Massachusetts High School Introductory Physics MCAS: complete guide to the STE framework, the three reporting categories, the computer-based item types, the reference sheet, the achievement levels, and the post-2024 graduation rules

The Massachusetts High School Introductory Physics MCAS is one of the high school Science and Technology/Engineering (STE) tests administered by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). It is built on the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework and assesses the high school introductory physics standards. This page is the index: it explains the STE framework, the three reporting categories, the computer-based item types, the reference sheet, the achievement levels, the post-2024 graduation rules, and how to study each part of the course. The content is organized into six modules that map onto the three physics reporting categories.

One of four STE test options

High school students in Massachusetts must take one high school STE test, and they choose from four: Biology, Introductory Physics, Chemistry, or Technology/Engineering. Whichever a student takes, it is built from the Massachusetts STE Curriculum Framework, the state standards adopted in 2016 and based on the framework behind the Next Generation Science Standards.

The Introductory Physics test covers the high school introductory physics standards, coded under HS-PS (physical science). These are the same standards a strong high school physics course teaches: motion and forces, momentum, energy, waves and sound, and electricity and magnetism, treated with algebra and proportional reasoning rather than calculus.

What Question 2 changed about graduation

This is the most important update, and it is easy to get wrong. In November 2024, Massachusetts voters approved ballot Question 2. It removed the long-standing rule that a student had to pass the MCAS to earn the statewide competency determination (CD) that is required to graduate.

What this means in practice:

• Passing the MCAS is no longer the state graduation gate. Effective in early December 2024, students earn the competency determination by satisfactorily completing district-certified coursework aligned to the standards the high school MCAS measured, not by passing a test.
• The MCAS is still administered, and participation is still required. DESE has been explicit that participation in the MCAS is required by state and federal law and that the ballot question did not change that. The Introductory Physics MCAS continues to run, and its data is still used for school and district accountability.
• Districts still set their own local graduation requirements. A district can require credits, courses, and other conditions beyond the state CD, but a local requirement cannot replace the CD.

So you will still very likely sit the Introductory Physics MCAS, and doing well still matters for your record and your school, but a passing score is no longer the state requirement for a diploma. Always check the current DESE guidance and your district's policy, because this area changed recently.

Exam format

The High School Introductory Physics MCAS is computer-based and delivered in two test sessions. It combines three item types:

• Selected-response. Multiple choice with four options and one correct answer. These are worth 1 point each.
• Technology-enhanced. The computer collects the answer in other ways: dragging labels onto a diagram, selecting more than one correct answer (multi-select), placing steps in order, completing a table, or plotting points on a grid.
• Constructed-response. You write an answer, usually to show a calculation in full, interpret data, draw a graph or free-body diagram, or construct an explanation supported by evidence. These are worth more than 1 point and are marked with rubrics.

Many items open with a stimulus: a data table, a graph, a labeled diagram, a model, or a short scenario, and then ask you to use it. The test is designed so that content and a science practice are assessed together. Because physics is quantitative, the constructed-response items often ask you to write the equation, substitute with units, and give the answer.

The reference sheet

Every student is given the Introductory Physics reference sheet, so the test measures whether you can choose and apply the right relationship, not whether you have memorized it. The sheet prints:

• Motion and forces: average speed $v = \dfrac{d}{t}$, acceleration $a = \dfrac{\Delta v}{\Delta t}$, the constant-acceleration relationships $v_f = v_i + at$ and $d = v_i t + \tfrac{1}{2}at^2$, Newton's second law $F = ma$, weight $F_g = mg$, and momentum $p = mv$.
• Energy: work $W = Fd$, kinetic energy $KE = \tfrac{1}{2}mv^2$, gravitational potential energy $PE = mgh$, and power $P = \dfrac{W}{t}$.
• Electricity: Ohm's law $V = IR$ and electrical power $P = IV$.
• Waves: the wave-speed relationship $v = f\lambda$.
• A constant: the speed of light $c = 3.0 \times 10^8$ m/s. The acceleration due to gravity near Earth's surface is taken as $g = 10$ m/s squared in these problems.

What you still recall are the conservation laws (conservation of momentum $p_{before} = p_{after}$ and conservation of mechanical energy), the meaning of every symbol and its unit, and the qualitative rules for series and parallel circuits, since the sheet gives the component formulas but not these.

The three reporting categories

DESE groups the high school introductory physics standards into three reporting categories, and the points are weighted unevenly. This library mirrors them across six modules.

Motion and Forces (HS-PS2), about 50 percent

The biggest category by far. Kinematics and graphs of motion, Newton's three laws, friction and the normal force, momentum and impulse, conservation of momentum and collisions, circular motion, and the universal force laws (Newton's law of gravitation and Coulomb's law). This is covered across Module 1, Module 2, Module 3, and the force parts of Module 6.

Energy (HS-PS3), about 30 percent

Work and power, kinetic and potential energy, conservation of energy, energy stored in gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields, thermal energy and heat transfer, and devices that convert one form of energy into another. This is Module 4.

Waves (HS-PS4), about 20 percent

Wave properties and the wave equation, transverse and longitudinal waves, sound, the behavior of waves at boundaries (reflection, refraction, transmission, absorption), and how devices use the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit information. This is Module 5.

The electricity and magnetism standards sit partly in Motion and Forces (Coulomb's law and electromagnetic induction, HS-PS2-4 and HS-PS2-5) and partly in Energy (fields, HS-PS3-5), so Module 6 draws on more than one category.

The achievement levels

Results are reported in four next-generation MCAS achievement levels:

1. Exceeding Expectations
2. Meeting Expectations
3. Partially Meeting Expectations
4. Not Meeting Expectations

Each level has a performance level description that says what a student at that level can typically do. Because the competency determination is now coursework-based, these levels are best read as a measure of how well you have learned the standards rather than as a pass or fail gate.

The science and engineering practices

The Massachusetts STE framework, like the NGSS it is based on, expects you to do science, not just recall it. The eight science and engineering practices are:

1. Asking questions and defining problems
2. Developing and using models
3. Planning and carrying out investigations
4. Analyzing and interpreting data
5. Using mathematics and computational thinking
6. Constructing explanations and designing solutions
7. Engaging in argument from evidence
8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

DESE codes at least half of the Introductory Physics items to one of these practices and reports them as a separate practices dimension. In physics this most often means using mathematics (substituting into an equation), analyzing data (reading a motion graph), and developing models (a free-body diagram or a wave diagram).

How to study High School Introductory Physics

1. Learn the content, then learn to use it. Master the physics for all three reporting categories, but practice applying it: most items give you a stimulus and ask you to calculate, draw, or explain.
2. Rehearse the reference sheet. Treat it as a toolbox you have used many times, not a list you read for the first time on test day. Know which formula fits which quantity and what every symbol means.
3. Show your work on calculations. A constructed-response calculation earns marks for the equation, the substitution with units, and the final answer with the correct unit. Write them as separate lines.
4. Draw the standard diagrams. Free-body diagrams, motion graphs, and wave diagrams recur. Practice drawing and reading them until they are automatic.
5. Practice the computer-based item types. Use DESE practice tests so drag-and-drop, multi-select, ordering, and constructed-response feel familiar before test day.
6. Connect topics across modules. The framework rewards seeing cause and effect, systems and models, and energy and matter run through every topic, for example momentum and energy both tracking a collision.

The modules, topic by topic

Each topic has a standard-level answer page with worked exam questions and cross-links, plus a deep-dive guide and a quiz. Browse the set at /ma-mcas/physics/syllabus.

Module 1: Kinematics and motion

scalars, vectors, and units, displacement, velocity, and acceleration, graphs of motion, the kinematic equations, free fall, projectile and two-dimensional motion.

Module 2: Forces and Newton's laws

Newton's first law and inertia, Newton's second law, Newton's third law, weight, friction, and the normal force, free-body diagrams and equilibrium, gravitation and Coulomb's law.

Module 3: Momentum and collisions

momentum and impulse, conservation of momentum, collisions and explosions, crash safety and engineering design, circular motion and centripetal force.

Module 4: Energy and work

work and power, kinetic and potential energy, conservation of energy, energy in fields, thermal energy and heat transfer, energy conversion devices.

Module 5: Waves and sound

wave properties and the wave equation, transverse and longitudinal waves, sound waves, wave behavior at boundaries, the electromagnetic spectrum.

Module 6: Electricity and magnetism

electric charge and Coulomb's law, current and Ohm's law, electrical energy and power, series and parallel circuits, magnetism and magnetic fields, electromagnetic induction.

For the official guidance

DESE publishes the STE test design and development page, released test items, sample student work and scoring guides, performance level descriptions, the Introductory Physics reference sheet, and the Massachusetts STE Curriculum Framework. For the graduation rules after Question 2, see the DESE graduation requirements guidance. Always study from the current DESE materials, because both the assessment design and the graduation rules are specific to Massachusetts and have changed recently.