8th Grade ELA Test Preparation and Practice Materials

ELA Preparation Materials from New York City and State Government Sources

Shortly before the test, you and your child can get ELA information from the New York City Department of Education and practice tests from the New York State Education Department. There's information from these sources about what to expect on the ELA, how the test is scored and how the test results are used and reported. You can also download the New York State Learning Standards, which is what the ELA is based on.

Sample problems can help your child get used to the formatting and the types of questions that will be on the 8th grade ELA test, so he or she won't have any surprises on test day. You can download released ELA exams from 2006-2010. The most recent sample test includes three test books, a listening selection, teacher's directions, a scoring guide and an answer document.

Testing Information from EDinformatics

EDinformatics is a solid resource for information about standardized tests from a variety of states. You can also find links to various sample standardized tests. The ELA is available here, but it's not the only test that may be useful to your child. For example, the Illinois Standards Achievement Test and the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills both have similar multiple-choice English/language arts sections that can help your child prepare for the ELA.

8th Grade ELA Practice from Student Handouts

For games and vocabulary practice for the 8th grade ELA, explore the resources offered on Student Handouts. There are a total of five interactive, hangman-style vocabulary games based on the 8th grade ELA test. There are also 25 vocabulary lists, which include 15 words each for a total of 375 vocabulary words that your child can practice.

The vocabulary words are printable as handouts. These handouts require that your child write each word three times, provide a definition and write a sentence that includes each term. There are also vocabulary word search puzzles and answer keys.