ParaPro Writing Practice Test
Updated October 28, 2026
The writing questions on the ParaPro don’t ask you to write an essay. You read sentences and short student drafts and decide what is correct, what is clearer, and how a student could make their writing better.
The ParaPro was replaced in 2026 by ParaPathways, ETS’s newer test for paraprofessionals. On ParaPathways, writing is part of the Reading and Writing test (5758): 51 questions in 85 minutes, about 40% of them (roughly 21) on writing. There is no calculator on this subtest.
Try the student draft and five original practice questions below. Each one shows the answer and the reason as soon as you pick.
What the writing questions cover
| Skill | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Conventions of standard English | Grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization and spelling, often as “find the error” items |
| Clear, organized writing | Topic sentences, transitions, combining sentences, putting sentences in a logical order |
| The writing process | Planning, drafting and revising, and what a student should do at each step |
| Credible sources | Telling a university or government source from a blog, ad or social media post |
| Citing evidence | In-text citations, quotations and paraphrasing |
| Arguments | Which facts, statistics or expert testimony support a claim |
| Informational and narrative writing | Text features such as titles, headings and graphics; character, plot, setting and theme |
| Technology and AI | Using the internet, shared documents and AI tools responsibly when writing |
The source, citation and technology topics are new emphases. ETS says it added digital literacy and ethical research practices, including citation, when it built ParaPathways, and dropped the old synonym and antonym questions. See ParaPathways vs ParaPro for the full list of changes.
Find-the-error questions
A common question type shows a sentence with several underlined parts. You pick the part that has a mistake in grammar, word use or punctuation. On this page the underlined parts appear in [brackets]. Read the whole sentence first, then test each bracketed part on its own. Common targets:
- Subject and verb agreement: “The list of supplies are long” should be “is,” because the subject is “list.”
- Verb tense: a past-time word like “yesterday” or “last week” needs a past-tense verb.
- Pronouns: “Me and Ana went” should be “Ana and I went.”
- Commonly confused words: their, there and they’re; its and it’s; affect and effect.
Practice draft: Our School Garden
A student wrote this draft for a class newsletter.
(1) Last spring, our class planted a vegetable garden behind the gym. (2) We grew tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. (3) My favorite video game has a farming level too. (4) Every morning, two students watered the plants before the first bell. (5) In June, we picked the vegetables. (6) The cafeteria used them in a salad for the whole school. (7) Working in the garden taught us that food takes patience and care.
Free ParaPro writing questions
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In the draft "Our School Garden," which sentence should be removed because it doesn't fit the paragraph's focus?Answer: BThe paragraph is about the class garden. Sentence 3, about a video game, is off topic. Sentence 7 is the concluding sentence and should stay.
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What is the best way to combine sentences 5 and 6 of the draft?Answer: DA comma plus "and" correctly joins two complete sentences. Choice A joins them with only a comma (a comma splice), B adds a cause that the draft doesn't state, and C is a fragment with no main verb.
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Which underlined part of the sentence contains an error? "Yesterday Marcus [bring] his science poster to school, and [everyone] in the class [wanted] to see [it]."Answer: A"Yesterday" tells you the action happened in the past, so the verb should be "brought." The rest of the sentence is correct, including "wanted," which is already past tense.
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A student is writing a report about how sleep affects learning. Which source is most credible?Answer: CA university research center is an expert source with no product to sell. The ad has a reason to exaggerate, and the social media post and blog share personal opinions, not research.
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A student used an AI chatbot to brainstorm ideas for a report on volcanoes. What is the best advice a paraeducator can give?Answer: BAI tools can state wrong facts confidently, so students should check them against credible sources, and they need to follow the class rules for using and crediting AI help. Pasting or hiding AI writing is not responsible use.
Keep practicing
Our full practice test has 18 writing questions and 27 reading questions, marked as a pass at 28 of 45, the raw score that matched ETS’s recommended 332 in its scoring study. Start with the free math sample on the home page; a 7-day free trial unlocks every section, then it is $29 a month.
The other 60% of this subtest is reading: try the reading practice test. For the math subtest, see the math practice test, and for a quick mix of all three subjects, take the ParaPro practice test.
Pass the ParaPro test and get the classroom job
- All 377 questions on reading, writing and math, written for the new ParaPathways test
- A plain-English explanation for every answer, including the math steps
- Unlimited full practice tests, scored against the ETS passing marks