United States
Hong KongThe General Knowledge Test and your district
Your district sets none of the examination. Rule 6A-4.0021 fixes the passing score, the USD 32.50 fee, the 30-day retake wait and the alternative scores that can replace the test. What the district does decide is what stays outstanding on a Temporary Certificate, and its own hiring and pay.
A lot of bad advice about this test comes from people inside districts, passed along in good faith. The reason is structural rather than careless. The examination is a state instrument governed by rule, and the person telling you about it is usually describing what happened to a colleague.
Where the line falls
| Decision | Who makes it | What we can source |
|---|---|---|
| The passing score | The state, by rule | A scaled score of 200 on each subtest, separately |
| The fee | The state, by rule | USD 32.50 a subtest, USD 130 for all four |
| The retake wait | The state, by rule | At least 30 days from that administration |
| Whether a GRE or SAT score can substitute | The state, by rule | Rule 6A-4.0021(12), subtest by subtest |
| What is outstanding on a Temporary Certificate | Rule and district together | Only that both are involved. Nothing more |
| Hiring, start dates and pay | The district | Nothing. We hold no district data |
Four of those six are settled by a document you can read yourself. Rule 6A-4.0021 is public. The bottom two rows are not settled by anything we hold, and the last of them is the one people most want an answer to and the one where second-hand advice does the most damage.
The score you can quote is not a percentage
Each subtest passes at a scaled score of 200 on its own. There is no combined score for the General Knowledge Test and no overall percentage, which is why "I got 68% on the FTCE" is a sentence that cannot be true. A candidate at 68% across the board has passed English Language Skills and Mathematics and failed Reading.
The department does publish what a scaled 200 is worth as a percentage of correct answers, per subtest, and those figures are maximums. A harder version of a subtest may need slightly fewer.
| Subtest | Questions | At most | Correct answers, at most |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Skills (826) | 30 | 63% | 19 |
| Reading (827) | 30 | 70% | 21 |
| Mathematics (828) | 35 | 63% | 22 |
That last column is ours, not the department's: it is the published maximum percentage applied to the published question count and rounded up. Because the percentages are ceilings, a harder version may require fewer. Never average the three. They are three separate examinations that happen to share a name.
What a district actually sees, and when
The three multiple-choice subtests are scored at the test center before you leave. The essay is rated by at least two qualified raters at standardized scoring sessions, their two scores are summed against a passing total of 6, and it takes about four weeks.
So if a start date depends on your file being complete, the essay is the item that decides it. Everything else you can resolve inside a day. Plan your sitting calendar backwards from the hiring date you care about, and put the essay a full quarter ahead of it rather than at the end.
Some candidates are told a district will reimburse examination fees. We hold no source on which districts do, or under what conditions, so we will not repeat it as fact. USD 130 is not much money to be wrong about, but a retake at USD 32.50 each time adds up, and a written answer costs one email.
The scale a district sees you against
In 2025 the department recorded 34,252 General Knowledge subtest administrations from 10,120 unique examinees, with 37.2% of candidates retaking at least one subtest. That is a small examination statewide, and it is spread across every district in Florida. Nobody in your district's HR office is looking at a large pool of people who cleared it cleanly.
Roughly a quarter of candidates pass all four at the first attempt. That figure is ours, derived by multiplying the four published first-attempt rates, and the derivation is set out on the page about the compound first-attempt rate. It follows that a retake on your record is the ordinary outcome rather than a flag.
What we will not tell you about districts
We hold no salary schedules, no hiring timelines, no vacancy counts and no reimbursement policies. Those are the things a career page is expected to supply and we cannot source a single one of them, so this site does not print them. Districts publish their own salary schedules. That document is public, it is specific to you, and it beats anything we could assemble from an aggregator.
Common questions
Can a Florida district change the FTCE passing score?
No. Each subtest passes at a scaled score of 200 under Rule 6A-4.0021, and the fee, the 30-day retake wait and the alternative scores that can substitute are all set by the same rule. A district decides hiring and pay, not the examination.
What percentage do you need to pass the FTCE General Knowledge Test?
There isn't one overall figure. Each subtest passes at a scaled score of 200, which the department publishes as at most 63% correct for English Language Skills, at most 70% for Reading and at most 63% for Mathematics. Those are maximums, and they are never averaged.
How soon can a district see your FTCE scores?
The three multiple-choice subtests are scored at the test center before you leave. The essay is rated by two people at standardized scoring sessions and takes about four weeks, so it is the item that decides when your file is complete.
Will a district reimburse the FTCE fee?
We hold no source on which districts reimburse examination fees or on what conditions, so we will not state it either way. Ask in writing before you register. The fee is USD 32.50 a subtest and USD 130 for the full battery, with retakes charged again at USD 32.50.
Does a retake on your record hurt you?
In 2025, 37.2% of General Knowledge candidates retook at least one subtest, and by our own arithmetic across the four published first-attempt rates only about a quarter clear all four first time. A retake is the ordinary path through this examination rather than an exception.