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Homeschool placement tests, sorted

Free printable homeschool placement checks in math and reading for kindergarten through grade 6, with answer keys and what to do with the result, plus links to every major curriculum's own placement test.

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Free placement tests

Free homeschool placement tests: quick reading and math checks for kindergarten to grade 6

Placing a child in the right level is the most important decision in a homeschool year and the one families most often get wrong, usually by placing at the grade the child would be in at school. A child who spent two years in a classroom that moved on without them may be a full grade behind in math and a grade ahead in reading. Placement tests find out.

Below are short, printable placement checks in math and reading for each grade from kindergarten to grade 6. They take ten to twenty minutes, they are free, and they are meant to tell you where to start, not to grade the child. After them, links to the placement tests every major program publishes, which you should use before buying that program.

On this page

How to use these placement checks

  • Start one grade below where you think the child is. If they sail through, do the next one. The right level is the first one where they get some wrong and have to think.
  • No help, no time limit, no stress. Say it is to find the best starting point, which is true.
  • Score with the key. Roughly 80% or more: the child has this grade's skills; check the next. Between 50% and 80%: start at this grade. Below 50%: start a grade lower and expect to move quickly.
  • Reading and math place separately. Different levels in each is normal and is exactly why you are testing.
  • Then use the program's own placement test (links below) before you buy, because every program sequences slightly differently.

Every major curriculum's free placement test

ProgramSubjectWhere
Math MammothMathmathmammoth.com/placement-tests (end-of-year tests for each grade)
Singapore Math (Dimensions, Primary)Mathsingaporemath.com/pages/placement-tests
Math-U-SeeMathmathusee.com/placement (short online readiness checks per level)
Saxon MathMathPlacement tests on the HMH Saxon homeschool pages and via retailers
RightStart MathMathrightstartmath.com placement guide
Beast AcademyMathbeastacademy.com/placement
Teaching TextbooksMathteachingtextbooks.com placement tests per level
All About ReadingReadingallaboutlearningpress.com placement tests per level
All About SpellingSpellingallaboutlearningpress.com placement (start Level 1 for most)
Logic of EnglishReading and spellinglogicofenglish.com placement tests
The Good and the BeautifulLanguage arts and mathgoodandbeautiful.com assessments per level
Institute for Excellence in WritingWritingiew.com placement by age and experience
Khan AcademyMathCourse Challenge at the start of any grade's math course

Placing reading beyond grade 2

Once a child decodes fluently, reading placement is about comprehension and stamina rather than grade. The simplest check: hand the child a book you think is right and have them read a page aloud. Five or more errors on a page of about a hundred words means the book is too hard for independent reading (fine for reading together). Fewer than two means it is easy; use those for stamina and pleasure. The free San Diego Quick Assessment (word lists by grade) and Lexile Find-a-Book are useful cross-checks.

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Printable checks

Placement checks by grade

Each sheet has ten math questions and a short reading passage with questions, plus the answer key at the bottom (fold it under). Print the grade below where you think the child is; if they score 80% or more, print the next one.

Kindergarten readiness

Kindergarten readiness placement check

Name ____________________   Date __________

Part A: Math

  1. 1.Count out loud to 20.
  2. 2.How many dots? ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
  3. 3.Which is more: 5 or 8?
  4. 4.Write the numbers 1 to 10.
  5. 5.What comes next: 2, 4, 6, __?
  6. 6.Name these shapes: circle, square, triangle, rectangle (draw them).
  7. 7.You have 3 apples and get 2 more. How many?
  8. 8.You have 6 grapes and eat 2. How many are left?
  9. 9.Which is longer: a pencil or a crayon? (show both)
  10. 10.Continue the pattern: red, blue, red, blue, __

Part B: Reading

Letter sounds: point to each letter and say its sound. m s a t p i n o d g c k e u r h b f l

  1. 1.How many sounds known out of 20?
  2. 2.Say these words slowly; child blends: c-a-t, s-i-t, m-o-p, r-u-n
  3. 3.What sound does 'dog' start with?
  4. 4.Tell me a word that rhymes with 'hat'.
  5. 5.Clap the parts of 'butterfly'.

Answer key (fold under)

Math: 1. Counts to 20 without skipping · 2. 7 · 3. 8 · 4. All ten formed, reversals acceptable · 5. 8 · 6. All four named · 7. 5 · 8. 4 · 9. Compares correctly · 10. red

Reading: 1. 15+ ready for blending; under 10 start with letter sounds · 2. Blends 3 of 4 · 3. /d/ · 4. Any rhyme (cat, mat, bat) · 5. 3 claps

Score: 80%+ try the next grade · 50–80% start here · under 50% start a grade lower.

Grade 1

Grade 1 placement check

Name ____________________   Date __________

Part A: Math

  1. 1.8 + 5 =
  2. 2.14 − 6 =
  3. 3.What number is 10 more than 37?
  4. 4.Write 56 in tens and ones.
  5. 5.Count by 5s from 5 to 50.
  6. 6.9 + __ = 15
  7. 7.What time is it when the hour hand is on 3 and the minute hand on 12?
  8. 8.A dime and three pennies is how many cents?
  9. 9.Which is greater: 63 or 36?
  10. 10.Sam has 7 stickers. Ana has 9. How many altogether?

Part B: Reading

Ben has a red hat. The hat is big. Ben runs to the pond. A duck sits on a log. The duck sees the hat. "Quack!" says the duck. Ben laughs and puts the hat on the log. Now the duck has a hat.

  1. 1.Read the passage aloud. Count errors.
  2. 2.What colour is Ben's hat?
  3. 3.Where does Ben run?
  4. 4.Who says 'Quack'?
  5. 5.Why does the duck have a hat at the end?

Answer key (fold under)

Math: 1. 13 · 2. 8 · 3. 47 · 4. 5 tens, 6 ones · 5. 5, 10, 15 … 50 · 6. 6 · 7. 3 o'clock · 8. 13 cents · 9. 63 · 10. 16

Reading: 1. 3 or fewer errors = on level · 2. Red · 3. To the pond · 4. The duck · 5. Ben put the hat on the log

Score: 80%+ try the next grade · 50–80% start here · under 50% start a grade lower.

Grade 2

Grade 2 placement check

Name ____________________   Date __________

Part A: Math

  1. 1.47 + 38 =
  2. 2.82 − 45 =
  3. 3.Write 364 in hundreds, tens and ones.
  4. 4.What is 100 more than 528?
  5. 5.Skip count by 2s from 20 to 40.
  6. 6.3 groups of 4 apples is how many apples?
  7. 7.What time is it: hour hand between 7 and 8, minute hand on 6?
  8. 8.Two quarters and a nickel is how many cents?
  9. 9.Shade half of a rectangle. What fraction is shaded?
  10. 10.Mia had 24 marbles and gave away 9. How many left?

Part B: Reading

Frogs begin life as eggs in a pond. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, which have tails and breathe through gills like fish. As weeks pass, the tadpole grows back legs, then front legs. Its tail shrinks and lungs grow. At last it climbs onto land as a small frog. A frog can live near water for many years, eating insects it catches with its long, sticky tongue.

  1. 1.Read aloud. Errors?
  2. 2.Where do frog eggs hatch?
  3. 3.What do tadpoles breathe with?
  4. 4.Which legs grow first?
  5. 5.How does a frog catch insects?
  6. 6.Put in order: front legs, eggs, tadpole, frog

Answer key (fold under)

Math: 1. 85 · 2. 37 · 3. 3 hundreds, 6 tens, 4 ones · 4. 628 · 5. 20, 22 … 40 · 6. 12 · 7. 7:30 · 8. 55 cents · 9. 1/2 · 10. 15

Reading: 1. 5 or fewer on the passage = on level · 2. In a pond · 3. Gills · 4. Back legs · 5. With its long, sticky tongue · 6. eggs, tadpole, front legs, frog

Score: 80%+ try the next grade · 50–80% start here · under 50% start a grade lower.

Grade 3

Grade 3 placement check

Name ____________________   Date __________

Part A: Math

  1. 1.6 × 7 =
  2. 2.56 ÷ 8 =
  3. 3.348 + 275 =
  4. 4.702 − 468 =
  5. 5.Round 647 to the nearest ten and nearest hundred.
  6. 6.What fraction of a pizza cut into 8 equal slices is 3 slices?
  7. 7.Which is larger: 2/3 or 2/5?
  8. 8.A rectangle is 5 cm by 3 cm. What is its perimeter? Its area?
  9. 9.It is 2:45. What time is it 30 minutes later?
  10. 10.There are 4 boxes with 9 crayons each. Two crayons break. How many good crayons?

Part B: Reading

Nobody knows exactly who invented the first kite, but people in China were flying them more than two thousand years ago. Early kites were made of silk stretched over bamboo frames. Soldiers used them to send signals, and some were built large enough to carry a person into the air to spy on enemies. Kites later travelled along trade routes to other countries, where they became toys. Today kites are flown for fun at festivals around the world, but scientists have also used them to lift cameras and weather instruments high above the ground.

  1. 1.Where were the earliest known kites flown?
  2. 2.What were early kites made from?
  3. 3.Name one way soldiers used kites.
  4. 4.How did kites reach other countries?
  5. 5.What does 'instruments' mean in the last sentence?
  6. 6.What is the main idea of the passage?

Answer key (fold under)

Math: 1. 42 · 2. 7 · 3. 623 · 4. 234 · 5. 650; 600 · 6. 3/8 · 7. 2/3 · 8. 16 cm; 15 sq cm · 9. 3:15 · 10. 34

Reading: 1. China · 2. Silk and bamboo · 3. Signals or lifting a person to spy · 4. Along trade routes · 5. Tools for measuring (weather tools), not musical instruments · 6. Kites have a long history and many uses, from war to fun to science

Score: 80%+ try the next grade · 50–80% start here · under 50% start a grade lower.

Grade 4

Grade 4 placement check

Name ____________________   Date __________

Part A: Math

  1. 1.38 × 6 =
  2. 2.23 × 14 =
  3. 3.96 ÷ 4 =
  4. 4.157 ÷ 6 = (with remainder)
  5. 5.3/8 + 2/8 =
  6. 6.Write 0.7 as a fraction. Which is bigger: 0.7 or 0.65?
  7. 7.List the factors of 24.
  8. 8.Is 29 prime or composite?
  9. 9.An angle measures 90°. What kind of angle is it? Draw one that is obtuse.
  10. 10.A bus holds 48 people. How many buses for 300 people?

Part B: Reading

When the lighthouse keeper's daughter, Abbie, was seventeen, a storm trapped her father on the mainland for four weeks. Abbie kept the lamps burning every night, hauling oil up the tower stairs while waves broke over the rocks below. She also cared for her sick mother and her younger sisters, and rescued the family's hens from the rising water. Ships passing the island never knew the light that guided them was tended by a teenager. Years later, Abbie became the official keeper herself, one of the few women in the job, and stayed for decades.

  1. 1.Why was Abbie's father away?
  2. 2.Name two things Abbie did during the storm.
  3. 3.What does 'tended' mean in the passage?
  4. 4.Why might the author say ships 'never knew'?
  5. 5.What character trait does Abbie show? Give evidence.
  6. 6.Summarise the passage in one sentence.

Answer key (fold under)

Math: 1. 228 · 2. 322 · 3. 24 · 4. 26 r1 · 5. 5/8 · 6. 7/10; 0.7 · 7. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 · 8. Prime · 9. Right; any angle over 90° · 10. 7 (6 full, 1 partly full)

Reading: 1. A storm trapped him on the mainland · 2. Kept the lamps burning, cared for her mother and sisters, rescued the hens · 3. Looked after, kept going · 4. To show how unusual and unrecognised her work was · 5. Responsibility/courage; e.g. hauling oil in the storm · 6. A teenage girl kept a lighthouse running through a storm and later became its keeper

Score: 80%+ try the next grade · 50–80% start here · under 50% start a grade lower.

Grade 5

Grade 5 placement check

Name ____________________   Date __________

Part A: Math

  1. 1.2/3 + 3/4 =
  2. 2.5 − 2 3/5 =
  3. 3.3/4 × 2/5 =
  4. 4.4.36 + 2.9 =
  5. 5.6.4 × 0.5 =
  6. 6.1,248 ÷ 24 =
  7. 7.Evaluate: 4 + 3 × (6 − 2)
  8. 8.What is 2 to the power of 5?
  9. 9.Volume of a box 4 cm × 3 cm × 5 cm?
  10. 10.A recipe needs 3/4 cup of sugar per batch. How much for 6 batches?

Part B: Reading

The honeybee's dance is one of the strangest forms of communication in nature. When a forager finds flowers, she returns to the hive and performs a 'waggle dance' on the honeycomb. The angle of her run tells the other bees the direction of the flowers relative to the sun; the length of the waggle tells the distance. Bees watching in the dark hive read the dance by touch and then fly out to the exact spot. Scientists once doubted that insects could pass on such precise information, and it took decades of experiments, including moving feeders and tracking bees, before the dance was widely accepted. The researcher who decoded it, Karl von Frisch, won a Nobel Prize in 1973.

  1. 1.What two pieces of information does the waggle dance give?
  2. 2.How do bees 'read' the dance in a dark hive?
  3. 3.Why did scientists doubt the discovery at first?
  4. 4.What does 'decoded' mean here?
  5. 5.What evidence in the passage shows the dance was eventually accepted?
  6. 6.Is the passage mainly narrative, persuasive or informational? Explain.

Answer key (fold under)

Math: 1. 17/12 or 1 5/12 · 2. 2 2/5 · 3. 6/20 = 3/10 · 4. 7.26 · 5. 3.2 · 6. 52 · 7. 16 · 8. 32 · 9. 60 cubic cm · 10. 4 1/2 cups

Reading: 1. Direction (angle) and distance (length of waggle) · 2. By touch · 3. They did not believe insects could communicate precise information · 4. Worked out the meaning of · 5. Decades of experiments; the Nobel Prize · 6. Informational: it explains a scientific finding

Score: 80%+ try the next grade · 50–80% start here · under 50% start a grade lower.

Grade 6

Grade 6 placement check

Name ____________________   Date __________

Part A: Math

  1. 1.3 2/3 ÷ 1/6 =
  2. 2.4.8 ÷ 0.6 =
  3. 3.Write 45% as a fraction in lowest terms and as a decimal.
  4. 4.What is 15% of 80?
  5. 5.The ratio of cats to dogs is 3:5. If there are 40 animals, how many cats?
  6. 6.−7 + 12 = and −4 − 9 =
  7. 7.Simplify: 3(x + 4) − 2x
  8. 8.Solve: 2x − 5 = 11
  9. 9.Area of a triangle with base 10 cm and height 6 cm?
  10. 10.Find the mean and median of 4, 8, 6, 10, 7.

Part B: Reading

In 1854, a doctor named John Snow did something that seems obvious now and was radical then: he drew a map. Cholera was killing hundreds in one London neighbourhood, and the accepted explanation was 'bad air'. Snow marked each death on a street map and noticed the deaths clustered around a single water pump on Broad Street. He persuaded officials to remove the pump's handle, and the outbreak faded. Snow could not see the bacterium that caused cholera; the microscope work came decades later. But his map showed that the pattern of a disease could reveal its cause, an idea that founded the science of epidemiology. The pump, or a replica of it, still stands on the street, now called Broadwick Street, as a memorial to the power of looking carefully.

  1. 1.What was the accepted explanation for cholera in 1854?
  2. 2.What did Snow's map reveal?
  3. 3.What action followed, and what was the result?
  4. 4.What does 'radical' mean in the first sentence?
  5. 5.Why does the author say Snow 'could not see' the cause? What point is being made?
  6. 6.What is the author's attitude to Snow? Cite a phrase.

Answer key (fold under)

Math: 1. 22 · 2. 8 · 3. 9/20; 0.45 · 4. 12 · 5. 15 · 6. 5; −13 · 7. x + 12 · 8. x = 8 · 9. 30 sq cm · 10. Mean 7; median 7

Reading: 1. 'Bad air' · 2. Deaths clustered around the Broad Street pump · 3. The pump handle was removed; the outbreak faded · 4. Very new and different, going against accepted ideas · 5. The bacterium was unknown; the point is that patterns can reveal causes before mechanisms are understood · 6. Admiring: 'the power of looking carefully', 'founded the science'

Score: 80%+ try the next grade · 50–80% start here · under 50% start a grade lower.

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Homeschool placement tests FAQ

How do I know what grade level my homeschooler is?

Test by subject, not by age: use the placement checks on this page or a program's own test, starting one grade below where you expect and moving up until the child is challenged. Different levels in reading and math are normal.

Are there free homeschool placement tests?

Yes. The checks on this page are free and printable, and every major curriculum (Math Mammoth, Singapore, Math-U-See, Saxon, All About Reading, Logic of English, The Good and the Beautiful, Khan Academy) publishes a free placement test.

Should I place my child at their school grade?

Only if the test says so. Children leaving school are often behind in one subject and ahead in another. Placing a grade below in a weak subject is the fastest route to catching up; placing too high produces tears and a stalled year.

What if my child scores badly on a placement test?

Then you have found the right starting point, which is the purpose. Start there, move at the child's pace, and retest in a term. Most children placed correctly move through a level in less than a year.

Is a placement test the same as a standardized test?

No. A placement test finds the right starting level in a specific program or skill set and is never required by any state. A standardized test compares the child to a national norm group and is required in some states. See the testing guide.

Reviewed 2026-09-07. Requirements, fees and programs change; verify with the official source before acting.

Related guides

Homeschool standardized testing guideBest homeschool math curriculumHomeschool reading curriculumGrade-level guides
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