NES Essential Academic Skills Subtests I-III Reading, Writing and Mathematics is a trademark of its owner, which is not affiliated with and does not endorse Test Treasure Publication or TTP Prep.
10 sample questions for the NES Essential Academic Skills Subtests I-III Reading, Writing and Mathematics, with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.
Sections covered on the exam: Reading (Subtest I), Mathematics.
Question 1 · Reading (Subtest I)
Mara's grandfather was a spare man, all elbows and knuckles, who seemed to have been assembled from whatever was left over after the larger men of the valley had been built. He ate little, spoke less, and moved through the orchard with the economy of someone who had long ago stopped wasting motion. Yet when a storm tore through in late August and the pickers stood staring at branches split down to the trunk, it was he who climbed the ladder first, a coil of wire looped over one shoulder, and began binding the broken limbs as calmly as if he were tying a child's shoe. By evening the younger men had followed his lead, and by the next week the bandaged trees looked oddly dignified, like veterans returned from a war. Mara watched him at supper that night, the same silent figure bent over a bowl of soup, and wondered how much strength a person could hide inside so small a container. She decided she would never again mistake quietness for weakness, in him or in anyone.
Answer: C. lean and thin in build
The rest of the sentence, "all elbows and knuckles" and "assembled from whatever was left over," describes the grandfather's lean body, and the passage later calls him "so small a container." He does speak little, but that detail comes in the next sentence; here the word describes his build, not his speech or his free time.
Question 2 · Reading (Subtest I)
The developers who want to bulldoze Miller's Woods have been busy lately. Their glossy brochures promise 'a vibrant mixed-use community' with 'curated retail experiences' and 'green spaces for every lifestyle.' What the brochures do not mention is that the woods already are a green space, one that has sheltered herons, foxes and generations of children building forts along the creek. The plan calls for 240 townhouses, a parking structure and a strip of chain stores, with a pocket park the size of a tennis court offered up as a consolation prize. Supporters point out that the county needs housing, and they are right. But there are vacant lots and empty shopping centers within two miles of the woods that could hold just as many homes without felling a single oak. The planning board will hold its hearing next month. Residents who would rather keep their herons than gain another drive-through should be there.
Answer: C. a pocket park offered up as a consolation prize
Calling the park a "consolation prize" implies that residents are losing something valuable and being handed a token in return, a loaded way to frame the plan. The townhouse figure and the hearing date are neutral facts, and agreeing that the county needs housing is a concession to the plan's supporters.
Question 3 · Reading (Subtest I)
(1) As a parent of two children at Hillcrest Elementary, I urge the city to install a traffic light at the corner of Oak Street and Fifth Avenue. (2) Hundreds of children cross that intersection every school day. (3) The only protection they have now is a painted crosswalk and a single crossing guard who works for one hour each morning. (4) City officials have argued that a traffic light would be too expensive. (5) This argument ignores the true cost of doing nothing. (6) The intersection has had four collisions involving pedestrians in the past two years. (7) A single serious injury would cost the city far more in medical bills and legal claims than a traffic light ever could. (8) I hope the council will act before a tragedy forces its hand.
Answer: D. However,
Sentence 4 presents the officials' cost argument, and Sentence 5 rejects it, so a contrast transition is needed. Sentence 5 is not an example of the officials' view, does not resemble it, and is not caused by it, so the other transitions misstate the relationship.
Question 4 · Reading (Subtest I)
(1) The public library's summer reading program begins on the first Monday in June. (2) Children who read ten books by August will receive a free pass to the city pool. (3) The program is sponsored by several local businesses, including the Harbor Street Bakery. (4) This summer, the childrens' room will host story times on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. (5) Parents can register their children at the front desk or on the library's website. (6) Last summer, more than five hundred young readers took part.
Answer: C. Sentence 4: change "childrens'" to "children's"
"Children" is already plural, so its possessive is formed by adding an apostrophe and s: "children's." "Library's" correctly shows that the program belongs to one library, "their" is the correct possessive pronoun, and "businesses" is a simple plural that needs no apostrophe.
Question 5 · Mathematics
A phone plan charges a fixed monthly fee plus a constant cost per gigabyte (GB) of data. A customer who used 4 GB paid $46, and a customer who used 10 GB paid $73.
Answer: C. $28.00
The cost per GB is the slope: (73 − 46) ÷ (10 − 4) = 27 ÷ 6 = $4.50. The fee is what remains after the data charge: 46 − 4 × 4.50 = 46 − 18. The value $4.50 is the rate, not the fee, and $11.50 divides $46 by 4 GB as if there were no fee. The fixed fee = $28.00.
Question 6 · Reading (Subtest I)
When wolves were returned to a large western park after an absence of many decades, biologists expected changes in the elk herds that had grown large and bold in the wolves' absence. What surprised many observers was how far the effects seemed to spread. With predators once again keeping the elk population in check, the herds became smaller and more watchful, spending less time browsing in open river valleys where they could easily be ambushed. Willows and aspens that had been chewed to stubs for years began to grow tall along some streams. Beavers, which depend on willows for food and building material, returned to areas they had abandoned, and their dams created ponds that sheltered fish, frogs and songbirds. Not every scientist accepts this tidy story. Some argue that drought, hunting outside the park, and the growing number of bears also reduced the elk, and that the plant recovery has been patchier than early reports claimed. Still, the debate itself has changed how many ecologists think about the hidden influence a single species can have on an entire landscape.
Answer: C. a restraint that limits growth
Predators keep the elk population "in check" by holding its size down, and the herds then become smaller. The other choices are real meanings of "check," but an inspection or a bank document makes no sense here, and the wolves limit the herds over time rather than stopping them abruptly.
Question 7 · Reading (Subtest I)
For three generations, the Bayside Pier was where this town went to be happy. Children shrieked on the wooden roller coaster, couples shared paper cones of salt-water taffy, and on summer nights the Ferris wheel turned slow circles of colored light above the water, visible for miles down the coast. Grandparents who rode it on their first dates brought grandchildren to ride it on theirs. Today the Ferris wheel is gone, sold for scrap after an inspection found its supports rusted through. The coaster has been closed for four seasons. Chain-link fence blocks half the boardwalk, and the planks that remain are soft with rot. None of this happened suddenly. The city has owned the pier for twenty years, and in that time it has commissioned three studies, held two public hearings, and spent almost nothing on maintenance. Each budget season, repairs were postponed in favor of projects that council members could cut ribbons on. The pier did not die of old age. It died of neglect, and the officials who neglected it should not be allowed to forget it.
Answer: A. fond nostalgia to pointed criticism
The opening lovingly recalls shrieking children, taffy and first dates, while the ending blames city officials who "should not be allowed to forget" their neglect. The close is accusing rather than resigned or accepting, and the opening is warm rather than neutral or angry.
Question 8 · Reading (Subtest I)
(1) Over the past year, our office has found several ways to cut its paper use. (2) Most forms that once had to be printed and signed can now be completed online. (3) Staff members are also encouraged to print on both sides of each sheet. (4) These small changes have added up. (5) The office now buys about half as much paper as it did a year ago. (6) The money saved will be used to buy new chairs for the break room.
Answer: D. In fact,
Sentence 4 makes a general claim that the changes have added up, and Sentence 5 backs it with a striking specific result, so a transition that adds emphasis is best. "However" signals a contrast that is not present, "otherwise" signals an alternative, and "meanwhile" signals a separate event happening at the same time.
Question 9 · Reading (Subtest I)
(1) Every classroom in our building will receive a new emergency kit this month. (2) Teachers should store the kit in a place where it is easy to reach. (3) Each kit contains: a flashlight, a first-aid kit, bottled water, and a class roster. (4) Teachers should check the kit at the start of each semester and replace any used items. (5) Please contact the front office if your kit is missing anything. (6) Thank you for helping keep our students safe.
Answer: A. Each kit contains four items: a flashlight, a first-aid kit, bottled water, and a class roster.
A colon should introduce a list only after a complete independent clause, such as "Each kit contains four items." A colon placed directly after a verb or after "such as," or between a subject and its verb, interrupts the sentence. A semicolon cannot introduce a list because the words after it do not form an independent clause.
Question 10 · Mathematics
Answer: B. 4x − 7
Distribute both factors: 6x − 15 − 2x + 8, then combine like terms to get 4x − 7. Distributing −2 as −2x − 8 gives 4x − 23, and multiplying only the first term inside the parentheses gives 4x + 3. The simplified expression = 4x − 7.
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