NYSTCE ATAS Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield NYSTCE ATAS facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Refer to well-known people or events without explicitly describing them → Allusions
2. What is the time limit for the women's gymnastics floor exercise event? → 60 seconds
3. What distinguishes automaticity from fluency? → Fluency includes appropriate changes in tone
4. What purpose does learning morphemes serve? → To put meaningful elements together to form words
5. A student regularly disrupts the class by making jokes during direct instruction. The teacher ignores the behavior. This approach is called: → Planned ignoring or extinction
6. Which federal law mandates that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment? → Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
7. Which behavior management strategy involves recognizing and praising positive student behavior? → Positive reinforcement
8. Which of the following is NOT a strategy that older persons can employ to delay the onset of cognitive decline? → Sleeping more
9. What is the caloric content of one gram of protein? → 4
10. During a small group reading activity, a student with dyslexia has difficulty decoding words. What strategy should the teaching assistant use? → Use phonemic awareness prompts such as segmenting sounds before blending
11. Use the graph to answer the subsequent question. How large is the vector shown above? → 5
12. What is the name of a popular game in which the goal is to securely return the opposing team's flag to your team's base? → Capture the Flag
13. A young student is able to change one phoneme in the word "door" to create the word "poor." What ability does this display? → Substitution
14. Which developmental milestone would you typically expect a typically developing 4-year-old to demonstrate? → Engaging in cooperative play with peers
15. What is the primary purpose of formative assessment in the classroom? → To monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback to improve instruction
16. Which of the following is the unit of measurement in the metric system? → Kilometers per hour
17. Gymnastics has its roots in: → Ancient Greece
18. Why is cobalt (Co) listed before nickel (Ni) on the periodic table of elements, despite having a higher average atomic mass? → Nickel has one more proton.
19. A verb form that can also function as an adjective → Participle
20. In soccer, what color card is used to indicate a warning? → Yellow
21. Vygotsky emphasized the role of 'private speech' (children talking to themselves) as: → A tool children use to guide their own thinking and problem-solving
22. A child who insists that a tall, thin glass holds more water than a short, wide glass after the same amount is poured has not yet developed: → Conservation
23. When a cold tire is inflated to a specific pressure and then heated by road friction, the pressure increases. This occurs because of → air molecules speed up and collide with the tire walls more often.
24. A teaching assistant is helping a student with a math problem. The problem is: -7 + (-12). What is the correct answer? → -19
25. "Which of the following procedures will decrease the rate of reaction if the reaction below occurs in a sealed reaction chamber? 2CO + O2 ---> 2CO2" → increasing the volume inside the reaction chamber
26. Which of the following accurately describes the rate of this chemical reaction? → an increase in the concentration of HCl with time
27. What kind of human growth is NOT one of the following? → Traditional
28. What are the advantages of written communication? → It is more organized
29. A teaching assistant notices a student with a learning disability struggles to follow multi-step verbal directions. What is the BEST accommodation to provide? → Break directions into single steps and use visual cues
30. Which type of reinforcement is MOST effective for increasing a desired behavior in students? → Positive reinforcement delivered immediately after the desired behavior