NYSTCE Social Studies study guide
NYSTCE Social Studies · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Social Studies CST (115) is one of the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE), the content specialty tests used in New York State's educator certification process. Candidates typically take it to demonstrate subject-matter knowledge in social studies, often for certification in that field. The NYSTCE Social Studies study guide has 6 sections and about 2,274 words.
01United States History
The NYSTCE Social Studies exam tests U.S. history from Indigenous societies and colonial settlement through the founding era, the Civil War and Reconstruction, industrialization, the world wars, the Cold War, and recent social and political change.
382 words, about 2 min02World History
The exam tests world history from early river-valley civilizations through classical empires, the medieval world, global exploration, the Enlightenment and political revolutions, industrialization, imperialism, the two world wars, decolonization, and globalization. Expect questions on causation, comparison across societies, and interpretation of documents such as Hammurabi's Code or the Treaty of Versailles.
396 words, about 2 min03Geography
The exam tests physical and human geography: map reading, projections and scale, climate and biomes, population and migration, urbanization, economic development, and human-environment interaction. Items often present a map, graph, or table and ask you to interpret spatial patterns rather than recall a place name.
357 words, about 2 min04Economics
The exam tests microeconomic and macroeconomic reasoning: scarcity and choice, supply and demand, market structures, national income, inflation and unemployment, fiscal and monetary policy, and international trade. Many items ask you to predict an outcome after a change or to distinguish a shift from a movement along a curve.
403 words, about 2 min05Civics, Citizenship, and Government
The exam tests the U.S. constitutional system, federalism, civil liberties and civil rights, political participation, elections, state and local government, and public policy.
367 words, about 2 min06Social Studies Skills and Methods
The exam tests historical thinking and inquiry: sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, close reading, chronology, interpretation of maps and data, and the design of research questions. Items often supply two accounts of an event and ask which is more reliable for a given purpose.
369 words, about 2 min