Study modules
Built from the official 2008 assessment framework, every NYSTCE sample item and written-assignment exemplar, and a large library of practitioner material — checked against current New York law and regulation. Every page works offline: save it, print it, or open it on a phone.
Start Here
What the assessment is, how 103 and 104 are built, the testing windows (which are not the SBL windows), what it costs, how the writing is scored, the 0.5 SEM score waiver, and where the SDL certificate stands after the January 2025 Regents action.
Open →Answer Patterns
Twenty-five recurring moves the selected-response items reward, each traced to a specific official rationale, plus a named taxonomy of wrong-answer shapes and a sixty-second elimination checklist.
Open →Cheatsheet
All sixteen objectives condensed to what they actually test, the New York vocabulary the exam assumes, the numbers worth memorising, and the shift from building thinking to district thinking.
Open →Law & Ops
Governance and the board, the budget and the tax cap, internal controls and the audit function, personnel law, compliance, facilities and the case law — every claim with its authority, and the errors in circulating study files called out by name.
Open →Task Playbook
All four written assignments — official directions and criteria, a breakdown of every official strong response, the circulating response frames corrected against the real prompts, and two original practice tasks with model answers.
Open →Practice
Ninety-nine items across seventeen district scenarios with budget extracts, board minutes, achievement data and stakeholder letters. Every official NYSTCE sample item is here with its published rationale.
Open →Quiz Mode
Two hundred and twenty-five recall cards in nine decks, built for saying answers out loud. Big type, one card at a time, the phrases to listen for, and a list of what you missed.
Open →Day-Of
Where the four hours actually go, with the arithmetic shown — a minute-by-minute plan for one part and for the both-parts-in-one-day appointment, plus what to do when the clock beats you.
Open →Sources
Every official NYSTCE and NYSED page, the New York law and finance references worth bookmarking, and the out-of-state Pearson guides that are the largest free supply of scored writing exemplars.
Open →Print and download
The whole SDL track in print, plus the official NYSTCE PDFs. Practice items are numbered 1–99 in both files and recall cards use the same deck codes, so the key lines up with the packet page for page.
SDL Study Packet
Nine parts: registration and logistics, answer patterns, the high-yield cheatsheet, law and district operations, the written-assignment playbook, all 99 practice items as questions only with lettered answer bubbles and their scenarios and exhibits, 225 recall cards, the day-of plan, and every source with its full URL printed.
SDL Answer Key
Four parts: every answer in a single at-a-glance grid, the full rationale for all 99 items with the objective and source of each, answers and citations for all 225 recall cards, and a blank progress tracker — accuracy by objective, by deck, by timed sitting, and a rehearsal log for all four written assignments.
Work a whole block before you open it. Checking item by item teaches you to recognise answers, which is not what is being tested.
The four NYSTCE SDL PDFs
The assessment framework and the preparation guide are the only official study material that exists for this exam. Download all four and work them before anything else.
Printing individual pages
Every page here also has print styles: navigation, buttons and interactive controls drop away and the type re-flows for paper. Use your browser’s Print → Save as PDF if you only want one page.
The School Building Leader track has its own packet and answer key. If you are pursuing the new Administrator certificate you need both exams, so both sets are worth having.
What is official here and what is not
The blueprint, the sixteen objectives, the written-assignment directions, the scoring criteria and four-point scale, all eighteen sample selected-response items with their published rationales, and the four sample assignments with their strong responses and official evaluations — all NYSED / Pearson material, reproduced for study and labelled as official wherever it appears.
The answer patterns, the practice items that are not marked official, every recall card, the response skeletons, the model responses to the original practice tasks, and all of the law-and-operations commentary. Verified against current New York sources in August 2026, but not NYSED-endorsed. Corrections are welcome.