How to use this list
This is the whole territory. Nothing on the science test falls outside it. Seeing all of it at once can feel like a lot, so here is the first thing to know: you already know some of this. Part of the job is finding out which part.
The numbers match the quizzes. Topic 14 goes with Quiz 14. When you finish a quiz, you know exactly which line on this list it was testing.
Use the boxes twice. Go down the list once now and check nothing — just notice which lines look familiar and which look brand new. That tells you where to start. Then check a box only after you have taken that quiz and scored 8 out of 10 or better. A box means tested and solid, not I think I remember that.
Let the quiz decide, not the feeling. A topic you feel shaky about but score well on is done. A topic you feel fine about but score 5 on is the one that would have cost you points on test day. That gap is the most useful thing this list can show you.
What the test looks like. Ninety minutes, about 34 questions. Roughly 40 percent life science, 40 percent physical science, 20 percent earth and space. Almost every question comes attached to something you have to read — a short passage, a table, a graph, or a diagram. An on-screen calculator is available. There is no essay on the science test.
Your checkmarks are saved on this device only. If you print the page, the boxes come out empty and pencil-ready.
Science Practices
I. The Scientist's Toolkit
How science works, and how test questions are built. These seven run through everything after them.
- 1.Reading science — passages, and what the question is actually asking
- 2.The scientific method — question, hypothesis, variables and controls, test, data, conclusion, and whether anyone else can get the same result
- 3.Tables and graphs — line, bar, circle, scatterplot; reading trends and reading between the points
- 4.Diagrams and models — cycles, flowcharts, cross-sections, keys and legends
- 5.Reasoning from data — drawing conclusions, judging claims, and the difference between two things happening together and one causing the other
- 6.Numbers in science — units, measurement, scientific notation, using a formula
- 7.Statistics and probability — mean, median, mode, range, and simple chance
Life Science
II. The Cell and the Organism
The smallest living unit, and the work it does all day.
- 8.What is life? — traits of living things; cell to tissue to organ to system
- 9.The cell — cell theory, the two main kinds of cell, and the parts inside
- 10.The membrane — diffusion, osmosis, and moving things in against the flow
- 11.Photosynthesis — sunlight into sugar
- 12.Cellular respiration — sugar into usable energy, with oxygen and without
- 13.Cell division — mitosis and meiosis, and why the difference matters
III. The Human Body and Health
Your own systems, and how the body holds itself steady. One of the test's two running themes.
- 14.Digestive and excretory systems — nutrients in, waste out
- 15.Circulatory and respiratory systems — how oxygen gets from the air to a muscle
- 16.Nervous and endocrine systems — fast signals and slow signals
- 17.Bones, muscles, and skin — structure, movement, protection
- 18.Immune system and disease — germs, how they spread, vaccines; catching versus developing an illness
- 19.Homeostasis — feedback loops that hold temperature and blood sugar steady
- 20.Nutrition and health — what food is made of, calories as energy, reading health data
IV. Heredity
How traits pass from parents to children.
- 21.DNA and genes — the molecule, the code, the chromosomes
- 22.Punnett squares — dominant and recessive, and predicting offspring
- 23.Beyond the simple cross — family pedigrees, sex-linked traits, mutations
- 24.Applied genetics — selective breeding, modified crops, biotechnology in the news
V. Evolution
How living things change over long stretches of time.
- 25.Natural selection — variation, pressure, adaptation
- 26.Evidence and consequence — fossils, body comparisons, DNA, common ancestors, new species
VI. Ecosystems
Who eats whom, and what happens when the pattern breaks.
- 27.Energy flow — producers, consumers, decomposers; food webs and the energy pyramid
- 28.Populations — what limits growth, and predator-and-prey graphs
- 29.Living together — partnerships, competition, and the job each species does
- 30.Disruption — invasive species, lost habitat, biodiversity, human impact
Physical Science
VII. Chemistry
What matter is made of, and what happens when it changes.
- 31.Atoms and elements — protons, neutrons, electrons; the periodic table as a map
- 32.Compounds, mixtures, and solutions — what dissolves in what, and how much
- 33.States of matter — solid, liquid, gas, the changes between them, and density
- 34.Physical and chemical change — how to tell which one you are looking at
- 35.Chemical reactions — what goes in and what comes out; nothing is lost; balancing an equation
- 36.Reaction conditions — what speeds a reaction up, and reactions that take in or give off heat
- 37.Acids, bases, and pH — the scale and what it measures
VIII. Physics
Motion, force, energy, heat, waves, and electricity. The test's other running theme lives here.
- 38.Motion — speed, velocity, acceleration, and distance-time graphs
- 39.Forces — Newton's three laws, friction, and gravity
- 40.Work and momentum — force applied over a distance; what happens in a collision
- 41.Simple machines — levers, pulleys, ramps, and the trade you make to gain force
- 42.Energy — stored and moving; energy changes form but is not created or destroyed
- 43.Heat — heat is not the same as temperature; conduction, convection, radiation
- 44.Waves — wavelength, frequency, amplitude; sound; light and the spectrum
- 45.Electricity and magnetism — circuits, current, voltage, resistance; motors and generators
- 46.Where energy comes from — fossil, renewable, nuclear, and the trade-offs of each
Earth and Space Science
IX. Earth and Space
The ground under you, the air above it, and everything past that.
- 47.Earth's structure — the layers, moving plates, earthquakes, volcanoes
- 48.Rocks and surface change — the rock cycle, weathering, erosion, fossils, and deep time
- 49.Atmosphere and weather — layers of air, fronts, storms
- 50.Climate — how climate differs from weather; ocean currents; the greenhouse effect and warming
- 51.Cycles of matter — water, carbon, nitrogen
- 52.Resources and hazards — how resources form, what it costs to get them, and how to reduce damage
- 53.Sun, Earth, and Moon — seasons, phases, eclipses, tides
- 54.The solar system — the planets, gravity, orbits
- 55.Stars and the universe — how stars live and die, galaxies, light-years, the Big Bang
One more thing
Fifty-five is a number, not a wall. Most students find that a third of the list is already familiar from work, from raising children, from fixing things, from paying attention. Science is not a separate world. It is the ordinary world, described carefully.
Take them in any order you like. The seven in Part I are the exception: they pay for themselves everywhere else, so start there if you are not sure where to start.