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Sample Questions

The NAAL Test Questions Tool provides easy access to the questions and answers from the 1985, 1992, and 2003 assessments that are released to the public.  There are now 146 questions available in this tool.

  Administration year
Literacy Scale
1985 & 1992 Trend
1992 & 2003 Trend 1992 All 2003 All
Total1 79 39 118 50
Prose 10 12 22 16
Document 55 14 69 19
Quantitative 15 15 30 17
1 Detail may not sum to total because of hybrid tasks that use more than one type of literacy scale.

Among the released items, 79 were administered in the 1985 YALS and again in the 1992 NALS.  In addition, 56 items created for the 1992 NALS have been released, as well as 11 items developed for the 2003 NAAL.  Items were used in more than one of the assessments in order to report trend information.  Note that the questions in this tool do not represent complete coverage of the content, cognitive skills, and range of difficulty in the 1985, 1992, and 2003 assessments for a particular scale. Some unreleased items are being preserved for possible use in upcoming assessments, and released questions will not be used in future tests.

The test questions utilize stimulus materials drawn from a variety of real-world situations. The questions and stimulus material may differ slightly from those that appeared in the assessment because they are formatted for the Web. Some question formats (e.g., multiple-choice, oral response) or stimulus materials were used in the 1985 and 1992 assessments but not in the main 2003 assessment. Where materials are copyrighted, permission to reproduce them on the Web has been obtained.

 ... to begin the Test Questions Tool.

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