As testing season approaches for students at Bernards High School, juniors will take the NJGPA during the week of March 16th, 2026. The New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA) is a statewide test administered to high school juniors.
This test highlights if students have developed the literary and mathematical skills needed to continue their respective paths after graduation.
The implementation of the NJGPA followed a 2018 court ruling that prevented schools from administering the PARCC, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. The test violated state law, which required that graduation exams be administered to 11th-grade students. The state moved towards using the NJGPA. This new test would be given to juniors only, following the state law, and allowing schools to see whether students meet the minimum academic standards.
The English part of the exam focuses on skills like synthesizing ideas from numerous texts, understanding the meaning of words using context, and evaluating the effectiveness of the student’s analytical skills. The Math portion of the test centers on using skills and concepts to solve multi-step problems, modeling real-world problems, and how strategically students use their tools. Key content for the Math section includes skills from the following courses: Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II.
Both the English and the Math sections have two parts. Students are given 90 minutes to complete each unit, giving a total of 180 minutes for each subject.
The NJGPA scores range from 650 to 850 for both the English and Math sections of the exam. Students’ scores determine whether they have mastered the required skills for graduating. They must score at least 725 points on each section, indicating that they have the tools needed to advance on their future paths post-graduation.
Although many people pass the test, there are some cases in which students do not accumulate enough points on the test. In the event that this occurs, there are other routes the students must take to graduate.
Ms. Camuto, a math teacher at Bernards High School, explains the process students go through if they do not get 725 points on the test: “If you don’t [pass the test], you automatically get placed in SIP, which in there, we have other pathways for them to pass.”
Ms. Camuto teaches the SIP (skills improvement program) class for mathematics. SIP helps students master essential skills in areas where they lacked on the test.
There are other ways students can meet state requirements. Ms. Camuto explains that “[Students] usually start [senior year] and take the NJGPA again, if they pass it, they are good,” and adds that “if [they do not pass] they take another test called Accuplacer.”
The Accuplacer test is another exam students can take to prove they comprehend vital skills and pass state graduation requirements. If all of these pathways do not work out for the student, Ms. Camuto elaborated by saying that “we do something called a portfolio where they have to show mastery in different content areas, like algebra, geometry, statistics,” mentioning that the students do word problems to show that they understand the concepts. Once the portfolio is completed, it is handed over to the state so the student can graduate.
Senior Jessica Fu, who took the NJGPA last year, expressed that she “did not find the test hard,” going on to say that “it was definitely easier than some of the tests [she had] taken throughout high school.”
When Fu was asked about the content on the test and which section, English or Math, was more demanding, she stated that “both sections were about the same level of difficulty,” claiming that the “English section was hard.” She continued by underlining her feelings about the math portion by saying that “some of the math problems were stuff [she] has not seen since middle school.”
A current junior, Mia Bong, expressed that she was relatively unconcerned regarding the test. Bong stated that she “honestly is not [worried] about it,” saying that she “just wants it to be over.”
If students have any questions or concerns regarding the test, they should check out https://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/resources/ for more information about the exam, and consider advising their teachers if they feel they are stressed about their academic skills.
