“The annual Mass. Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests, required of all students in public schools, will be administered this year, despite concerns from school administrators about what exactly the data from this year’s tests will be used to measure.” —The Provincetown Independent
To assist middle-school students during this unusual testing season, we’ve provided an assortment of sample questions below. We hope they find these practice questions useful for their study sessions and wish students the best of luck on the MCAS!
(1) A vehicle is headed to Outer Cape Health Services in Provincetown from Truro, driving an average of 57 miles per hour. This trip takes 12 minutes one way. A second vehicle is headed to Outer Cape Health Services in Wellfleet from Eastham, driving an average of 44 miles per hour. This one-way trip takes 17 minutes. Please answer the following questions: Will either of the drivers get a Covid test free of charge? How much more pleasant is the OCHS waiting room in Wellfleet since the renovation? Is there a mini bar? Did either driver get a speeding ticket? Explain your answers using bar graphs and pie charts.
(2) Teddy, a 7th-grader in Eastham, has been in a pod for nearly a year with his extended family and two other families in his neighborhood. Last week, his parents realized that, due to six different places of employment outside the home and kids attending four different schools, there are actually 87 people in the pod. Two of the 87 pod members have been vaccinated. This past Friday, Teddy’s Mom said, “To hell with it all,” threw the kids in the car, and headed to the mall in Natick, where her niece works at Uniqlo. One week later, Teddy’s dad came down with a sore throat and body aches and could no longer smell or taste food. Please write a parable exploring the narrative above. Include an uplifting message, and a moral of the story woven into your conclusion. Do not reference history or current events.
(3) Lux and Lars are twin siblings in 6th grade. They live in Wellfleet and attend middle school in Orleans on their hybrid days, Tuesdays and Fridays. Their dad teaches science full-time at the Lighthouse Charter School in Harwich, and their mom is the assistant principal at Chatham Elementary School. Neither parent is home much before 5 p.m. during the week. On Mondays, Wednedsdays, and Thursdays, is it more likely that Lux and Lars will
- Not log on for school.
- Make chocolate chip pancakes for lunch, leave the griddle pan on the lit burner, and, when the smoke alarm goes off and the Wellfleet Fire Dept. shows up, because the twins have been instructed not to open the door to anyone while home alone, both parents are called at work and then conduct a heated text argument over who will drive back to Wellfleet until the literal and metaphorical smoke clears.
- Forget to take out the dog.
- Kill each other with their bare hands.
- All of the above.
(Be sure to fill in the entire answer circle on the attached bubble sheet.)
(4) Stella, age 13, hasn’t been indoors with her best friend, Elana, also 13, in 347 days. They miss each other terribly and have verbally described their hearts as “physically hurting for real,” “basically broken,” and, additionally, in a text, wrote, “Dad u didn’t actually live thru war times so just stop K” followed by eye roll emoji and two smiling poop emojis. Please answer the following questions in expository essay form: Is the pandemic going to end? Include a road map out of this nightmare, and don’t dwell on vaccinations, because the state’s website for making appointments just crashed again. Elaborate on the South African Covid variant. Use adverbs and logic. Don’t show your work. Just solve the problem, then call the government with your answers.
