NYS Grade 4 Mathematics: Standards, Skills, and Scoring
The Grade 4 New York State mathematics test covers the Next Generation Learning Standards in five strands: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number and Operations in Base Ten, Number and Operations-Fractions, Measurement and Data, and Geometry. Items are multiple-choice, short constructed response, and extended constructed response, and no calculator is permitted.
Core Rules and Concepts
- Place value to 1,000,000: compare with >, <, = and round to any place using the digit to the right.
- Multiply four digits by one and two by two using area models or the standard algorithm; divide up to four digits by one, interpreting remainders.
- Fractions: build equivalent fractions, compare with benchmarks such as 1/2, add and subtract mixed numbers with like denominators, multiply a fraction by a whole number.
- Write fractions with denominators 10 and 100 as decimals; compare decimals to hundredths.
- Convert units within one system (km/m/cm, kg/g, L/mL, hr/min/sec); apply area and perimeter formulas; read line plots with fractional data; measure and add angles.
- Classify triangles and quadrilaterals by sides and angles; identify lines, rays, and symmetry.
Worked Example
Find 5 × 3/4. Five groups of three fourths is 15 fourths, or 15/4. Four fourths make one whole, so 15/4 = 3 wholes and 3 fourths = 3 3/4. On a number line, five jumps of 3/4 from 0 land between 3 and 4 - reasonable, since each group is less than 1.
Traps That Cost Marks
- Comparing 1/3 and 1/4 by numerator: 1/4 is smaller, because a larger denominator means smaller pieces.
- Rounding 4,950 to the nearest thousand as 4,000; the hundreds digit is 9, so it rounds to 5,000.
- Dropping the remainder, or writing one as large as the divisor.
- Converting backwards: 3 m = 300 cm, not 0.03 cm.
- Perimeter is border length; area is square units.
- Reading the wrong protractor scale; a split angle equals the sum of its parts.
- Extended responses earn points for labeled work and units, not the answer alone.