STR Study Guide 2026

Everything you need to pass the STR exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.

STR exam key facts

The passing score for the TExES Science of Teaching Reading (293) exam is a scaled score of 240. Source
The TExES Science of Teaching Reading (293) exam fee is $136, and additional fees may apply. Source
Candidates can retake the TExES Science of Teaching Reading (293) exam 30 days after their previous attempt, and they get five attempts in total unless TEA approves a test-limit waiver. Source

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📋 STR Exam Format at a Glance

Questions

285 min

Time Limit

70.00%

Passing Score

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📚 STR Topics to Study (35)

Phonics and Decoding · 7 cards Phonics and Decoding · 7 cards Literacy Assessment and Intervention · 6 cards Literacy Assessment and Intervention · 6 cards Literacy Assessment and Intervention · 6 cards Oral Language and Listening Comprehension · 6 cards Oral Language and Listening Comprehension · 6 cards Oral Language and Listening Comprehension · 6 cards Phonemic Awareness · 6 cards Phonemic Awareness · 6 cards Phonological Awareness · 6 cards Phonological Awareness · 6 cards Reading Comprehension · 6 cards Reading Comprehension · 6 cards Reading Comprehension · 6 cards Reading Fluency · 6 cards Reading Fluency · 6 cards Reading Fluency · 6 cards Spelling and Writing Connections · 6 cards Spelling and Writing Connections · 6 cards Spelling and Writing Connections · 6 cards Structured Literacy and Dyslexia · 6 cards Structured Literacy and Dyslexia · 6 cards Structured Literacy and Dyslexia · 6 cards Text Structure and Academic Language · 6 cards Text Structure and Academic Language · 6 cards Text Structure and Academic Language · 6 cards Vocabulary Development · 6 cards Vocabulary Development · 6 cards Word Analysis · 6 cards

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✍️ Sample STR Questions & Answers

1. Which error pattern would MOST indicate a student has a phonological processing deficit rather than a phonics knowledge gap?

✓ Unable to blend sounds even when shown individually

Difficulty blending sounds presented individually suggests a phonological processing deficit — the student cannot manipulate phonemes even without the spelling layer.

2. Progress monitoring assessments should be administered to at-risk students at least:

✓ Every 1–2 weeks during intervention

Research recommends weekly or biweekly progress monitoring during intervention to determine if the intervention is effective.

3. Why is background knowledge particularly important for reading comprehension?

✓ It allows readers to make inferences, fill gaps, and build mental models of text meaning

Background knowledge provides the conceptual scaffold for inference-making and mental model construction, which are essential for deep comprehension.

4. A student can blend phonemes into words but struggles with segmenting words into phonemes. Which instructional strategy would be MOST effective?

✓ Use Elkonin boxes or counters to make segmentation concrete and systematic

Elkonin boxes provide a concrete, kinesthetic scaffold that helps students physically separate phonemes, directly targeting the segmentation skill gap.

5. A student understands individual sentences but struggles to understand the whole text. This is BEST described as a problem with:

✓ Text-level comprehension (global coherence)

Difficulty integrating sentences into a coherent whole reflects a problem with global coherence or text-level comprehension.

6. Which definition of dyslexia is used by the International Dyslexia Association?

✓ A specific learning disability characterized by difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition, poor decoding and spelling, rooted in a phonological processing deficit

The IDA defines dyslexia as a specific, neurobiological learning disability rooted in a phonological processing deficit, affecting word recognition and decoding despite adequate instruction.

🎯 Free STR Practice Tests

Phonics and Decoding · 7 questions Phonics and Decoding · 7 questions Phonemic Awareness · 6 questions Reading Comprehension · 6 questions Reading Fluency · 6 questions Reading Comprehension · 6 questions Spelling and Writing Connections · 6 questions Literacy Assessment and Intervention · 6 questions Phonemic Awareness · 6 questions Word Analysis · 6 questions

📖 STR Guides & Articles

Your STR Study Path

1. Learn with Flashcards → 2. Drill Practice Tests → 3. Take the Full Exam Simulation

🃏 STR Flashcards (208)🏆 STR Exam Simulation

What Practice Test Geeks adds beyond an AI chat for STR

An AI chatbot can quiz you, but it can't reproduce the exam conditions or keep your record. Here you get:

A timed, full-length STR mock exam — 90 questions in 285 minutes with a 70% pass mark, modeled on the official exam's question count and time limit, followed by a score report broken down by exam domain.
A fixed STR question bank: the same test every attempt, so your score is comparable from one try to the next instead of changing with every regenerated quiz.
Progress saved on your device: completed tests, scores and missed questions stay in My Progress, so you can retake only what you got wrong.
A printable STR cheat sheet you can print or save as a PDF.
STR flashcards built from the same question bank.
Free STR practice tests with the correct answer shown after each question.

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How this page was made: written with AI tools and published by Nathan Beja, founder of Practice Test Geeks, who is responsible for its content. Exam facts are checked against the official sources listed below. Not reviewed by a subject-matter expert. Editorial policy

Sources & references

Exam facts on this page (fees, format, dates, passing scores) are checked against these official sources; the date is our last check. Editorial policy

tea.texas.gov — Eligibility · verified Oct 2026
tx.nesinc.com — Registration deadline, test delivery, fees, passing score, test dates, retake policy, score release · verified Oct 2026