Praxis exam prep
Praxis Middle School Social Studies Online Center
This Praxis Middle School Social Studies Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
2 free pop-up tests · 120 flashcards · 5 weighted categories
2 pop-up practice tests120 connected lessons1 complete flashcard deck
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Praxis Middle School Social Studies Practice Center
Take a full 150-minute form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. Score the five categories separately. On a test this broad the total tells you little; the two weakest categories tell you everything about where the next fortnight goes.
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Praxis Middle School Social Studies at a glance
If you have an older study guide, check the number on the front. ETS launched 5589 on September 1, 2025 and it is a different test from the 5089 it replaced: 140 selected-response questions instead of 90, 150 minutes instead of 120, and no written essays at all. The three short content essays that used to carry a quarter of the score are gone.
| Test code | 5589 (Middle School Social Studies) |
|---|---|
| Replaces | 5089, which had 90 selected-response questions and 3 short content essays. ETS launched 5589 on September 1, 2025, with a one-year transition during which either was accepted. Some states may still honour a 5089 score taken before the cutoff, so check your own state. |
| Number of questions | 140 selected-response questions. There is no constructed response. |
| Time limit | 150 minutes |
| Format | Computer-delivered |
| Score scale | 100 to 200 |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state sets its own qualifying score. |
| Social studies skills | Four practices are integrated into roughly 10 to 15 percent of the questions rather than forming a category of their own. |
| Cognitive level | ETS states that no more than 60 percent of questions are recall level, so at least 40 percent require higher-order reasoning. |
ETS publishes counts and percentages for all five categories: United States History 40 questions and 29 percent, World History 29 and 21 percent, Civics 30 and 21 percent, Geography 25 and 18 percent, Economics 16 and 11 percent. History is half the test between the two history categories, and economics is the smallest by some way.
The five categories, in plain language
ETS lists each category and the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you.
United States history (29 percent, 40 questions)
The largest category, from before contact to the present.
- Indigenous North America and European colonization
- Slavery, the colonial economy, and regional difference
- Revolution, the Constitution, and the early republic
- Expansion, sectional conflict, and the Civil War
- Reconstruction, industrialization, and immigration
- The World Wars, the Depression, and the New Deal
- The Cold War, civil rights, and the modern era
World history (21 percent, 29 questions)
The whole span, weighted toward what a middle school course covers.
- River valley civilizations and the classical world
- World religions and their spread
- The Islamic world, medieval Africa, and medieval Europe
- Empires of the Americas and of Asia
- Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution
- Exploration and the Columbian exchange
- Revolutions, imperialism, and the twentieth century
Civics (21 percent, 30 questions)
How American government works and what citizenship asks.
- Foundational documents and political thought
- The Constitution, separation of powers, and federalism
- The three branches and how a bill becomes law
- Rights, the amendments, and landmark cases
- Elections, parties, and political participation
- State and local government
- Comparative systems in outline
Geography (18 percent, 25 questions)
Place, space, and the interaction between people and environment.
- Map projections, scale, and thematic maps
- Physical geography and landforms
- Climate and biomes
- Population, migration, and urbanization
- Regions and cultural geography
- Human impact on the environment
- Geographic tools and spatial data
Economics (11 percent, 16 questions)
The smallest category, and the one candidates most often skip.
- Scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost
- Supply, demand, and price
- Markets, competition, and market structures
- Money, banking, and credit
- Government fiscal and monetary policy
- Trade, comparative advantage, and interdependence
- Personal financial literacy
A study routine for a 150-minute survey test
Sixty-four seconds a question. That is not a test you can reason your way through; it is a test you either know or you do not, which is good news, because knowing is the part you can control in advance.
DiagnoseTake Practice Test 1 cold, all 140 questions in 150 minutes. Score the five categories separately.
Attack the two weakestHistory is half the test, so if a history category is weak it outranks everything else. If both history categories are solid, civics is the next biggest.
Do not skip economicsSixteen questions, and the content is small and closed. It is the cheapest block of points on the test for anyone willing to spend two evenings on it.
Practise the skills questionsRoughly one in seven questions hands you a map, a graph, a cartoon, or a source. Practise saying what it shows before you read the choices.
Prove itTake Practice Test 2 under time, and watch your pace at question seventy.
Complete topic map
Every topic ETS lists under the five categories, followed by the topics a middle school social studies course covers.
United States History
- 01Subcategory A, United States History to 1877. Understand Native American peoples, the regions they inhabited, and their cultures prior to European contact and colonization
- 02Understand how and why European colonies in North America were founded and developed and how they differed from one another
- 03Understand how conflict and cooperation between European, African, and Native American peoples shaped the development of North America during the colonial period
- 04Understand how the economic, social, and cultural effects of slavery affected European and African lives in North America
- 05Understand the causes and significant events of the American Revolution and its impact on the economy, politics, culture, and society of the early United States, including the roles of various groups such as men, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and foreign allies
- 06Understand the contexts that led to the writing and adoption of the United States Constitution and other founding documents
- 07Understand the principles of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights and their impact on the early political development of the United States
- 08Understand the causes and consequences of early industrialization in the United States and the economic, social, cultural, political, and religious developments prior to the Civil War
- 09Understand issues related to United States foreign policy and western expansion in the period 1797 to 1861, such as the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny, and the effects these issues had on Native American peoples, immigrants, and the United States government
- 10Understand the causes and consequences of nineteenth-century sectionalism regarding political, economic, and social differences surrounding the issue of slavery, and the Civil War
- 11Understand the major events, successes, and failures of Reconstruction and the post-Reconstruction era, including the constitutional amendments and how individuals, groups, and governments erected barriers against African American rights and equality
- 12Subcategory B, United States History from 1877 to the Present. Understand the characteristics and effects of United States territorial imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
- 13Understand concepts of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration and the relationships among them in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
- 14Understand regional developments in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Jim Crow laws, migration patterns, Populism, and Native American policies
World History
- 15Subcategory A, World History to 1750 C.E. Understand the formation and significant characteristics of early human societies and civilizations, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, and Africa, in the period ETS dates as 4000 to 1000 B.C.E.
- 16Understand the formation, organization, and interactions of the classical civilizations of Greece, Rome, Persia, India, China, and Mesoamerica in the period ETS dates as 1000 B.C.E. To 500 C.E.
- 17Understand the causes and consequences of expansion, interaction, and collapse among civilizations in Asia and Islamic empires in the period ETS dates as 300 to 1400 C.E.
- 18Understand the major causes and effects of growing global interactions, trade, exploration, religion, and colonization in the period ETS dates as 1200 to 1750 C.E.
- 19Understand the origins, major figures, and lasting social and cultural effects of the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment in and beyond Europe in the period ETS dates as 1400 to 1750 C.E.
- 20Subcategory B, World History from 1750 C.E. To the Present. Know the major causes and consequences of revolutions, nationalism, imperialism, and social reform in the period ETS dates as 1750 to 1914 C.E.
- 21Know the major ideological, economic, and political causes and consequences of the First and Second World Wars in the period ETS dates as 1914 to 1945 C.E.
- 22Know the causes, consequences, and intersections of the rise of totalitarian states, political and social rights movements, and capitalism in the period ETS dates as 1900 to 1945 C.E.
- 23Know the major ideological, economic, and political causes and consequences of Cold War-era conflicts, alliances, decolonization, and globalization in the period ETS dates as 1945 to 1990 C.E.
- 24Understand the causes and effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the development of international alliances
- 25Understand the causes and effects of global economic and technological developments in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries
- 26Understand the causes and effects of conflicts, interventions, and terrorism during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries
Geography
- 27Subcategory A, Basic Geographic Literacy. Understand map types and projections and their uses
- 28Understand concepts of regions, absolute and relative location, characteristics of place, and scale
- 29Understand the uses of and the information available from data sources such as the Census Bureau, geographic tools such as GIS, GPS, and other digital tools, and geospatial technologies such as aerial photographs and satellite images, to determine patterns
- 30Subcategory B, Human Environment Interaction. Understand the short-term and long-term effects of human activities on physical systems
- 31Understand how the Earth’s physical features, patterns, and systems influence human decisions about settlement, movement, agriculture, and industry
- 32Subcategory C, Human Geography. Recognize, interpret, and draw inferences from spatial and demographic patterns such as population density, literacy rates, and infant mortality, presented at different scales from local to global
- 33Understand how culture defines, influences, and changes the characteristics and perspectives of people, places, and regions over time
- 34Understand the types and patterns of migration and their causes, effects, and scale
- 35Understand the factors that affect and are used to measure human development, including standard of living, access to education, and access to health care
- 36Understand the geographic impacts of economic development, industrialization, and globalization
- 37Understand the characteristics that define a contemporary state and the various forces that influence and contribute to cooperation and conflict
Civics
- 38Subcategory A, Fundamental Principles and Practice of Government. Understand the forms, functions, and purposes of government
- 39Understand the fundamental principles of American constitutional democracy, including government power, federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, individual liberties, civil rights and civil liberties, separation of church and state, and popular sovereignty
- 40Subcategory B, United States Government. Be familiar with the development and interpretation of founding documents that influenced the Constitution, such as the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence
- 41Understand major concepts of the United States Constitution, the outcomes of the Constitutional Convention, and the goals of the preamble, the Bill of Rights, and the subsequent amendments
- 42Understand the major events and landmark Supreme Court cases that shaped the interpretation of the Constitution, including those concerning federalism and judicial review
- 43Understand the structure and function of the United States government, including the electoral and legislative processes and the influence of economics and money in political processes
- 44Subcategory C, Participation and Citizenship. Understand the rights and responsibilities of citizens and the development and political impact of civil rights and civil liberties in the United States
- 45Understand how groups and individuals influenced and enacted change through direct and collective action
- 46Understand conflict and cooperation among citizens, institutions, and groups to elevate and take action on issues in the democratic process
- 47Understand the ideologies, political cultures, structures, institutions, and processes of political systems in foreign democratic and nondemocratic societies
Economics
- 48Subcategory A, Microeconomics. Understand concepts of fundamental economics, such as scarcity, supply and demand, choice, opportunity cost, and economic systems including command, market, and traditional economies
- 49Understand the concepts of perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition, and the benefits and costs of specialization
- 50Understand the factors of production and how they influence economic decisions and outcomes
- 51Understand the role of institutions and government in economics
- 52Subcategory B, Macroeconomics. Understand and interpret measures of economic performance, such as gross domestic product, unemployment, and inflation, to address economic issues
- 53Understand the basic functions of money, the interactions between people and financial institutions, and the motives and consequences of personal financial decisions
- 54Understand socioeconomic differences, inequalities, and mobility, their causes and effects, and their historical and contemporary solutions
- 55Understand how trade, global interdependence, and specialization of trade, services, and production affect the United States
Social Studies Skills (integrated across the five content categories, not separately weighted)
- 56Identify, consider, empathize with, and evaluate the perspectives of historical and contemporary figures
- 57Determine the causes and effects of movements, actions, events, and processes
- 58Understand how individuals, groups, and institutions achieve desired results, resolve conflicts, and affect change
- 59Acquire and use evidence to make analyses, draw conclusions, and ask questions
United States history topics (no lessons on site yet)
- 60Indigenous North America before contact
- 61European colonization and the colonial regions
- 62Slavery, resistance, and the colonial economy
- 63The causes and course of the Revolution
- 64The Constitution, ratification, and the early republic
- 65Expansion, Indian removal, and sectional conflict
- 66The Civil War and Reconstruction
- 67Industrialization, immigration, and urban growth
- 68Progressivism, the World Wars, and the Depression
- 69The Cold War, civil rights, and the modern era
World history topics
- 70River valley civilizations and the classical world
- 71World religions and their spread
- 72The Islamic world, medieval Africa, and medieval Europe
- 73Empires of the Americas and of Asia
- 74Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution
- 75Exploration, colonization, and the Columbian exchange
- 76Revolutions, industrialization, and nationalism
- 77Imperialism and the twentieth century world wars
- 78Decolonization and the contemporary world
Geography, civics, and economics topics
- 79Map projections, scale, and reading a thematic map
- 80Physical geography and human systems
- 81Population, migration, and urbanization
- 82The Constitution, federalism, and the branches
- 83Rights, responsibilities, and civic participation
- 84Political parties, elections, and public opinion
- 85Scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand
- 86Markets, money, banking, and government policy
- 87Evaluating a primary source, a graph, and a claim
Before test day
The single most useful thing you can do before this test is confirm you are taking the right one. If your programme handed you a 5089 guide, the essays it prepares you for no longer exist and the question count is off by fifty. After that, it comes down to breadth: this test rewards knowing a little about a great deal, and the surest way to lose is to spend three weeks perfecting the Civil War and none on economics.
A USEFUL NEXT STEP
Praxis Middle School Social Studies: study questions
What can I study in this Praxis Middle School Social Studies Online Center?
This Praxis Middle School Social Studies Online Center includes practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Topics on the page include United States History, World History, Geography.
How should I use the Praxis Middle School Social Studies resources?
Choose a topic or practice activity from this Online Center. Review the linked explanation, try the practice, and use the result to decide what to study next. Check each resource’s directions for its format and access requirements.
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