? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.2 a
  • Which two properties of stars does the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram relate? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.2 b

Earth Resources and Human Interactions 10

  • How do weather and climate differ? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.12 e
  • The oceans are absorbing more carbon dioxide as its level in the atmosphere rises. What does this lead to? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.10 b
  • Potash and apatite are valuable for making which product? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.4 b
  • What is an estuary, such as the Chesapeake Bay? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.10 e
  • Which is a drawback of fossil fuels as an energy source? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.6 d
  • Which mineral is soft and slippery to the touch, so it is used as a dry lubricant and in pencils? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.4 b
  • Which of these is a way that people change the quality, availability and distribution of Earth's water? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.8 c
  • Which of these lists names only renewable resources? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.6 a
  • Which Virginia resource is used for making concrete? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.6 c
  • Why do technologies that harness renewable energy still call for a long-term study of costs and benefits? Virginia Department of Education, Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning, "Understanding the Standard", SOL ES.6 b

How this list was compiled: Outline: Test Blueprint, End-of-Course Earth Science, 2018 Science Standards of Learning (Virginia Department of Education; effective with the spring 2026 tests, updated July 2026), https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/64404/639196243480070000, linked from Test Blueprints, https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/student-assessment/virginia-sol-assessment-program/test-blueprints, read 2026-10-12. Each fact in a question and its answer is one that the department's own guide states under "Understanding the Standard": the Instructional Guide to Support the 2018 Earth Science Standards of Learning (2026), https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/77112/639209217486670000, linked from Science Standards of Learning, https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/k-12-standards-instruction/science/standards-of-learning, read 2026-10-12. The standard is named under each answer. No practice item and no released test of the state was read. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site. Nothing is copied or reworded from an SOL test, a released test, a practice item set of the state or another practice test.

How it works

Unofficial practice for the end-of-course (EOC) Earth Science SOL, Virginia's Standards of Learning test for the Earth Science course. The questions are our own; none is a released or state practice item. Not affiliated with the Virginia Department of Education.

Read the full guide

What the Virginia SOL Earth Science test covers

The blueprint counts 45 scored items in four reporting categories, and this page keeps the split. Earth Materials and Processes has 13: minerals, the rock cycle, plate tectonics, groundwater and karst. Earth and Space Systems has 12: the solar system, seasons, tides, rivers, ocean circulation and weather. Cosmology, Origins, and Time has 10: the big bang, stars, fossils, dating rocks and the early atmosphere. Earth Resources and Human Interactions has 10: mineral uses, energy sources, freshwater, the Chesapeake Bay and climate.

Where each answer comes from

Every fact is one the Virginia Department of Education states in its instructional guide to the 2018 Earth Science standards. The standard, such as ES.7 c, is named under each answer.

  • Several questions are about Virginia itself: the Blue Ridge, karst in the Valley and Ridge, the state's fossils and the Chesapeake Bay.

Questions and answers

How many questions are on the Virginia Earth Science SOL test?

The blueprint lists 45 operational items, the ones that are scored, and 10 field-test items that are not: 55 on the test. The 45 questions here match the scored count.

What is a passing score on the Earth Science SOL?

SOL tests are scored from 0 to 600. A 400 is the minimum for proficient and a 500 is advanced; end-of-course results read Pass/Advanced, Pass/Proficient or Fail/Does Not Meet. A percent on this page is not a scaled score.

Are there VA EOC Earth Science practice SOL tests from the state?

Yes. The Virginia Department of Education posts its own practice item sets for each course that has an SOL test, Earth Science among them. This page is separate, unofficial practice, and none of its questions comes from those sets.

Can you use a calculator on the Earth Science SOL?

Yes. The blueprint says every item of the online test has the Desmos Virginia Graphing calculator on its toolbar.

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