FTCE exam prep

FTCE Elementary Social Science Study Hub

Everything for the Social Science subtest of FTCE Elementary Education K-6: about 45 questions in 65 minutes, five competencies, and 31 lessons across civics, history, geography, and economics.

2 free pop-up tests · 96 flashcards · 31 connected lessons

2 pop-up practice tests31 connected lessons1 complete flashcard deck

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FTCE Elementary Social Science Practice Center

Take a full 65-minute form, read the explanation under every question you miss, then use the flashcards to lock down the names, dates, and definitions that decide close questions.

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QRQuick ReviewThe subtest at a glance, competency by competency

Elementary Social Science at a glance

The content range here is wide and the questions are not deep. You are not asked to argue about historiography. You are asked whether you can place an event, read a map or a source, and explain a basic economic idea to a ten year old. Florida content appears throughout, so do not skip it.

Subtest	Social Science, part of Elementary Education K-6 (060)
Part of	The FTCE Elementary Education K-6 test, code 060, alongside Language Arts and Reading, Social Science, Science, and Mathematics. Each subtest is passed and retaken separately.
Number of questions	Approximately 45 multiple-choice questions
Answer options	Four per question (A, B, C, or D)
Time limit	65 minutes
Format	Computer-based. Some questions attach to a short primary source, a map description, a timeline, or a small data table.
Passing score	A scaled score of at least 200.
Retakes	Subtests are retaken individually after a 31-day wait.

Florida does not publish how many questions come from each competency. Any percentage breakdown you see on a prep site is someone’s estimate, not an official figure, so this hub does not repeat one.

The five competencies, in plain language

Thirty-six skill statements across the four social science disciplines plus how to teach them.

Competency 1: Effective instructional practice and assessment

Teaching social science to elementary students.

Choosing sources and activities a child can handle
Building chronological thinking in young students
Assessing understanding rather than recall of dates

Competency 2: Time, continuity, and change (history)

United States and world history at survey depth.

Settlement, colonization, revolution, and the early republic
Expansion, the Civil War, and Reconstruction
Industrialization, the world wars, and the Cold War
Civil rights movements and their legal landmarks
Florida history from Spanish settlement to the modern state

Competency 3: People, places, and environment (geography)

Where things are and why that matters.

Maps, globes, scale, and geographic tools
Regions, landforms, and climate
Migration, population, and culture
Human interaction with the environment, including in Florida

Competency 4: Government and the citizen (civics)

How the system is built and what a citizen does in it.

Founding documents and constitutional principles
Federalism and the three branches
Rights, responsibilities, and the courts
Elections, parties, and state and local government

Competency 5: Production, distribution, and consumption (economics)

Basic economics, taught concretely.

Scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost
Supply, demand, and prices
Money, banking, credit, and saving
Trade, and the role of government in markets

A routine that fits a 65-minute subtest

The breadth is the difficulty. You cannot re-learn United States history in a week, so aim for coverage rather than depth, and let the practice tests tell you where the holes are.

DiagnoseTake Practice Test 1 cold. With this much ground to cover, guessing where you are weak wastes days.

Close the widest gapWork whichever of the four disciplines scored worst. It is almost always economics or geography.

Drill names and datesRun the deck. This is the one subtest where flat recall genuinely converts to points.

Prove itTake Practice Test 2 under time, then reread the source-based items you missed to see what you skipped in the text.

Complete lesson map

Thirty-one lessons across the four disciplines and the skills that cut across them. Each opens in a new tab.

Social science skills

Civics and government

United States history

Economics

Geography and the world

Before test day

When a question hangs on a source, the answer is in the source. Candidates lose points by answering from what they remember about the period instead of from the six sentences in front of them. Read the excerpt, then read the question again, then look at the options.

Give Florida content a dedicated evening. Spanish settlement, the Seminole Wars, statehood in 1845, the railroads and the land boom, Ybor City, and the modern population shifts all appear, and they are the parts a candidate trained outside Florida is most likely to have never studied.