If you're in middle school or high school in New York State, chances are that you've heard of the NYSED Regents exams. In fact, all NY public high school students have to take (and pass) a certain number of these exams to graduate from high school.
In this article, we'll discuss exactly what the Regents are and which Regents you'll need to take. We'll also give you tips on how to prep for the Regents as well as the Regents testing schedule for 2023.
feature image credit: Nicolas Raymond/Used under CC BY 2.0
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) Regents exams are subject-based tests generally taken at the end of the school year in June (although there are also August and January test dates for makeups/mid-year exams). By subject-based, we mean that you aren't just tested on broad categories like "Math" or "Science"—instead, you'll take Regents in specific subjects, like Algebra 1, Chemistry, US History & Government, and so on.
Currently, there are ten Regents exams that most students will encounter:
Each Regents exam is administered over the course of three hours in a single day (rest in peace 2011, six-hours-over-two-days English Regents exam; you will not be missed).
Depending on the subject, Regents exams will include multiple-choice questions and short-answer questions or essay responses (including document-based questions). Based on your performance, you'll receive a scaled score from 1-100 on each test.
The four Science Regents exams (Earth Science, Living Environment, Chemistry, and Physics) also include separately-scheduled lab practicals; you can read more about these in our articles about the Earth Science, Living Environment, and Chemistry Regents.
Because there are multiple subject-based tests that you'll have to take, the Regents aren't exactly considered a high school exit examination, which tend to be more Math/English Language Arts-focused.
However, you will still have to take at least five Regents exams (and in many cases, eight tests) across grades 9-12 to get your NY high school diploma—if you're in public school, that is. If you go to private school, you're in luck—the Regents are only mandatory for students attending public school in New York.
Now that you have a better idea of what the Regents are, we'll move on to discussing how many Regents exams you have to take.
The requirements for which and how many NYS Regents exams you need to graduate (and how well you need to do on the exams) depend on what kind of diploma you'll be graduating with.
There are three main categories of Regents diploma: regular Regents diplomas, Regents with Advanced Designation diplomas, and diplomas for students with special circumstances (e.g., English language learners, students with IEPs).
Here's a brief summary of the differences between the three categories and how many Regents you need to pass to graduate with each diploma type:
| Diploma Type | # of Regents to Pass (Minimum) | Passing Score |
| Regents | 5; 1 math, 1 science, 1 social studies, 1 ELA, and 1 additional math/science/social studies/English assessment (or state-approved alternate assessment) | 65 and above |
| Regents with Advanced Designation | 9; 1 ELA, 3 Math, 1 Living Environment, 1 additional science, 1 social studies, 1 (any) additional state-approved Regents exam, and 1 (any) NYC World Languages exam | 65 and above |
| Local (students with special circumstances) | 5; 1 math, 1 science, 1 social studies, 1 ELA, and 1 additional math/science/social studies/English assessment (or alternate assessment) | 55 and above |
Source: NYSED.gov. For the final word on what requirements you need to meet, refer to the official NYSED Regents guidelines here.
The majority of NY public school students will graduate with either a regular Regents diploma or a Regents with Advanced Designation diploma. We'll go through the testing requirements for those two categories in greater detail next.
Unless you have an IEP or are an English language learner, you need to meet the Regents diploma requirements to graduate high school.
You'll need to pass at least four Regents exams (get a 65 or higher) to get this Regents diploma:
In addition to these four tests, you must choose one of the following six Pathway options:
Unless you choose one of the alternate Pathway options, this means that you'll need to take five Regents exams (and get a 65 or above on each) to graduate.
If you just miss the cutoff on one of your tests (scoring a 60-64), you can appeal to your district to still allow you to graduate; if you score lower than that, or if you score below 65 on multiple tests, however, you'll need to either re-take the test(s) and pass or take another Regents and pass.
If you're looking to challenge yourself, you can aim for a Regents with Honors diploma; the only difference is that instead of only needing a 65 or above, you need to have an average of 90 or above across all your Regents (whether you take four or five).
There isn't really a material advantage to your college applications to getting a Regents with Honors diploma (except possibly if you're applying to SUNY or CUNY colleges), but if your teachers count your Regents exam grade as part of your course grade, it's to your benefit to do well on the Regents you take. (If I recall correctly, I believe that for some of my high school classes, our Regents grades were counted as two test scores when calculating our grades in the final quarter of the year.)
The requirements for the Regents with Advanced Designation diploma include everything you need to do for the Regents Diploma plus passing three additional Regents exams, for a total of seven or eight Regents exams.
As with getting a Regents with Honors diploma, unless you're applying to a SUNY or CUNY college which uses your Regents diploma level as a placement or admissions criteria, there's no real benefit in specifically aiming for a Regents with Advanced Designation diploma.
However, if you're taking a rigorous high school course load (honors classes, APs/IBs), you will likely end up qualifying for the Regents with Advanced Designation diploma as a byproduct of your schedule if your school requires Regents to be taken at the end of the year for a particular course.
For example, as an eighth-grader I took Regents Earth Science, which was the honors science class for that grade (vs. regular Earth Science), and so had to take the Regents at the end of the year (because that's what my school required). For other classes, the Regents exams were not only required at the end of the year, but were part of our grades for the final quarter of the year, so it behooved us to try to do well on them.
The "traditional" Regents with Advanced Designation path requires you to pass eight Regents exams:
Alternatively, you can swap out any of the Regents exams listed above for another state-approved alternative assessment.
In addition to getting a Regents with Advanced Designation diploma, you can potentially get additional laudations through these three options:
Below, we've created tables with the Regents schedule for January 2023, June 2023, and August 2023. We'll update it if test times and dates change.
One important note before jumping to the Regents schedule: All Regents exams have admission deadlines, aka the latest time you can show up to take the test and still be allowed in. These deadlines are 45 minutes after the time the test administration starts.
For example, let's say you sleep in past your alarm for your 9:15 am English Language Arts exam (not that I know anyone who did this). As long as you show up and are admitted to the testing room by 10:00 am, you can still take the test (although you'll still only have until 12:15 pm to finish).
| Morning (9:15 am) | Afternoon (1:15 pm) | |
| Tuesday, January 24 | English Language Arts | Living Environment |
| Wednesday, January 25 | Geometry | Algebra I Physical Setting/Physics |
| Thursday, January 26 | Global History & Geography II | Algebra II |
| Friday, January 27 | Physical Setting/Chemistry Physical Setting/Earth Science |
Admission deadline: 10 am for morning tests; 2 pm for afternoon tests. If you arrive at the classroom/wherever your test is being held after this time, you will not be permitted to enter and take the test.
| Week 1 | Morning (9:15 am) |
| Thursday, June 17 | U.S. History and Government (Framework) |
| Week 2 | Morning (9:15 am) | Afternoon (1:15pm) |
| Wednesday, June 14 | English Language Arts | Living Environment |
| Thursday, June 15 | Global History & Geography II | Physical Setting |
| Friday, June 16 | Physical Setting/Earth Science | Physical Setting/Chemistry |
| Week 3 | Morning (9:15 am) |
| Tuesday, June 20 | Geometry |
| Wednesday, June 21 | Algebra II |
| Thursday, June 22 | Physical Setting/Physics |
Admission deadline: 10:00 am for morning tests; 2:00 pm for afternoon tests. If you arrive at the classroom/wherever your test is being held after this time, you will not be permitted to enter and take the test.
