Give your third grader the confidence to succeed on the DC CAPE Grade 3 Math test.
This book provides five full-length practice tests built for the test District of Columbia students take from spring 2027 onward. From the 2026-27 school year, DC CAPE in Grades 3-8 uses Smarter Balanced content in mathematics — so this book is written for the new test, not the PARCC-style exam it replaces.
Take a look inside
DC CAPE — the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessments of Progress in Education — is given by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
- Delivery: delivered by Pearson, with students testing online in TestNav.
- Format: the Grade 3 math test is computer-adaptive and follows the Common Core standards the District adopted in 2010.
- Tools at Grade 3: no calculator and no reference sheet.
- Reporting areas: results report four levels across four claims.
- Length: students answer 22 scored questions with unscored field-test questions mixed in invisibly.
- Each practice test here: 24 questions — to build test-day endurance.
What’s inside
- Five full-length practice tests, each ending with a performance task, with detailed Answers and Explanations after every test
- Weighted as DC CAPE weights it: Claim 1, Concepts and Procedures, is about half of every test, and Claim 3, Communicating Reasoning, roughly one question in four — far more explaining than a typical workbook asks for
- A different performance task in every test — one situation with a table or diagram, then five questions that build on one another and end in writing
- A printed scoring guide for the written responses, so families can mark them as a trained scorer would
- Every item format rendered for paper: multiple choice, select-all-that-apply, type-in answers, Yes/No grids, table fill-ins, number lines, shading fraction models, line plots, and written response
- Field-test-style questions blended invisibly into each test, and fully answered here
- Every explanation ends with a labeled Tip, Check, or Estimate, and a Strategy on multi-step questions
- A Quick Answer Key for all five tests, a family letter, test-taking tips, and a Grade 3 study reference sheet
The real test adapts to each student, so no two children see the same form. These are fixed forms built to the same blueprint — the same claims in the same proportions, the same kinds of questions — so they are practice in content and format, not a score prediction.
Topics covered
- Multiplying and dividing within 100: equal groups, arrays, and missing factors
- Properties of multiplication — order, grouping, and breaking a factor apart
- Two-step word problems across all four operations, including ones where the leftover decides the answer
- Adding and subtracting within 1,000, and rounding to the nearest ten or hundred
- Fractions as numbers: unit fractions, number-line fractions, equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions
- Area by counting unit squares and by multiplying side lengths
- Perimeter, unknown sides, and rectangles with equal area but different perimeter
- Telling time to the minute, and elapsed time forward and backward
- Liquid volume and mass in liters, grams, and kilograms
- Scaled picture and bar graphs, two-way tables, and line plots in halves and quarters of an inch
- Quadrilaterals and their attributes, and partitioning shapes into equal parts
- Judging whether another student’s reasoning is correct, and questions with more than one right answer
Why parents and teachers choose Smart Stars
- Educator-authored and reviewed question by question.
- Mirrors test day: real item count, claim balance, formats, performance-task structure, and no-calculator policy.
- Built for the new DC CAPE — the Smarter Balanced content the District moves to in 2026-27.
- Explanations teach the why, with a full worked solution and a labeled closing note.
- Varied: contexts, names, and numbers rotate test to test, and no character name or object repeats anywhere in the book.
