A square tile has a side length of 3.5 inches. What is the total area of 12 such tiles?
Choose an answer to see the worked solution.
Worked solutionOne tile has area 3.52 = 12.25 square inches. Twelve tiles cover 12 × 12.25 = 147 square inches.
Grade 8 ILEARN Math Checkpoint 1 Practice
What Checkpoint 1 covers in grade 8, items to try, the mistakes students make most, and the practice that goes with it.
Designed, reviewed, and checked by Greg · 25+ years in the classroom · Updated for 2026-27 · Window Sept 14 – Nov 13, 20265standards
100practice items
20item mock form
What Checkpoint 1 covers
5 standards, 3 marked essential. Short names in our own words.
- 8.NS.2Comparing, plotting, and estimating with irrational numbers
- 8.NS.3Properties of integer exponents with common rational basesEssential
- 8.NS.4Multi-step real-world problems with rational numbersEssential
- 8.AF.1Solving linear equations and inequalities with rational coefficientsEssential
- 8.AF.2Classifying one/infinite/no-solution linear equations
Try three items
Pick an answer to see the worked solution.
Which inequality is true?
Choose an answer to see the worked solution.
Worked solution√2 ≈ 1.4 and π ≈ 3.14, so √2 < π. The other statements fail: √2 < 2, √3 > 1, and π > 3.
Solve: 3(x + 4) = 27
Choose an answer to see the worked solution.
Worked solutionDistribute: 3x + 12 = 27. Subtract 12: 3x = 15. Divide by 3: x = 5. Check: 3(5 + 4) = 27.
Where students go wrong
The most common mistake on each standard, and what to do about it, from the teacher pages in the Checkpoint 1 intervention.
Comparing a radical by the digits underneath it
- What it looks like
- √53 called larger than √90 “because 53 has a 5 in front”, or √3 compared with 1.5 by reading the 3. The radical sign is skipped and the numeral underneath is compared as if it were the value.
- What to do
- Bound it between perfect squares before comparing anything: 49 < 53 < 64, so √53 is between 7 and 8. Two bounds are usually enough to settle a comparison without a decimal ever appearing.
Moving the minus from the exponent to the value
- What it looks like
- 3−2 evaluated as −9, or −6. The negative sign is read as making the ANSWER negative rather than as an instruction to take a reciprocal.
- What to do
- A negative exponent flips, it does not negate: 3−2 = 1 over 32, which is 19. A positive base raised to any power stays positive, so a negative answer is wrong before it is checked.
Applying a percent to the wrong amount part-way through
- What it looks like
- A $45.50 plan with a second line at 10% “of that amount” computed as 10% of the running total rather than of the first line. Each step is arithmetically sound and the base drifts.
- What to do
- Before each percent, underline the amount it applies to and write it down on its own line. A percent always needs a base named out loud; in a multi-step problem the base is rarely the running total.
Collecting like terms across the equals sign
- What it looks like
- 5x + 3x − 4 = 20 turned into 8x = 16 by moving the −4 without changing its sign. Terms are gathered as though the equation were one long expression.
- What to do
- Like terms combine only on the SAME side. To move a term across, do the same operation to both sides and watch the sign change: add 4 to both sides, giving 8x = 24 and x = 3. Substituting back catches it immediately.
Swapping no solution and infinitely many
- What it looks like
- 5(x + 2) = 5x + 7 classified as infinitely many, and 3(2x + 4) = 6x + 12 as none. Both simplifications end with the x terms gone, and the student stops there.
- What to do
- Keep simplifying past the point where x disappears and read what is LEFT. 10 = 7 is false, so no value works: no solution. 12 = 12 is true, so every value works: infinitely many. The last line decides, not the vanishing x.
Get the Checkpoint 1 practice
100 items · 39 pagesCheckpoint 1 Practice + Mock Form
100 practice items at three levels, plus a 20-item mock form.
View on TPT
60 items · 39 pagesCheckpoint 1 Intervention & Reteach
A teacher page, reteach page, practice, error analysis and exit ticket for each standard.
View on TPT
See inside the Checkpoint 1 practice
Press play for a 20-second look at the real pages.
Grade 8, window by window
Independent practiceIndependent practice for the Indiana ILEARN Math assessment. Not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the Indiana Department of Education. Standard names are short summaries in our own words; see IDOE for the official text.