About this book
Give your fourth grader the confidence to succeed on the South Dakota Grade 4 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 South Dakota Smarter Balanced Mathematics assessment. Every question was written by experienced educators, reviewed for accuracy, and built around the South Dakota State Standards for Mathematics for Grade 4.
Take a look inside
The Smarter Balanced Math test is given each spring to South Dakota students in Grades 3-8 (and again in Grade 11).
- Delivery: online through the South Dakota Assessment Portal, operated by Cambium Assessment.
- Format: an untimed test in two parts — a computer-adaptive section, where the questions adjust to each student and are pulled from a large pool, and a Performance Task built around a single real-world set of data.
- Length: because the test is adaptive, no two students see exactly the same test, and a real sitting is shorter, often about 25 questions, showing only a slice of everything a fourth grader could be asked.
- Tools at Grade 4: no calculator (calculators begin in Grade 6) and no reference sheet.
- Each practice test here: a fuller 40-question form — a 34-item question section plus a 6-item Performance Task — so your student practices the complete range of question types, math skills, and reporting categories they could meet on test day.
What’s inside
- Five full-length practice tests, with detailed Answers and Explanations after every test
- A Performance Task on every test, built around a real-world set of data, just like the real exam
- Coverage of every Grade 4 math standard across the Smarter Balanced reporting claims: Concepts and Procedures; Problem Solving; Communicating Reasoning; and Modeling and Data Analysis
- Practice in every item format: multiple choice, multiple select, type-in answers, two-part questions, line plots, area models, angle figures, and other figure-based questions
- Every explanation gives a full worked solution plus a labeled Strategy and a Tip, Check, or Estimate, 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 South Dakota contexts throughout — Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Badlands, the Corn Palace, the Missouri River, bison and pheasants, walleye and sunflowers, and more
- A Grade 4 Math Study Reference Sheet to learn and review between tests (the state does not provide one on test day)
- A combined Quick Answer Key at the back of the book for fast self-grading
- A family letter and a test-taking tips section
- No-calculator, no-reference-sheet practice throughout, matching the official Grade 4 policy
Topics covered
- Place value of multi-digit whole numbers, and reading, writing, and comparing numbers to the hundred-thousands
- Rounding multi-digit whole numbers to any place, from tens to thousands
- Multi-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping
- Multiplication: multi-digit numbers by a one-digit number, and two-digit by two-digit
- Division of multi-digit numbers by a one-digit number, including interpreting remainders
- Multiplicative comparison — “times as many” — and how it differs from addition
- Two-step and multi-step word problems using the four operations, interpreting remainders, and judging whether an answer is reasonable
- Factors and multiples, and prime and composite numbers
- Number and shape patterns, and the rules that generate them
- Equivalent fractions, and comparing and ordering fractions
- Adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with like denominators, including regrouping across a whole
- Multiplying a fraction by a whole number
- Decimal notation for fractions with denominators of 10 and 100, and comparing decimals
- Measurement and converting from larger units to smaller units (kilometers to meters, feet to inches, and more)
- Perimeter and area, including composite (L-shaped) figures and finding a missing side
- Line plots with fractional measurements to the nearest quarter inch
- Measuring and adding angles, and recognizing right, acute, obtuse, and straight angles
- Points, lines, line segments, rays, and parallel and perpendicular lines
- Classifying triangles and quadrilaterals, including trapezoids, and identifying lines of symmetry
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 Smarter Balanced format, two-part structure (computer-adaptive section plus Performance Task), item mix, and policy (no calculator and no reference sheet at Grade 4).
- Built for South Dakota: Aligned to the South Dakota State Standards for Mathematics, with a Performance Task on every test.
- Explanations teach the why: Every Answers and Explanations entry gives a full worked solution, then a labeled Strategy and a Tip, Check, or Estimate 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.
