Decoding Science of Teaching Reading (STR) Test to 'Make It Impossible' to Get Questions Wrong

The authors' institution exceeded the Texas Science of Teaching Reading (STR) exam's passing rate of 86.6% for the 2021-2022 academic year. The authors think this success was largely due to conducting an analysis of test questions and helping preservice teachers better prepare for the exam. The authors helped preservice teachers supplement the literacy knowledge they needed for their classrooms with test-taking strategies. Six strategies are presented to analyze the STR exam questions. These help preservice teachers analyze the exam questions by decoding the more common scenario-based ones which we categorized as these question types: 1) A teacher wants to do something; 2) Teachers' strategy/activity shows they understand something; 3) Students do this…what's the next step; 4) Why this activity; 5) Tiered vocabulary; 6) What does the assessment tell? The final strategy describes a method for organizing the constructed response analysis.