The English Regents requires four essays, each structured differently. Combined, they are intended to assess students' abilities to read, write and listen for:
* information and understanding,
* literary response and expression,
* critical analysis and evaluation, and
* social interaction,
as per the state's standards for English Language Arts.
The exam is administered in two three-hour sessions, usually on different days. There are four separate parts.
* Task I-A: A passage is read aloud to students twice, from which they may take notes. They must then answer six multiple-choice questions and then write a persuasive essay, following several guidelines for a specific audience based on information in the passage.
* Task II-B: Students must follow guidelines to write another persuasive essay, and answer 10 multiple-choice questions, incorporating information based on two documents. One is a written passage typically almost two pages in length, the other is a chart or table.
* Task III-A: Students again develop an essay on a general theme from two different documents, one prose, the other a poem. There are also ten multiple-choice questions.
* Task IV-B: The final section is the "critical lens" essay. Students are provided with a brief quotation, the critical lens, which they must then use as the basis for an essay interpreting two literary works of their choice, often ones they have read in class. There are no multiple-choice questions on this section.