Florida Teacher Certification · Mathematics

FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 Practice Test & Study Guide

Prepare for FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 with independent practice, flashcards, and connected lessons. Understand the official assessment, choose a focused study route, and review the reasoning behind missed answers.

FTCE MIDDLE GRADES MATHEMATICS 5-9 STUDY HUB — original handwritten comic illustration.

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Know FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 before you start.

What should I know about the official FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 assessment?

Florida’s official test page lists Middle Grades Mathematics 5–9 (025) as approximately 50 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours 30 minutes. An on-screen scientific calculator is provided; candidates may not bring their own calculator, and no reference sheet is provided. The appointment takes longer than the testing time, and some items may be unscored pretest questions. Confirm your certification requirements. Independent practice here gives study feedback, not an official FTCE score.

Official assessment information ↗

Number sense and operations

Review the explanation, apply it to an example, and explain why an alternative answer would fail.

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Ratio, proportion, and percent

Review the explanation, apply it to an example, and explain why an alternative answer would fail.

Explore this study route →

Exponents, radicals, and scientific notation

Review the explanation, apply it to an example, and explain why an alternative answer would fail.

Explore this study route →

Official test readiness

Confirm your test code, format, and certification requirements with the official provider.

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Start here

FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics Practice Center

Sit one full 150-minute form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. Sort the misses two ways: by competency, and by whether the mathematics defeated you or the setup did. Ten of the fifty questions ask about student reasoning and instruction rather than computation, so track those separately.

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FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 at a glance

This is the subject area exam for Florida certification in Middle Grades Mathematics, grades five through nine. Florida redeveloped the content framework for test 025 without changing the test code, collapsing the old ten competencies into five. Algebra now carries thirty percent of the questions by itself. The old framework spread thirty-five percent of the test across four separate pedagogy competencies; the redeveloped version folds all of that into one competency worth twenty percent, so the balance has moved firmly toward content.

Test code	025 (Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9)
Status	Current. Florida redeveloped the competency framework rather than renumbering the test. The five-competency redeveloped document and its Test Information Guide are the ones published for the live exam.
Number of questions	Approximately 50 multiple-choice questions
Time limit	2 hours 30 minutes
Format	Computer-based, four options (A through D). Item types include scenario questions, direct questions, command items, graphic-based items built on number lines, figures, graphs, tables and charts, and word problems.
Calculator	An on-screen scientific calculator is furnished inside the test. You may not bring your own.
Passing score	A scaled score of at least 200. Results are reported as PASS or NOT PASS, and candidates who do not pass also receive a numerical scaled score.
Who takes it	Candidates seeking Florida certification coverage in Middle Grades Mathematics, grades five through nine.
Teaching questions	One competency in five, twenty percent of the test, is about student reasoning and instructional practice.

Florida publishes an approximate percentage for each competency, and the five figures total 100 percent: number sense, operations and proportionality 15 percent, algebra 30 percent, geometry 20 percent, data analysis, statistics and probability 15 percent, and student reasoning and instructional practice 20 percent. On a 50-question form that works out to roughly 8, 15, 10, 7 and 10 questions, which is how both practice forms here are built.

The five competencies, in plain language

Florida lists each competency with the skills under it. Here is what each one actually asks you to do.

1. Number sense, operations, and proportionality (about 8 questions, 15 percent)

Rational and irrational numbers, and moving between the forms they come in.

Compare and convert fractions, terminating and repeating decimals, percents, and points on a number line
Operate with rational numbers, including multi-step expressions and order of operations
Estimate square roots and place irrational numbers against rational ones
Scientific notation and significant digits
Common factors, greatest common factor, and least common denominator
Ratios, rates, mixtures, proportions, measurement conversion, and percent applications
Associative, commutative, and distributive properties, and inverse operations
Radicals and rational exponents under the laws of exponents

2. Algebra (about 15 questions, 30 percent)

The heaviest competency by a wide margin, and it reaches past middle school algebra.

Numerical and algebraic patterns in tables, graphs, descriptions, and formulas
Evaluate functions, decide whether a relation is a function, and identify function types
Generate equivalent polynomial, radical, and rational expressions
Solve linear and absolute value equations and inequalities and read their key features
Find slope and intercepts from a graph, table, or equation, and write the line
Solve two-variable systems of equations and inequalities algebraically and graphically
Interpret and solve quadratic functions and equations by several methods
Match exponential functions to real-world graphs
Shifts and scalings applied to linear, quadratic, and absolute value functions

3. Geometry (about 10 questions, 20 percent)

Figures, measurement, the coordinate plane, and how figures move.

Classify triangles, quadrilaterals, and solids by defining attributes
Area of triangles and of composite figures
Volume and surface area of solids, including Cavalieri’s principle and nets
Perimeter, circumference, area, surface area, and volume in context
Coordinate plane problems
Proportional relationships between similar two- and three-dimensional figures
Triangle Inequality Theorem, the Pythagorean Theorem, and its converse
Interior angles, angle properties, and parallel lines cut by a transversal
Translations, rotations, reflections, and scaling between a figure and its pre-image
Congruence and similarity criteria for triangles
Center, radius, and equation of a circle

4. Data analysis, statistics, and probability (about 7 questions, 15 percent)

Reading data honestly and reasoning about chance.

Measures of center and measures of variation
Patterns in a data display and the shape of a distribution
Histograms, box plots, bar charts, and frequency tables
Population estimates from survey data
Statistical questions and the samples used to draw inferences
Correlation in bivariate data from scatter plots and frequency tables
Fit a linear function to real data and interpret slope and intercept in context
Theoretical probability, experimental probability, and the gap between them

5. Student reasoning and instructional practice (about 10 questions, 20 percent)

The teaching competency. Twenty percent of the test, and it rewards precision about what a student did wrong.

Represent real-world contexts with appropriate expressions and equations
Identify instructional methods for teaching strategies, concepts, and procedures
Give students chances to check the reasonableness of results and judge arguments
Find mathematical connections and check a sequence of concepts for continuity
Choose among verbal, pictorial, graphical, and algebraic representations
Read learning progressions that show how understanding develops over time
Use assessment data to guide instruction and differentiate it
Address a specific misconception with a targeted approach

A study routine that fits a 150-minute test

Fifty questions in 150 minutes is three minutes each. That is generous for a middle grades test, so the pressure comes from breadth rather than speed. Quadratics, transformations, circle equations, and bivariate data all appear, and candidates who studied only what they teach get surprised.

DiagnoseTake Practice Test 1 cold, all 50 questions in 150 minutes. Tally the misses by competency.

Go after algebra firstThirty percent of the test is one competency. Slope, systems, exponent rules, and quadratics are where the points are concentrated, and the algebra also feeds several geometry and data questions.

Make the formulas automaticRun the deck until area, volume, surface area, slope, distance, and the percent relationships come out without hesitation. Know what a scale factor does to area and to volume, because that fact alone shows up more than once.

Work the teaching competency deliberatelyTen questions come from student reasoning and instruction. Before you look at the choices, name the student’s error in one sentence. The right answer names that error; the wrong ones say the student needs more practice or more time.

Prove itTake Practice Test 2 under the same conditions, with a scientific calculator and nothing more.

Complete lesson map

Sixty-seven lessons covering the mathematics behind competencies 1 through 4, each opening in a new tab so you can keep this page open while you work. Competency 5 is teaching practice rather than content, so study that one through the deck, the quick review, and the explanations on the practice forms.

Number sense and operations

Ratio, proportion, and percent

Exponents, radicals, and scientific notation

Expressions, equations, and inequalities

Lines, systems, and functions

Polynomials and quadratics

Geometry and measurement

Data, statistics, and probability

Before test day

Two habits separate a comfortable pass from a near miss. The first is unit work in two and three dimensions: a square meter is ten thousand square centimeters, and a candidate who treats it as one hundred loses the question with flawless arithmetic. The second is reading student work carefully. When a question hands you a wrong answer and asks what happened, say the error out loud before you read the choices, and those ten questions turn into the easiest ones on the form.

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FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9: study questions

What should I know about the official FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 assessment?

Official source ↗

How should I use these independent FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 study tools?

Start with a practice activity, review explanations for missed questions, and use quick review or flashcards for one weak topic. The practice results are study feedback, not official exam scores. Compare a book’s contents with your course or test requirements before buying.

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FTCE Middle Grades Mathematics 5-9 Practice Test & Study Guide