About this book
Give your third grader the confidence to succeed on the Kansas Grade 3 Math state test.
This Smart Stars practice book provides five full-length, standards-aligned practice tests that mirror the format and item mix of the Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) Mathematics test. Every question was written by experienced educators, reviewed for accuracy, and built around the Kansas Mathematics Standards for Grade 3.
Take a look inside
The KAP is given each spring to Kansas students in Grades 3-8, and again in high school, in English language arts, mathematics, and science.
- Delivery: delivered online through the Kite Student Portal, built for the Kansas State Department of Education by the Achievement and Assessment Institute at the University of Kansas.
- Format: the Grade 3 Math test is untimed and given in two sessions.
- Length: a student answers about 55 scored questions.
- Field-test items: mixed in with the scored questions, the real test also tries out a small number of embedded field-test questions for future years, which look exactly like the scored ones but do not count.
- Tools at Grade 3: no calculator is used.
- Each practice test here: between 61 and 63 questions across two sessions, with the field-test-style questions blended in and not marked, just like the real exam — so your student practices the complete range of question types, math skills, and reporting domains they could meet on test day.
What’s inside
- Five full-length practice tests, with detailed Answers and Explanations after every test
- The real two-session KAP experience — between 61 and 63 questions per test, untimed and with no calculator, and embedded field-test-style questions blended in and not marked, just like the real exam
- Coverage of every Grade 3 math standard across the five reporting domains the KAP scores: Operations and Algebraic Thinking; Number and Operations in Base Ten; Number and Operations — Fractions; Measurement and Data; and Geometry
- Practice in every item format: multiple choice, multiple select, technology-enhanced tasks rendered for paper (plot a point, shade a figure, mark a number line, complete a table, sort into groups, put in order), short-answer “write your answer” questions, “use words and numbers to explain” written responses, number lines, area and array models, dot and line plots, picture and bar graphs, analog clocks, and figure-based questions
- Every explanation gives a full worked solution plus a Tip, Check, or Estimate, and a labeled Strategy on the multi-step problems, so students learn the reasoning, not just the answer
- A graduated set of tests that step up in difficulty from Test 1 to Test 5, so students build steadily toward the hardest grade-level problems
- Real-world Kansas contexts throughout — the Flint Hills and the Tallgrass Prairie, sunflowers and Kansas wheat, monarch butterflies and the Konza Prairie, bison and meadowlarks, the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson and the State Fair, and Wichita and Kansas City
- A Grade 3 Resource Sheet of the conversions and area-and-perimeter facts to learn and review between tests
- A combined Quick Answer Key at the back of the book, with a worked answer for every question on each test
- A family letter that explains the KAP performance levels and what each means, so you can turn a practice score into an estimated level (Level 1 Limited, Level 2 Basic, Level 3 Proficient, or Level 4 Advanced)
- A test-taking tips section for students
Topics covered
- Multiplication and division within 100, including the meaning of products and quotients
- Properties of operations — commutative, associative, and distributive — used as strategies to multiply and divide
- Division understood as an unknown-factor problem, and the unknown number in a multiplication or division equation
- One-step and two-step word problems using all four operations, including judging whether an answer is reasonable
- Arithmetic patterns in the multiplication table and in number sequences
- Rounding whole numbers to the nearest ten and hundred
- Adding and subtracting within 1,000, including regrouping across zeros
- Multiplying one-digit numbers by multiples of ten
- Understanding fractions as equal parts of a whole, and unit fractions
- Fractions on a number line, including points beyond 1
- Equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions with the same numerator or the same denominator
- Telling and writing time to the nearest minute, and solving elapsed-time problems
- Measuring and estimating liquid volumes and masses in grams, kilograms, and liters, and solving one-step problems with them
- Drawing and reading scaled picture graphs and bar graphs, and line plots marked in halves and fourths of an inch
- Area by counting unit squares and by multiplying side lengths, including composite (rectilinear) figures
- Perimeter of polygons, including finding an unknown side length from the perimeter
- Categories of shapes and their shared attributes, and partitioning shapes into equal parts named as unit fractions
Why parents and teachers choose Smart Stars
- Educator-authored: Every question is written and reviewed by classroom-experienced educators.
- Mirrors test day: Each practice test matches the official KAP format, two-session structure, item mix, and no-calculator policy, just as on the real test.
- Built for Kansas: Aligned to the Kansas Mathematics Standards, and organized around the same five reporting domains the KAP scores.
- Explanations teach the why: Every Answers and Explanations entry gives a full worked solution, then a Tip, Check, or Estimate, with a labeled Strategy on the multi-step problems, so students learn the move, not just the answer.
- Varied and graduated: Slot positions, contexts, names, and number choices rotate test-to-test, and the five tests step up in difficulty so no two feel like the same practice run.
