If you're in center school or high schoolhouse in New York Country, chances are that you've heard of the NYSED Regents exams. In fact, all NY public loftier school students take to take (and pass) a certain number of these exams to graduate from high schoolhouse.
In this article, nosotros'll discuss exactly what the Regents are and which Regents yous'll need to take. We'll besides give you tips on how to prep for the Regents likewise every bit the (limited) Regents testing schedule for 2022.
feature image credit: Nicolas Raymond/Used under CC Past 2.0
What Are the NYSED Regents Exams?
The New York Country Education Department (NYSED) Regents exams are subject-based tests generally taken at the end of the school year in June (although at that place are also August and January examination dates for makeups/mid-year exams). By subject-based, nosotros mean that you aren't just tested on wide categories like "Math" or "Science"—instead, you'll take Regents in specific subjects, like Algebra i, Chemistry, US History & Government, and so on.
Currently, there are ten Regents exams that most students will encounter:
- English Linguistic communication Arts
- Algebra 1
- Algebra 2
- Geometry
- Global History & Geography
- Usa History & Authorities
- Earth Science
- Living Environment (Bio)
- Chemistry
- Physics
Each Regents exam is administered over the course of three hours in a single day (rest in 2011, half dozen-hours-over-2-days English Regents test; you will not be missed).
Depending on the subject field, Regents exams will include multiple-choice questions and brusque-answer questions or essay responses (including document-based questions). Based on your performance, you lot'll receive a scaled score from 1-100 on each test.
The four Science Regents exams (Earth Science, Living Environment, Chemical science, and Physics) also include separately-scheduled lab practicals; you can read more about these in our manufactures about the Earth Science, Living Environment, and Chemical science Regents.
Because there are multiple subject field-based tests that you lot'll have to take, the Regents aren't exactly considered a high school get out examination, which tend to be more Math/English language Language Arts-focused.
Nevertheless, you will yet accept to take at to the lowest degree five Regents exams (and in many cases, 8 tests) across grades nine-12 to become your NY high school diploma—if you're in public school, that is. If you go to private school, you lot're in luck—the Regents are only mandatory for students attending public school in New York.
Now that you lot take a better idea of what the Regents are, we'll movement on to discussing how many Regents exams y'all have to accept.
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How Many Regents Do You Need to Take?
The requirements for which and how many NYS Regents exams you need to graduate (and how well y'all need to do on the exams) depend on what kind of diploma you'll exist graduating with.
In that location are three main categories of Regents diploma: regular Regents diplomas, Regents with Advanced Designation diplomas, and diplomas for students with special circumstances (e.g., English language learners, students with IEPs).
Here's a brief summary of the differences between the three categories and how many Regents you need to pass to graduate with each diploma type:
| Diploma Type | # of Regents to Pass (Minimum)
| Passing Score |
| Regents | v; ane math, 1 science, 1 social studies, ELA, and additional math/scientific discipline/social studies/English assessment (or land-approved alternate assessment) | 65 and higher up |
| Regents with Advanced Designation | 9; ELA, 3 Math, Living Environment, 1 additional science, ane social studies, whatsoever additional country-approved Regents exam, any NYC World Languages exam | 65 and above |
| Local (students with special circumstances) | 5; 1 math, i science, 1 social studies, ELA, additional math/scientific discipline/social studies/English cess (or alternate assessment) | 55 and to a higher place |
Source: NYSED.gov. For the final word on what requirements you need to meet, refer to the official NYSED Regents guidelines here.
The majority of NY public schoolhouse students volition graduate with either a regular Regents diploma or a Regents with Advanced Designation diploma. Nosotros'll go through the testing requirements for those ii categories in greater detail next.
Regents Diploma Requirements
Unless y'all have an IEP or are an English language language learner, yous need to run into the Regents diploma requirements to graduate high schoolhouse.
Y'all'll need to pass at least four Regents exams (go a 65 or higher) to get this Regents diploma:
- 1 math Regents (Algebra i, Algebra ii, or Geometry)
- 1 science Regents (Earth Science, Living Environment, Chemistry, or Physics)
- 1 social studies Regents (Global History or United states of america History)
- the English language Language Arts Regents
In improver to these four tests, you must choose one of the following six Pathway options:
- laissez passer another math, science, or social studies Regents
- pass a NYSED-approved English assessment (in a different course; can't overlap with ELA)
- pass a NYSED-approved assessment in a language other than English
- pass a NYSED-approved arts cess
- complete an NYSED-approved Career and Technical Education (CTE) plan and pass a three-part assessment
- complete requirements for the Career Development Occupational Studies Credential (CDOS)
Unless y'all cull 1 of the alternating Pathway options, this means that you'll need to take five Regents exams (and get a 65 or to a higher place on each) to graduate.
If yous simply miss the cutoff on one of your tests (scoring a 60-64), y'all can appeal to your district to still allow you to graduate; if you score lower than that, or if you score below 65 on multiple tests, however, you'll need to either re-take the exam(due south) and pass or have some other Regents and pass.
If you're looking to challenge yourself, yous can aim for a Regents with Honors diploma; the only divergence is that instead of just needing a 65 or above, yous need to have an average of 90 or above across all your Regents (whether y'all take 4 or five).
At that place isn't really a material advantage to your college applications to getting a Regents with Honors diploma (except possibly if you're applying to SUNY or CUNY colleges), but if your teachers count your Regents exam grade every bit office of your grade grade, it's to your benefit to do well on the Regents you take. (If I think correctly, I believe that for some of my high school classes, our Regents grades were counted as two test scores when calculating our grades in the final quarter of the year.)
Regents With Advanced Designation Requirements
The requirements for the Regents with Advanced Designation diploma include everything y'all need to do for the Regents Diploma plus passing three additional Regents exams, for a total of seven or eight Regents exams.
As with getting a Regents with Honors diploma, unless y'all're applying to a SUNY or CUNY college which uses your Regents diploma level every bit a placement or admissions criteria, there'south no real benefit in specifically aiming for a Regents with Avant-garde Designation diploma.
However, if yous're taking a rigorous high school form load (honors classes, APs/IBs), you will probable end upwards qualifying for the Regents with Advanced Designation diploma as a byproduct of your schedule if your school requires Regents to be taken at the end of the year for a particular course.
For instance, as an eighth-grader I took Regents Earth Scientific discipline, which was the honors science course for that class (vs. regular Earth Science), and so had to take the Regents at the end of the year (because that's what my schoolhouse required). For other classes, the Regents exams were non only required at the end of the twelvemonth, just were part of our grades for the final quarter of the twelvemonth, and so information technology behooved u.s. to try to do well on them.
The "traditional" Regents with Avant-garde Designation path requires you to pass 8 Regents exams:
- Three math (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry)
- Two science (ane physical, i life: Living Surround, Earth Science, Chemistry, or Physics)
- One social studies (Global History & Geography and The states History & Government)
- I English Linguistic communication Arts
- One Pathway
Alternatively, yous can bandy out any of the Regents exams listed above for another State-approved alternative assessment.
In improver to getting a Regents with Advanced Designation diploma, you can potentially become additional laudations through the following three ways:
- Mastery in Math: meet all Advanced Designation requirements and score an 85 or above on each Regents math test.
- Mastery in Science: come across all Advanced Designation requirements and score an 85 or above on each of three Regents scientific discipline tests taken.
- Honors: encounter all Advanced Designation requirements and score an average of 90 or higher up across all Regents exams taken.
Marco Verch/Flickr
Regents Schedule, 2022
Below, we've created tables with the Regents schedule for January 2022, June 2022, and August 2022. We'll update it if test times and dates alter.
One important annotation earlier jumping to the Regents schedule: All Regents exams accept admission deadlines, aka the latest time yous can show up to take the test and nonetheless be allowed in. These deadlines are 45 minutes subsequently the time the examination administration starts.
For example, permit'south say you slumber in past your warning for your 9:xv am English Language Arts exam (not that I know anyone who did this). As long as you bear witness up and are admitted to the testing room by 10:00 am, you lot can nonetheless take the test (although you'll still only take until 12:15 pm to stop).
Jan 2022
| Morning (nine:15 am) | Afternoon (1:15 pm) |
| Tuesday, Jan 25 | English Language Arts | Living Surroundings |
| Wednesday, January 26 | Algebra I
Physical Setting/Physics | Geometry |
| Th, January 27 | Global History & Geography Two | Algebra II |
| Friday, January 28 | Physical Setting/Earth Science
Physical Setting/Chemistry | |
Source: NYSED.gov
Admission deadline: 10 am for morn tests; 2 pm for afternoon tests. If you lot arrive at the classroom/wherever your test is being held after this time, you will not be permitted to enter and take the test.
June 2021
| Week one | Morn (9:fifteen am) |
Th, June 17
| English Linguistic communication Arts |
| Week ii | Morning (ix:fifteen am) | Afternoon (1:15pm) |
| Wednesday, June fifteen | English language Arts | Living Surround |
| Thursday, June 16 | Algebra I | Concrete Setting/Chemistry |
| Friday, June 17 | Global History & Geography Two | Physical Setting/Earth Scientific discipline |
| Week 3 | Morning (nine:15 am) |
Tuesday, June 21
| Geometry |
| Wednesday, June 22 | Algebra II |
| Thursday, June 23 | Concrete Setting/Physics |
Sources: NYSED.gov
Admission deadline: 10:00 am for morning time tests; 2:00 pm for afternoon tests. If y'all arrive at the classroom/wherever your test is being held later this fourth dimension, you will not be permitted to enter and take the test.
August 2022
| Week 1 | Morning (8:30 am) | Afternoon (12:30 pm) |
| Tuesday, August 16 | Algebra I English Language Arts | U.South. History and Government (Framework) Concrete Setting/Earth Science Concrete Setting/Chemistry |
| Wednesday, August 17 | Global History and Geography Ii Algebra II | Geometry Living Environment |
Sources: NYSED.gov
Admission borderline: 9:fifteen am for morning tests; one:15 pm for afternoon tests. If you lot go far at the classroom/wherever your test is being held afterward this fourth dimension, yous will non be permitted to enter and take the test.
Regents Prep Tips
On our blog, we've written several other articles that include specific tips for different Regents tests, including:
- Globe Science
- Living Environment (Bio)
- Chemistry
- Algebra I
- Algebra 2
- Geometry
- Us History & Government
However, we also have a few full general Regents prep tips that are applicable to studying for any Regents exam.
#ane: Spread Out Your Studying
Because Regents exams cover a whole year's material (or in the case of Global History, two years'), cramming doesn't piece of work super well, particularly if y'all're taking multiple Regents exams (plus an AP or two).
Start reviewing your material at least two weeks earlier the test. You don't have to study for hours every night, only giving yourself enough lead time before the test means you lot'll have more flexibility in the corporeality of time you spend on each unit of measurement. For instance, you lot might find that y'all only need to spend a day reviewing U.s. History up through the Civil War, but demand to spend a calendar week on Reconstruction.
Spreading out your studying as well means yous'll be sleeping in between studying, which will help cement your memory of all that information you're reading and quizzing yourself on. Speaking of which...
#2: Get Slumber the Dark Before the Regents
Remember that fun, not-at-all-something-that-happened thing I mentioned in the scheduling section about sleeping through the Regents? Yeah. While I didn't do this, I know people who did, and rushing to become to school earlier the deadline and and then rushing through the test is not super conducive to scoring well.
Even if y'all're someone who wakes up at the same time every day without an alarm, though, getting a practiced night'south rest leading up to a test will magnify the results of your studying. Personally, I've institute that getting a good nighttime's sleep two days before the test is also critical, but you may discover your trunk works differently.
#iii: Friction match Regents to Your AP Exams
As a NY public school student, Regents are an inescapable fact of life, but you tin utilize them to your advantage.
If you're thinking near applying to whatsoever schools that require or recommend AP Exams, it'south actually helpful to take them at the same fourth dimension you're taking a Regents on the same subject. This can help you get AP exams out of the way early in high school, leaving you more time to focus on the regular Sabbatum/ACT and higher apps in inferior and senior twelvemonth.
Plus, the overlap in textile betwixt the Regents and other tests means that yous often need to merely written report once, thoroughly (rather than having to written report multiple times for each test). For example, yous could cocky-study for the AP Globe history examination and accept that the aforementioned fourth dimension you take the Global History Regents in 10th form, and earn some college credit to boot!
The only affair to be cautious of is overloading yourself, peculiarly if you have final exams in addition to the Regents in a particular subject. Speaking equally someone who took the US History Regents, US History AP, and Us History Sat Subject Exam all within a month of each other at the end of inferior yr, burnout can be a very real thing.
Don't overload yourself with tests to the signal of burning out.
What'south Side by side?
Are yous taking the APs too equally the NYSED Regents? Brand certain your schedule doesn't go snarled past comparison Regents test dates with upcoming AP dates.
NYSED might non care if you get an A or a C as long as you pass the New York State Regents, only colleges certainly do. Acquire what a good GPA is for college and how to convert your GPA to a 4.0 hither.
Thinking almost what to do this summer after the NYSED Regents? Read through our guides on what high schoolhouse students should do over the summer (besides summer assignments), including pre-college summer programs, SAT/ACT boot campsite, or getting a chore.
