Give your eighth grader the confidence to succeed on both Florida FAST tests — Mathematics and ELA Reading — in one book.
This Smart Stars combined edition brings together ten full-length practice tests — five in Mathematics and five in ELA Reading, each reading test followed by a text-based writing task — aligned to Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards for Grade 8 and built to match the format, difficulty, and content of the real Grade 8 FAST tests. FAST is computer-adaptive and given three times a year; a paper test cannot adapt, so each test here is built at a fixed, middle difficulty and made a little harder from Test 1 to Test 5.
What’s inside
- 5 complete 36-question Mathematics tests (180 questions) across all four Grade 8 reporting categories: Number Sense and Operations and Probability, Algebraic Reasoning, Linear Relationships and Data Analysis and Functions, and Geometric Reasoning
- 5 complete 37-question ELA Reading tests (185 questions), each built from six passage sets — two stories, a poem, an article, an argument, and a paired set — across Reading Prose and Poetry, Reading Informational Text, and Reading Across Genres and Vocabulary
- 5 text-based writing tasks, one after each reading test, each with four sources on a single question, argumentative and expository alternating, modeled on Florida’s separate B.E.S.T. Writing assessment, with a plain-language scoring table
- The two-page Grade 8 Mathematics reference sheet, reproduced as Florida provides it on test day, plus a Grade 8 ELA Study Reference for use while studying (Florida gives no reference sheet on the reading test, and the book says so plainly)
- Every question type the online tests use, printed on paper: multiple choice, multi-select, matching tables and fill-in answers in Math; select-two, two-part evidence, and table match in reading
- Detailed answer explanations for every question — Math shows the steps and names the trap behind the likeliest wrong answer; reading quotes the passage evidence, names the tempting wrong answer, and closes with a labeled Reading move, Tip, Strategy, Genre note, or Big idea
- A parent letter explaining how FAST works — three windows, a computer-adaptive test, five achievement levels, the scientific calculator allowed in Grade 8 Math — and a Quick Answer Key for each subject
Skills covered
- Integer exponents and scientific notation; square roots, cube roots, and irrational numbers; probability of compound events
- Linear equations and inequalities, how many solutions an equation has, and systems of two linear equations
- Functions, slope and y-intercept in context, scatter plots, and lines of best fit
- The Pythagorean theorem, angle relationships, transformations on the coordinate plane, and volume of cylinders and cones
- Character development and archetypes, how a character changes, and a story’s turning point — the Grade 8 emphasis in literary reading
- Theme with evidence, a poem’s form and figurative language, and a narrator’s or speaker’s perspective
- Central ideas, text structure, an author’s purpose and word choice, and how an argument’s claim, reasoning, and evidence hold up — including how to strengthen one
- Rhetorical appeals, Greek and Latin roots, word meaning in context, and comparing two texts on the same subject
Why parents and teachers choose Smart Stars
- Written by experienced educators who study Florida’s official FAST test design, B.E.S.T. benchmarks, 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
- Two subjects, one book — the same tests as our two individual Grade 8 titles; if you already own both, this edition adds no new tests
How to use this book
Take one test at a time under realistic conditions — about 100 minutes for a Math test with a scientific calculator and the reference sheet at hand, about 90 for a reading test, with the writing task in a separate sitting. Score with that subject’s Quick Answer Key, then review every explanation, even for questions answered correctly. Space the ten tests over several weeks.
