REGENTS FAQ

• The exam consists of five sections, or parts, labeled Part A, Part B-1, Part B-2, Part C, and Part D. Each section has the following number of questions:

  • Part A consists of 30 multiple choice questions.

  • Part B-1 consists of 13 multiple choice questions.

  • Part B-2 consists of 12 multiple choice and open response questions.

  • Part C consists of 17 open response questions.

  • Part D consists of 13 multiple choice and open response questions.

TOTAL OF 85 Questions

Students in grades 8 through 12 are eligible to take the Living Environment Regents exam as long as they have attained the minimum number of required laboratory hours and are approved by a school administrator.

In order to pass the Living Environment Regents Exam, you need to achieve a score of 65. To pass with distinction, you need a score of 85.

But those scores don’t indicate that you’ve answered 65% of the exam questions correctly, and they also aren’t raw scores. Rather, that passing score of 65 is a scaled score: it indicates that you’ve successfully achieved the set learning standards determined by the New York State Education Department. Generally speaking, you’ll end up receiving more points for answering harder questions correctly...hence the scaled scoring. (Also: there’s no penalty for guessing. So don’t leave any answers blank!)

Students taking the Living Environment Regents Exam are allotted three hours to complete the entire exam--that’s three hours from the time that the test proctor begins the exam.

But, unlike many other standardized tests, each section of the Living Environment Regents Exam isn’t timed individually. That could make it difficult to know how to pace yourself as you take the exam!

If you want to finish all 85 exam questions and have time to check your work before time is up, you’ll want to spend no more than two minutes on each exam question. That will leave you with a ten minutes to review and/or tackle questions you skipped along the way.