---
pretty_name: HighSchoolBench-MCQ
language:
- en
language_creators:
- found
multilinguality:
- monolingual
source_datasets:
- original
task_categories:
- multiple-choice
- visual-question-answering
- question-answering
task_ids:
- multiple-choice-qa
size_categories:
- 1K<n<10K
tags:
- highschoolbench
- benchmark
- education
- high-school
- exam
- stem
- science
- mathematics
- multimodal
- image
- text
- multiple-choice
configs:
- config_name: context_text_images__text_options
  default: true
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_images__text_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_images__text_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_images__text_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_images__image_options
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_images__image_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_images__text_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_images__text_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_images__text_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_images__text_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables__image_options
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables__image_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables__text_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables__text_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables__text_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables__text_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables_images__image_options
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables_images__image_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables_images__text_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables_images__text_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables_images__text_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_contextualized_tables_images__text_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_images__image_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_images__image_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_images__image_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_images__image_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_only__image_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_only__image_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_only__image_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_only__image_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_only__table_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_only__table_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_only__table_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_only__table_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_only__text_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_only__text_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_only__text_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_only__text_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_table__image_options
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_table__image_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_table__text_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_table__text_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_table__text_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_table__text_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_table_image__image_options
  data_files:
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_table_image__image_options/test-*.parquet
- config_name: context_text_table_image__text_options
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/context_text_table_image__text_options/train-*.parquet
  - split: validation
    path: data/context_text_table_image__text_options/validation-*.parquet
  - split: test
    path: data/context_text_table_image__text_options/test-*.parquet
dataset_info:
- config_name: context_text_images__text_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: image_context
    dtype: string
  - name: images
    list: image
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_images__image_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: image_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: image_1
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: image_2
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_3
    dtype: string
  - name: image_3
    dtype: image
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: image
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
  - name: option_image_label_groups
    list:
      list: string
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_images__text_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: image_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: image_1
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: image_2
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_3
    dtype: string
  - name: image_3
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_4
    dtype: string
  - name: image_4
    dtype: image
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables__image_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: table_2
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: image
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
  - name: option_image_label_groups
    list:
      list: string
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables__text_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: table_2
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_3
    dtype: string
  - name: table_3
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_4
    dtype: string
  - name: table_4
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables_images__image_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: image_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: image_1
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: image_2
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_3
    dtype: string
  - name: image_3
    dtype: image
  - name: table_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: table_2
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: image
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
  - name: option_image_label_groups
    list:
      list: string
- config_name: context_text_contextualized_tables_images__text_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: image_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: image_1
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: image_2
    dtype: image
  - name: image_context_3
    dtype: string
  - name: image_3
    dtype: image
  - name: table_context_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_1
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_2
    dtype: string
  - name: table_2
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context_3
    dtype: string
  - name: table_3
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
- config_name: context_text_images__image_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: images
    list: image
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: image
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
  - name: option_image_label_groups
    list:
      list: string
- config_name: context_text_only__image_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: image
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
  - name: option_image_label_groups
    list:
      list: string
- config_name: context_text_only__table_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
- config_name: context_text_only__text_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
- config_name: context_text_table__image_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: tables
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: image
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
  - name: option_image_label_groups
    list:
      list: string
- config_name: context_text_table__text_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: table_context
    dtype: string
  - name: tables
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
- config_name: context_text_table_image__image_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: images
    list: image
  - name: tables
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: image
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
  - name: option_image_label_groups
    list:
      list: string
- config_name: context_text_table_image__text_options
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: int64
  - name: assessment_program
    dtype: string
  - name: assessment_stage
    dtype: string
  - name: subject
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: context
    dtype: string
  - name: images
    list: image
  - name: tables
    dtype: string
  - name: question
    dtype: string
  - name: options
    list: string
  - name: option_labels
    list: string
  - name: answer
    list: string
  - name: split
    dtype: string
  - name: num_answer_options
    dtype: int32
---

# HighSchoolBench-MCQ

[GitHub](https://github.com/sciknoworg/high-school-science) • [Master’s thesis](https://doi.org/10.15488/22429)

## Dataset description

**HighSchoolBench-MCQ** contains **7,549 multiple-choice questions** from high-school standardized assessments and science competitions. It is the multiple-choice component of **HighSchoolBench**, a multimodal benchmark for evaluating language and vision-language models on high-school assessment questions.

The questions come from assessments such as **NAEP, SAT, PSAT, PISA, ACT, and IB**, U.S. state examinations, science bowls, and U.S. science olympiads. They include text-based questions and questions involving diagrams, images, and tables. Answer options are provided as text, images, or tables.

Each question includes the correct answer label(s) and metadata identifying its source assessment, subject, and domain. The open-ended component is available separately as [HighSchoolBench-OEQ](https://huggingface.co/datasets/SciKnowOrg/HighSchoolBench-OEQ).

## Dataset statistics

The dataset contains **7,549 questions and 2,419 images**.

| Split | Questions |
|---|---:|
| `train` | 1,143 |
| `validation` | 375 |
| `test` | 6,031 |
| **Total** | **7,549** |

The source split `val` is exposed as `validation` on Hugging Face. The `split` field retains the original source label.

## Configurations

The dataset is organized into **15 configurations** according to the question context and answer-option format.

| Configuration | Question context | Option format |
|---|---|---|
| `context_text_only__text_options` | Text | Text |
| `context_text_only__image_options` | Text | Images |
| `context_text_only__table_options` | Text | Tables |
| `context_text_images__text_options` | Text and images | Text |
| `context_text_images__image_options` | Text and images | Images |
| `context_text_table__text_options` | Text and tables | Text |
| `context_text_table__image_options` | Text and tables | Images |
| `context_text_table_image__text_options` | Text, tables, and images | Text |
| `context_text_table_image__image_options` | Text, tables, and images | Images |
| `context_text_contextualized_images__text_options` | Images with associated passages | Text |
| `context_text_contextualized_images__image_options` | Images with associated passages | Images |
| `context_text_contextualized_tables__text_options` | Tables with associated passages | Text |
| `context_text_contextualized_tables__image_options` | Tables with associated passages | Images |
| `context_text_contextualized_tables_images__text_options` | Tables and images with associated passages | Text |
| `context_text_contextualized_tables_images__image_options` | Tables and images with associated passages | Images |

In contextualized configurations, individual images and tables are stored alongside their associated passages. Some configurations contain only a test split.

## Data format

### Main fields

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `id` | Question identifier from the source file. |
| `assessment_program` | Source assessment or competition. |
| `assessment_stage` | Assessment stage or exam type. |
| `subject` | Subject assigned to the question. |
| `domain` | Topic within the subject. |
| `context` | Supporting passage or shared context, when available. |
| `question` | Question stem. Mathematical expressions use LaTeX. |
| `options` | Ordered answer options as strings or images. Table options are represented as Markdown strings. |
| `option_labels` | Labels corresponding to the answer options. |
| `answer` | List of correct option labels. |
| `split` | Original split label: `train`, `val`, or `test`. |
| `num_answer_options` | Number of correct options, equal to `len(answer)`. |

### Context-specific fields

The following fields appear where relevant to the configuration:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `images` | List of images accompanying the question. |
| `image_context` | Text associated with the images. |
| `tables` | Tables represented as Markdown strings. |
| `table_context` | Text associated with the tables. |
| `image_N`, `image_context_N` | Individual image and its associated passage. |
| `table_N`, `table_context_N` | Individual table and its associated passage. |
| `option_image_label_groups` | Option labels represented in each answer-option image. |

An answer-option image may contain several choices. For example, `[["A", "B", "C", "D"]]` indicates that one image contains all four labeled choices.

### Available files

The dataset is provided in two formats:

- **Parquet:** `data/<configuration>/`, with typed columns and embedded images. These files are used by the Hugging Face dataset viewer and `load_dataset`.
- **JSON Lines and images:** `subsets/<configuration>/<split>/`, containing a `metadata.jsonl` file and the images referenced by its records.

In Parquet, `options` and `option_labels` are separate ordered lists. In the JSON Lines files, options retain their source representation, usually a mapping such as `{"A": "...", "B": "..."}`.

## Usage

Load a configuration using the Hugging Face `datasets` library:

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

dataset = load_dataset(
    "SciKnowOrg/HighSchoolBench-MCQ",
    "context_text_images__text_options",
)

print(dataset)
```

Access a question and its text answer options:

```python
example = dataset["test"][0]

print("Context:", example["context"])
print("Question:", example["question"])

for label, option in zip(
    example["option_labels"],
    example["options"],
):
    print(f"{label}. {option}")

print("Correct answer:", example["answer"])

# Question images are decoded as PIL images.
images = example["images"]
```

List the available configurations:

```python
from datasets import get_dataset_config_names

print(get_dataset_config_names("SciKnowOrg/HighSchoolBench-MCQ"))
```

To download the JSON Lines files and accompanying images:

```bash
hf download SciKnowOrg/HighSchoolBench-MCQ \
    --repo-type dataset \
    --include "subsets/*" \
    --local-dir HighSchoolBench-MCQ
```

## Citation

If you use HighSchoolBench, please cite:

```bibtex
@misc{rani2026highschoolbench,
  title        = {HighSchoolBench: A Multimodal Benchmark of High School Assessment Questions},
  author       = {Rani, Krishna and D'Souza, Jennifer},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Hugging Face},
  howpublished = {\url{https://huggingface.co/datasets/SciKnowOrg/HighSchoolBench-MCQ},
                  \url{https://huggingface.co/datasets/SciKnowOrg/HighSchoolBench-OEQ}}
}
```

HighSchoolBench was introduced in the following master’s thesis:

```bibtex
@mastersthesis{rani2026highschoolbench_thesis,
  title  = {Toward Robust LLM Benchmarking in High School Science Education:
            Constructing a QA Corpus from Standardized Tests},
  author = {Rani, Krishna},
  school = {Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universit{\"a}t Hannover},
  year   = {2026},
  doi    = {10.15488/22429},
  url    = {https://doi.org/10.15488/22429}
}
```