What is on the
grade 4 New York State Test?

Grade 4 keeps the same four-sitting week your child met last year, and the same order: two English sittings, then two math. The visible change is in the second English sitting, which now ends with a longer written response built on two texts.

Credits are not the same as questions, and grade 4 is where the gap opens. Nine written answers in the second mathematics session are worth far more than nine multiple-choice questions would have been. A nine-year-old now faces three kinds of written reading answer value: two-point short replies and, for the first time, one four-point extended response. Math written answers still run from one to three points.

The jump from third to fourth grade

The jump from grade 3 is not in the reading. It is in how much of the score comes from writing something down rather than choosing an option.

What fourth-grade math and reading cover

Mathematics adds multi-digit arithmetic, fraction equivalence and unit conversion. ELA introduces a paired-text question, where two passages have to be read against each other.

The nine math answers that need working

Nine of the mathematics questions are written answers. A child who can get the right number but not show the working will lose credit on them.

The poem, and the article beside it

The 2024 grade 4 test included a poem called “The Ants”, and it did not stand alone: it sat next to an informational article about anthills. One question asked how the poem’s structure helps the reader, and the written answer asked how the poet and the author described the same insects differently. Our grade 4 practice tests are built the same way, with an original poem paired with an article your child has already read.

No stopwatch in grade 4 either

The state tests are untimed. A grade 4 child who wants to redo the working on a long-division question may take as long as it needs. Every student sits them on a computer from spring 2026, which means typing a mathematics explanation rather than writing it.