1.1 Regents Exam Format, Parts, and Score Conversion

1.1 Regents Exam Format, Parts, and Score Conversion

[!NOTE] Standards transition: NYSED's Instruction and Assessment Implementation Timeline places the first administration of the Algebra II Regents Examination aligned to the Next Generation Mathematics Learning Standards in June 2026, with January 2026 as the last administration of the Algebra II CC (2011) exam. Every fact in this chapter is taken from the current Educator Guide to the Regents Examination in Algebra II, the June 2026 examination booklet, and the Directions for Administering Regents Examinations (DET 563) for January, June, and August 2026.

The Regents Examination in Algebra II is New York State's commencement-level Algebra II assessment. It measures four conceptual categories - Number & Quantity, Algebra, Functions, and Statistics & Probability - with modeling embedded throughout rather than tested as a separate category. Knowing the exam's architecture is worth real credits: it tells you how much each question is worth, how much writing a grader expects, and how many raw credits you actually need.

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1. Examination Design: 36 Questions, 82 Credits

The Educator Guide publishes the exam design as a fixed table. It does not vary from administration to administration.

Part I: Multiple Choice (Questions 1-24)

Every Part I question offers four answer choices, numbered (1) through (4), and is recorded on a separate scannable answer sheet.

• No partial credit. A Part I item is worth 2 credits or 0 credits. An omission, a double mark, or a wrong choice all score 0.
• Distractors are built from plausible missteps. The Educator Guide states this explicitly: wrong answers are engineered from the specific errors students actually make, so an answer that "looks right" is not evidence that it is right.
• More than half the exam lives here. Part I is 48 of 82 credits. Accuracy in Part I does more for your scale score than any other single block of the test.

Part II: Two-Credit Constructed Response (Questions 25-32)

Eight short items, 2 credits each. Typical tasks from the June 2026 form included determining a term of a recursively defined sequence, writing an exponential regression equation from a data table, finding a remainder using the Remainder Theorem, labeling a normal curve at $\mu \pm 1\sigma$, $\mu \pm 2\sigma$, $\mu \pm 3\sigma$, sketching a cubic from its zeros, finding an exact trigonometric ratio from a given ratio and sign condition, solving a quadratic over the complex numbers, and simplifying a rational expression.

Scoring is 0, 1, or 2. One credit is typical when appropriate work is shown but a single computational or conceptual error is made, or when the correct answer appears with no supporting work.

Part III: Four-Credit Constructed Response (Questions 33-35)

Three multi-step items, 4 credits each. The June 2026 form used a two-way table with conditional probability and an independence justification, a compound-interest model with an algebraic solve for time, and a radical equation solved algebraically.

Scoring runs 0 through 4. Mechanical errors (computational, graphing, or rounding) cost 1 credit each, and no more than 2 credits total may be deducted for mechanical errors on a 4-credit question.

Part IV: Six-Credit Extended Response (Question 36)

A single extended modeling task. On the June 2026 form, Question 36 gave a sinusoidal lung-capacity model, asked for a graph over a stated interval, asked for the first time a stated capacity is reached, asked for an average rate of change over an interval, and asked for a contextual interpretation of that rate.

Scoring runs 0 through 6, and no more than 3 credits may be deducted for mechanical errors on a 6-credit question. Partial models, correct set-ups, and correct intermediate values all earn credit even when the final answer is wrong.

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2. Session Length and Admission Rules

Students are permitted three hours to complete the examination. The June 2026 administration ran Wednesday, June 10, 2026, 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Two administration rules are frequently misstated, so take them from the source:

• Principals may start earlier than the posted time. The Educator Guide states that schools may begin secondary-level examinations before the specified time.
• No student may hand in materials and leave before the Uniform Statewide Admission Deadline. DET 563 sets that deadline at 10:00 a.m. for the January and June morning session and 2:00 p.m. for the January and June afternoon session. In August, the deadlines are 9:15 a.m. (morning) and 1:15 p.m. (afternoon). The purpose is to prevent information from moving between test centers - it is not a "minimum two hours in the room" rule.

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3. Raw Credits Versus Scale Scores

Your reported Regents score is a scale score from 0 to 100, not a percentage.

Raw credits earned (0 - 82)  --->  [ administration-specific conversion chart ]  --->  Scale score (0 - 100)
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                                                                       65 = passing standard, 85 = mastery benchmark

A common and expensive misconception is that a 65 requires 65% of 82 credits (53.3 credits). It does not. NYSED equates each form so that a given scale score represents the same level of achievement regardless of whether that particular form ran slightly harder or easier, then publishes a conversion chart usable only for that administration.

The Actual June 2026 Conversion Chart

The published chart for June 2026 gives these anchor points:

Read that passing row carefully. On the June 2026 form, 30 raw credits out of 82 - about 37% of the available credit - converted to a scale score of 65. Fifteen correct Part I questions alone (30 credits) reached the passing standard on that form.

[!IMPORTANT] The 30-credit figure is specific to June 2026. NYSED states plainly that scale scores corresponding to raw scores change from one administration to another and that the chart for that administration must be used. Treat "about 30 credits" as a planning anchor, never as a guarantee, and never compute your own percentage conversion.

Performance Levels and What They Mean

NYSED classifies performance into five levels. Level 3 is the minimum level that meets the content-area requirement for a Regents diploma; Levels 4 and 5 indicate progressively stronger command of the standards. The scale-score cut points for Levels 4 and 5 are set for each administration, so quote them from the chart in front of you rather than from memory.

A score of 85 or better matters beyond the transcript: NYSED awards a Regents diploma with advanced designation annotated for mastery in mathematics to students who complete the advanced-designation requirements and score 85 or better on three commencement-level mathematics Regents examinations (with defined exemption pathways). A single 85 in Algebra II is one of the three, not the whole requirement.

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4. How Constructed Responses Are Actually Rated

The rating rules are published in the Rating Guide released with each form. Three of them decide most lost credits.

Rule 1: The Unsupported-Answer Rule

The directions printed at the head of Parts II, III, and IV state: "For all questions in this part, a correct numerical answer with no work shown will receive only 1 credit." This is a flat 1 credit whether the question is worth 2, 4, or 6. A perfect answer copied off a calculator screen with nothing written down turns a 6-credit question into a 1-credit question.

Rule 2: The Wrong-Method Rule

The General Rules for Applying Mathematics Rubrics state that when a question specifies the type of solution required - for example "solve algebraically" or "solve graphically" - a correct solution using a different method is awarded half the credit of a correct solution using the specified method. So a correct graphical answer to a 4-credit "algebraically determine" prompt earns 2 credits, not 1 and not 4. Showing complete algebra is the only way to the full 4.

Rule 3: The Error-Type Rule

Computational, graphing, and rounding errors each cost 1 credit. A conceptual error (wrong formula, wrong trigonometric function, adding exponents where you should multiply) is treated more seriously and is charged against the rubric for that specific question. Repeated occurrences of the same conceptual error inside one response are penalized once.

Decoding the Command Words

[!CAUTION] On independence and plausibility questions, "justify" is literal. A verbal answer such as "they seem related" earns zero. You must display the two quantities being compared - for example $P(A|B) = 0.25$ versus $P(A) = 0.25$ - and then state the conclusion.

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5. Frequent Credit Leaks

• Extraneous roots. Radical and rational equations require you to test candidates and explicitly reject the ones that fail. Silently dropping a root reads as an incomplete response.
• Rounding early. Round only the final stated value, to exactly the precision the prompt names.
• Answering half the question. Part III and IV prompts often chain three requests (write the model, solve it, interpret it). An unanswered sub-prompt is an incomplete response, not a rounding-style deduction.
• Units. When a prompt asks for a rate or a measurement in context, attach the unit.