Regents Practice Questions

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - July 13th, 2013

Helping your child succeed on an upcoming Regents’ test is a very common concern among parents of graduating seniors. Here, we’ll review a bit about the Regents’ tests themselves as well as the best ways to help your child perform to the best of their abilities. 

What is a Regents Test? 

In the state of New York, the traditional high school diploma is replaced by what is known as a Regents’ Diploma. There are three levels; Standard, Advanced Designation and Honors (Honors can be added to either a Standard or Advanced Designation diploma).

In order to obtain a standard Regents’ Diploma, students must complete five specified tests in core subject fields, scoring above sixty-five percent on each one. Obtaining an Advanced Designation Regents’ Diploma is a bit more difficult; students must pass eight tests with a score of sixty-five or higher. In order to have Honors added to their diploma, a student must pass all their examinations with scores of ninety percent or higher. 

Regents tests are administered in English, math, history and science, as these are considered to be core subjects.

There are two main exceptions to the Regents’ Diploma in New York. Some exclusive private schools, typically those with feel that their standards are even higher than those of the Regents’ requirements, award traditional diplomas. In addition, special education students may take a Regents Competency Test if their scores on traditional Regents’ tests are below the required levels.

Helping Your Child Succeed

Helping an high school student with test prep is more challenging than helping a younger child. However, there are still many ways you can help your child with Regents’ practice questions and other forms of test prep.

Regents practice questions can be found both online for free and packaged in ready-made study guides. While most high school students prefer to study alone, you can still help by quizzing them on Regents practice questions at regular intervals. Simply reminding them to take breaks can also be enormously helpful, since many students feel a great deal of pressure to study long hours. While this seems like a good idea, it can quickly lead to burnout, fatigue and inaccurately low testing scores. For more ideas on Regents practice questions and other ways to help your child succeed, visit http://www.regentsprep.org/.