6th Grade Assessments and Proficiency Tests

Helping Your 6th Grader with Assessments

Although your child will probably be receiving lots of exam preparation at school, it's still important to practice at home. Some schools test students on science, social studies and writing at the 6th grade level, and nearly all schools test students on math and reading.

Standardized Proficiency Exams

If you'd like to create some resources to help your student practice for an upcoming assessment, you'll need to know what the test will cover. Although the content of standardized tests varies from state to state, it is often based on the Common Core State Standards, which you can find online. Your state's department of education should also post 6th grade learning standards online. Additionally, most states have downloadable practice tests on their websites, which you can use as a model to develop your own practice test questions, or administer as is.

Math Exams

Typically, 6th grade math covers a variety of pre-algebra concepts, as well as probability, ratios and geometry. Math assessments are usually multiple choice, but your child should be prepared to answer a few short response questions as well. To help your child prepare, you can use online practice tests or request some test questions from your child's math teacher. You can also make your own practice test using your child's old tests, quizzes and worksheets, as well as problems from her textbook.

Reading Exams

Most 6th grade reading proficiency tests consist of reading passages followed by a series of multiple-choice questions. You can find practice reading passages with questions online, but you can also reuse passages from your child's reading assignments and create multiple-choice questions about them. Students in 6th grade study plot, characterization, theme and text structure, so these are good topics for questions.

Writing Assessments

Writing assessments can be a bit trickier to prepare your child for, since most states offer only limited practice test resources. Writing tests for 6th grade typically involve an open-ended 'prompt' (writing topic or question), which students are asked to respond to. You can visit several different state education department websites to get a variety of writing prompts for your child to practice with, and you can also write your own prompts based on these examples.