How I’m Rethinking Earth Science Regents Prep After Giving a Mock Exam

Oh teacher friends — it’s Test Prep Season.

Every year around this time, I can’t help thinking about this ridiculous “Madden Season” video my husband showed me years ago with Kevin Hart getting wildly hyped up. Absolutely unrelated to teaching in every possible way… and yet somehow I picture my coworkers and I stepping into those same dramatic roles every June as Earth Science Regents season begins.

Clipboards out. Coffee in hand. Survival mode activated.

So this year, my colleagues had the brilliant idea to kick things off by giving a full mock Earth Science Regents exam on a Saturday morning. Students signed up through a Google Form, showed up for two required hours (with the option to stay for three), and honestly? We all walked away learning something from it.

Actually… two things.

Number 1 — The kids got a kick in the pants

Even though we tell students over and over:

• how long the Earth Science Regents exam is

• how many questions there are

• how mentally exhausting it can feel

• how important pacing is

…they don’t really understand it until they sit through the full thing themselves. In New York, many students have opted out of state testing for years before reaching high school. Some of them have genuinely never experienced sitting through a long standardized exam before. So just the act of taking the full-length test was eye-opening. Suddenly the next few weeks of review became a lot more real:

“Oh… maybe I actually DO need to study.”

What surprised me most was the ripple effect afterward. Students who took the mock exam started talking to other students about the experience. The urgency spread faster coming from peers than it ever could coming from me.

Number 2 — I got a kick in the pants

As humbling as it is to admit, the mock exam reminded me that students need MUCH more explicit support with how to think through Regents-level questions. And here’s the thing: I’ve actually done a pretty solid job writing NGSS-style and Regents-style Earth Science questions throughout the year.

But teacher brain sneaks in.

I naturally scaffold. I naturally clarify. I naturally make questions a little more accessible because I know my students so well. (How DARE I.)

The problem is that real Regents questions don’t do that.

Students aren’t just struggling with content knowledge. Many of them struggle with:

• figuring out what the question is actually asking

• analyzing diagrams and tables

• determining what to use in the Earth Science Reference Tables (ESSRT)

• connecting the stimulus to the answer choices

• identifying the “thing” they are supposed to explain

• determining what characteristic or evidence the answer must include

And honestly? That’s a completely different skill set than simply “knowing science.”

How I’m Changing My Earth Science Regents Review

So my next step is reorganizing Regents prep a bit. I’m taking recent Earth Science Regents exams and grouping the questions into topic-based clusters — space questions together, weather together, plate tectonics together, and so on. For example, I might print all of the Space questions from the January 2026 Earth Science Regents exam and use them as part of a focused review lesson. This allows me to combine content review with explicit test prep strategies. Instead of reviewing space topics in isolation, students practice the actual style of Regents questions while revisiting the science concepts at the same time.

But here's the gamechanger: I'm creating a coaching slideshow to accompany the questions.

For each Regents cluster packet, I’m building an interactive PowerPoint that walks students through the thinking process behind the questions. Each question has three connected slides.

Slide 1 — The Question + “How to Attack It”

This slide includes:

• the stimulus

• the question

• directions for analyzing it

This is where I model things like:

• How do I annotate the question to determine its REALLY asking?

• What information in the diagram actually matters?

• Is this testing information that I must recall, or is this more like problem solving?

Many students don’t struggle only with content — they struggle with unpacking the question itself.

Slide 2 — Background Knowledge Review

The second slide gives students the exact science ideas they need to answer the question.

Not giant notes pages. Just focused review tied directly to the problem.

Slide 3 — Answer Explanation + Thinking Process

The final slide explains:

• the correct answer

• why it’s correct

• how students could reason through it

Students don’t just need more Regents questions. They need guided thinking.

Why I Think This Works Better

Traditional test prep can quickly turn into:

• copying

• memorizing

• answer hunting

But when students are guided through the actual thinking process, something changes. They slow down, recognize patterns, and start approaching unfamiliar Regents questions with more confidence.

At the end of the day, I don’t just want students memorizing Earth Science facts — I want them becoming better problem solvers who can independently figure things out.

Because when students learn how to slow down, analyze a question, and make sense of unfamiliar information, they’re doing far more than preparing for a test — they’re building the confidence to think through challenges on their own.

And if you’re looking for a more guided and interactive way to approach Regents prep, you can check out my Earth Science Regents Review Space Practice Clusters & Question Analysis Slides on Teachers Pay Teachers.