What property of light waves can be observed as light waves pass from one medium to another and change speed?

The additional remark “and change speed” is significant, and indicates the correct answer is “refraction”.

I note they still include the odd question and figure about when the Earth has equal day and night, with the same figure. Overall, there’s better writing, but I did note:

25. A red ball weighs more than a blue ball. This requires that —
A the red ball is larger than the blue ball
B in direct sunlight the red ball is larger than the blue ball
≥C Earth’s gravitational pull on the red ball is greater than on the blue ball
D Earth’s gravitational pull on the blue ball is greater than on the red ball

The wording is unclear. The “Earth’s gravitational pull” typically means the acceleration field, i.e. the g. But that is incorrect for this question. The intent they seem to have for the phrase is that the object is pulled harder - but that’s just another way to say the red ball is heavier, i.e. weighs more. That just restates the question. The answer they were looking for is something about the relative masses of the two balls, vs. the sizes of the balls.

30. Wind occurs when air masses move from one place to
another. What causes the movement of air masses?
A The position of the moon
≥B The heating of the air
C The rotation of Earth
D The condensation of air

What about the Jet Stream? Aren’t major wind patterns caused by Earth’s rotation?

Dean, it also wasn’t readily apparent to me why B was correct for the Orion question, but with a little thought after the fact it makes sense.

Magnum, regarding the rotation rates of Mercury and Venus, the difference is the difference between rotation to starfield and Sun-respective rotation. The starfield rotations of Mercury and Venus are ~58.6 days and ~-243 days. The Sun respective rotations (i.e. noon to noon) are ~176 vs ~117 days. The difference is the motion around the Sun itself, changing the orientation of noon to the starfield. See http://www.mira.org/fts0/planets/092/text/txt001x.htm .

Anyway, that Mercury/Venus one is still a kicker. Luckily it was not on the actual ISAT. Nor was that lightspeed solar wind blooper. Nor the aurora booboo you cited in the original post, or the Black Jupiter question.

It did, however, include a dubious physics item that had two correct answers. The item asked what could be observed when light passes from one medium to another. Refraction is the best answer, but reflection can also be observed in such a case (that’s why you can see yourself in a window). The question would have been better if reflection had not been an option.

Writing really good multiple choice items is a non-trivial task.

In Illinois, the constellation Orion can be seen in the night sky in winter. Why can this constellation not be seen in the summer?
A Earth is tilted away from the constellation.
B Earth orbits to the other side of the sun.
C Brighter constellations block Orion from view in the Northern Hemisphere.
D The orbit of the moon blocks Orion from view in the Northern Hemisphere.

If you answered A, take a giant step backwards because you got it wrong!

Let’s apply some skeptical sleuthing to this document before we get too engaged in the feeding frenzy of content criticism. Don’t be Dan Rather-credulous!

The Illinois State Board of Education has published its released test questions on its website. These are not those questions.

The document whose items are being criticised here appears to be a practice test cobbled together at an Illinois school district (Oconee County). The sources are kindly listed (New York’s Regents Exam, Scott-Foresman Publishing, etc.). My guess is that this document was prepared for internal use only. You can’t get at it from the front end.

So dig in a criticize the items; it’s good fun (and some of them are real dogs). But don’t blame the great state of Illinois for using them to abuse its 7th-graders.

I don’t know what the test is supposed actually to test, besides some rigid, rote learning program. Also, a few of the questions are quite badly phrased.

If this is a test that is really given to year 7 kids somewhere, and it can properly grade the students (i.e. it’s at the right level so 99% of students don’t bomb, or 99% don’t blitz it, but there’s a good range of results), then I’m impressed. It’s not an easy test.