LearningExpress - Praxis: Core Academic Skills for Educators: (5712, 5722, 5732)

CHAPTER 1

About the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators Tests

CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter familiarizes you with the series of Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators tests, which are administered by the Educational Testing Service. You will learn the components of all three Core exams, how to register for the exams, how they are scored, and all about the computer-based testing format.

W elcome to your comprehensive review for the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators tests! This series of computer-based mathematics, reading, and writing exams test your knowledge in these core subjects, and assess your readiness to enter teacher education programs. As the name suggests, the content tested on these exams aligns with the Common Core State Standards.

This book offers complete review, practice, and preparation for the three Core exams:

Core Academic Skills for Educators: Reading (5712)

Core Academic Skills for Educators: Writing (5722)

Core Academic Skills for Educators: Mathematics (5732)

Inside you will find a diagnostic test to assess your skill levels, comprehensive review of the academic content found on all three exams, and two practice exams to test what you have learned and to determine where you need more practice. At the end of the book, you will also find a link to an instantly scored online practice exam.

States Using the Praxis Series of Tests

Each state sets its own requirement for which tests you must take and what score will be accepted as passing. Information regarding specific state or organization requirements may change from time to time. For accurate, up-to-date information, refer to the official Praxis website at www.ets.org/praxis/about/core/ and your states education department.

IMPORTANT CONTACT INFORMATION

ETS The Praxis Series

P.O. Box 6051

Princeton, NJ 08541-6051

Website: www.ets.org/praxis

Phone: 609-771-7395, MF 8 A.M. to 7:45 P.M. (EST) (except for U.S. holidays)

Phone for the Hearing Impaired: 609-771-7714

E-mail directly through the website at www.ets.org/praxis/contact

Before you begin your review, lets take a closer look at the Praxis Core exams.

What Is Covered on the Praxis Core Tests?

The Praxis Core tests are designed to see whether you have the academic skills to be an effective teacher. Each tests your basic skills in either Reading, Mathematics, or Writing.

Praxis Core at a Glance

As you can see, most of the questions on the Praxis Core tests, with the exception of the essay portion of the Writing test, are in multiple-choice format. The Mathematics test also features numeric entry questions, where you supply an answer without being given any choices. Each multiple-choice question has five answer choices and is worth one point. Because test scoring is based only on the number of items answered correctly, you are not penalized for incorrect answers on the Praxis Core testsso be sure to fill in all the answer blanks rather than leaving difficult questions unanswered. Even a guess is better than leaving an answer blank!

Lets look at each test.

Reading

The Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators: Reading test measures your ability to comprehend, ana lyze, and evaluate written information. The skills tested on the exam align with the Common Core State Standards for Reading, and emphasize the skills needed to thrive in a teacher preparation program.

You will be asked to read a number of passages (which may vary in length from a few sentences to 100 to 200 words) and then answer questions accompanying each that test your ability to comprehend what you have read. The genre and reading levels of the passages will vary. You will be tested only on your ability to understand and analyze the selection; you will not be required to have specific knowledge about the topics discussed in the passages.

You will have 85 minutes to read all the passages and answer the 56 multiple-choice questions on this exam. Here is a breakdown of the question types on the Praxis Core Reading test.

Chapter 4 provides more detailed coverage of these question types you will face, with examples of each.

Writing

The Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators: Writing test is divided into two sections:

The first section consists of multiple-choice questions that require you to find and/or correct errors in standard English.

The second part asks you to write two 30-minute essays: an argumentative essay and a source-based essay.

The skills tested align with the Common Core State Standards for Writing. The multiple-choice section of the writing test is designed to measure your ability to use standard English correctly and effectively, and is divided into four parts: usage, sentence correction, revision in context, and research skills.

Usage questions test your knowledge of:

structural and grammatical relationships

mechanics

idiom or word choice

Usage questions also test your ability to identify error-free sentences.

Sentence Correction questions test your ability to:

select the best way to state a given phrase or sentence

correct sentences with errors in grammar, mechanics, idioms, or word choice

Revision-in-Context questions test your skills in editing a passage to strengthen its word choice, flow, style, and organization.

Research Skills questions ask you to assess the credibility of sources, identify parts of a citation, and recognize parts of a passage that have been pulled from various sources.

The Essays

The essay portion of the Praxis Core Writing test is designed to evaluate your ability to express ideas clearly and effectively in standard written English under time constraints. You will be asked to write two different types of essays: an Argumentative essay and an Informative/Explanatory essay.

The Argumentative essay will ask you to draw from personal experiences and observation to support a position. To perform well on this essay, you will need to back up your point of view with exampleseither from something you have read or seen, from your real life, or a combination of both

The Informative/Explanatory essay will begin with two passages, which you should read before you begin. You will then be asked to take information from these two sources to answer a question presented by the prompt given.

The given topics present situations that are generally familiar to all educated people and do not require any specialized knowledge in a particular field. Although you will be posing an argument and drawing conclusions based on examples from personal experience or observation, you will not be graded on your opinionyou will be scored only on how effectively you are able to get your ideas across.

You will have 40 minutes to answer the 40 multiple-choice questions on this exam, and 30 minutes for each essay. Chapter 5 provides detailed information on how to approach both sections of the writing test.

Mathematics

The Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators: Mathematics test measures your proficiency in math. Generally speaking, the test requires a competency at the high school or first-year college level. All the skills tested on the exam align with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Here are the four main math content areas that will be tested:

Numbers and Operations

order

equivalence

numeration and place value

number properties

operation properties