About this book
Give your third grader the confidence to succeed on both Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) tests — Mathematics and English Language Arts — in one book.
This combined edition brings together ten full-length practice tests — five in Mathematics and five in English Language Arts, 370 questions in all — aligned to the Illinois Learning Standards and designed to match the format, difficulty, and content of the real Grade 3 IAR.
Take a look inside
- Delivery: the IAR is given each spring to every public-school student in Grades 3–8, overseen by the Illinois State Board of Education and delivered online by Pearson.
- Item bank: it is built on the same item bank once used by PARCC, now managed by New Meridian.
The two halves of the book are the same practice tests offered in our two individual Grade 3 titles; if you already own both, this edition does not add new tests.
What’s inside
- 5 complete Mathematics practice tests, 37 questions each, each organized into three units exactly as the real test is — Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3
- 5 complete English Language Arts practice tests, 37 questions each, each built as a set of literary passages with questions and then a set of informational passages with questions, every set ending in a written response
- Mathematics scored the way Illinois scores it: what ISBE fixes at Grade 3 is a score total of 52 points across the three units rather than a set number of questions, because most questions are worth 1 point, two-part questions 2, and the longer open-response questions 3, 4, or 6 — so the “explain your thinking” items carry the most weight and get the most practice here
- Every IAR item format rendered for paper: four-option multiple choice, multiple select (“choose the two correct answers”), fill-in-the-blank where students type a number or an equation, two-part Part A / Part B questions, sorting and sentence-completion items, and longer open-response questions
- Original fiction and nonfiction reading passages, often paired on one topic exactly as the real test pairs them, so students practice reading across two texts
- Three written responses in every ELA test, each with a sample top-score answer and a plain-language scoring guide, so a parent can score writing with confidence
- Detailed answer explanations for every question in both subjects — not just the correct answer, but the reasoning, the text evidence, and the misreading that makes a wrong answer tempting
- A Grade 3 Math Study Reference and a Grade 3 ELA Study Reference, each for use while studying — the book says plainly that neither is available on the real test
- Separate Quick Answer Keys for Mathematics and for English Language Arts, for fast scoring
Topics covered
- Multiplication and division within 100, including equal groups, arrays, and two-step word problems
- Fractions on a number line, equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions
- Area and perimeter, including finding a missing side length
- Place value, rounding, and adding and subtracting within 1,000
- Telling time and elapsed time across the hour
- Picture graphs, bar graphs, and line plots
- Shapes and their attributes, including partitioning into equal parts
Topics covered — English Language Arts
- Realistic stories about problem-solving and persistence — a lemonade stand, a talent show, a first campout, a sandcastle, a shared last slice of pizza
- Paired stories that tell one idea two ways, for comparing characters, lessons, and points of view
- How the body works, including why a stomach growls
- Animal journeys, including a salmon’s run upstream
- How work gets done, including a village blacksmith at the forge
- Earth and space, including the moon and the astronauts who traveled there
- Slow change on Earth, including how a river carved a canyon
- Tide pools, composting, and decomposers — how scraps become soil
- Vocabulary in context, main idea, theme, sequence, cause and effect, text structure, and using details as evidence
Why parents and teachers choose Smart Stars
- Written by experienced educators who study Illinois’s official IAR specifications, evidence statements, and released item samplers
- Every question mirrors what students will see on test day — no surprises in format, content, or rigor
- Explanations teach the “why,” not just the “what,” so students learn from every mistake
- Passages, names, numbers, and contexts varied across all ten tests, so students never meet the same problem twice in the same slot
- Both subjects in one volume, at a lower price than the two individual titles bought separately
