New York Regents Earth and Environmental Science (NYSED): complete guide to the Earth Science core curriculum, the Earth and Space Sciences transition, the Reference Tables and the exam

The New York Regents Earth and Environmental Science course is assessed by a Regents examination administered by the New York State Education Department (NYSED). For decades that exam has been the Physical Setting/Earth Science Regents, built on the 1996 state standards and the Physical Setting/Earth Science Core Curriculum. It is now being replaced by a new Regents Examination in Earth and Space Sciences aligned to the New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS). This page is the index: below is a map of the topics, the exam structure, the transition, how the Reference Tables work, and how to study each area. This library covers the full course across six modules.

The Earth Science to Earth and Space Sciences transition

New York is moving all four 1996-standard Regents sciences (Living Environment and the three Physical Setting exams, Earth Science, Chemistry and Physics) onto the NYSSLS. For Earth Science:

• The first administration of the new Regents Examination in Earth and Space Sciences was June 2025.
• The last administration of the legacy Physical Setting/Earth Science Regents is June 2026, with an overlap period so schools can transition.
• The new exam is built on three-dimensional standards: disciplinary core ideas (ESS1 Earth's Place in the Universe, ESS2 Earth's Systems, ESS3 Earth and Human Activity), science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. Questions tend to cluster around a phenomenon, data set or scenario and ask you to develop or interpret a model, analyze data, and argue from evidence, rather than recall isolated facts.
• The new exam uses its own revised Earth and Space Sciences Reference Tables.

The underlying science is the same, so the content in this library serves both exams. Where the new exam differs is in how it asks: expect more data, more modelling, and more "use the evidence to support a claim" prompts.

The exam structure (legacy Physical Setting/Earth Science)

The written exam is 3 hours and has 85 questions in four parts, scored out of 85 raw points, then converted with NYSED's published chart to a scale score from 0 to 100.

• Part A, multiple choice (about 35 questions). Stand-alone content questions across all topics.
• Part B-1, multiple choice (about 15 questions). Built on the Reference Tables, graphs, maps and diagrams.
• Part B-2, short constructed response (about 15 questions). Data-based; show working, complete diagrams, read the tables.
• Part C, extended constructed response (about 20 questions). More open-ended, often multi-step analysis.

There is also a laboratory performance test (the lab practical), administered locally, whose score is combined with the written exam.

The laboratory requirement

To be eligible to sit any Regents science exam, a student must complete at least 1200 minutes (about 20 hours) of hands-on laboratory work with satisfactory written lab reports on file. Earth Science additionally has the lab practical, with hands-on stations such as measuring a stream gradient, finding the altitude of Polaris with a model, reading a topographic map, and identifying minerals and rocks.

The Earth Science Reference Tables (ESRT)

Every student is given the Reference Tables for Physical Setting/Earth Science (the ESRT, 2011 edition) to use throughout the exam. Knowing where everything is and how to read it is one of the highest-value skills in the course. The tables include:

• Page 1 equations: eccentricity, gradient, rate of change, and density, plus constants such as Earth's rotation rate of 15 degrees per hour and the specific heats of common materials.
• Maps of New York: the Generalized Landscape Regions and the Generalized Bedrock Geology.
• The rock cycle, the Scheme for Igneous Rock Identification, and the sedimentary and metamorphic rock charts.
• The earthquake P-wave and S-wave travel-time graph for finding epicenter distance and origin time.
• The relationship of transported particle size to water velocity.
• The dewpoint and relative humidity tables, and the weather station-model key.
• The Luminosity and Temperature of Stars diagram (a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram) and Selected Properties of the Planets.
• The radioactive decay data (Carbon-14 half-life 5700 years, Uranium-238 half-life 4.5 billion years) and the Geologic Time Scale.

The new Earth and Space Sciences exam uses a revised set of reference tables that serve the same function with an updated layout.

How to study New York Earth Science

1. Work topic by topic from the core curriculum (or the NYSSLS performance expectations), and pair each topic with the relevant page of the Reference Tables.
2. Drill the four equations (eccentricity, gradient, rate of change, density) until they are automatic, always with units.
3. Practice reading every graph and map in the Reference Tables: the travel-time curve, the particle-size graph, the landscape and bedrock maps, the star diagram.
4. Rehearse the constructed-response format. Write full Part B-2 and Part C answers and check them against the scoring guidelines on released exams.
5. Connect topics. The Sun drives the weather and the water cycle; plate tectonics builds the landscapes that weather and erode; radioactive decay dates the geologic record. Examiners reward these links.

The course, topic by topic

Each topic has its own answer page with worked exam questions and cross-links, plus an overview guide and a quiz. This library covers the full course in six modules.

• Astronomy and Earth in space: Earth's motions and the celestial sphere, eccentricity and the shape of orbits, insolation and the seasons, the Earth, Moon and Sun system, the solar system and Kepler's laws, stars, the Sun and the origin of the universe.
• The lithosphere (minerals, rocks, plate tectonics): minerals and their properties, the rock cycle and igneous rocks, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, plate tectonics and Earth's interior, earthquakes and seismic waves, volcanoes and crustal deformation.
• Surface processes (weathering, erosion, deposition): weathering and soil formation, erosion and the agents of transport, deposition and sediment sorting, streams and the gradient of the land, landscapes and the regions of New York.
• The hydrosphere and meteorology: the water cycle and groundwater, the oceans and surface currents, the atmosphere and energy transfer, moisture, dewpoint and humidity, weather systems, air masses and fronts, climate and the factors that control it.
• Geologic history and dating: relative dating and the rock record, radioactive decay and absolute age, fossils and correlation, the geologic time scale, the geologic history of New York State.
• Environmental science (resources and human impact): energy resources, renewable and non-renewable, natural resources and their management, human impact on Earth's systems, climate change and the greenhouse effect, the carbon cycle and Earth's systems, natural hazards and Earth science in society.

For the official materials

NYSED publishes the exam information, past papers, scoring guidelines and the Reference Tables for Physical Setting/Earth Science and the new Earth and Space Sciences exam. Always study from the current core curriculum or NYSSLS performance expectations and NYSED's own released exams, because question style is board-specific.