Praxis Tests - What You Need to Know About It

For any teacher certification course, it is mandatory to have passed a standardized test. It is not easy to get accreditation as a teacher, especially if you're looking to get known in the field of teaching. In the U.S., you would need to get a good Praxis test score to go through to the teaching profession and be enrolled in a university or college.

What are Praxis tests?

Traditionally, universities and colleges use the score of the Praxis tests to evaluate the eligibility of the participants. These test scores help to measure the teaching skill of the aspirants. Praxis test score is used by most public schools in the US and is the guarantee that these participants are qualified enough to teach. However, each states of the US has their own sets of rules and standards for the Praxis certification.

What is the Praxis certification series?

Administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Praxis exams are used as the standard for more than 40 states that is a measure for the teaching knowledge and skill. Whether the person is eligible for licensing in teaching profession or not is determined by the series of Praxis exam - the Praxis I and the Praxis II. These tests are taken widely by people around the world who want to enter the field of teaching and the Praxis certification series help get the recognition they need.

Praxis I Exams

Referred to as the Pre-Professional Skills Test or PPST, the Praxis I Exam is an evaluation based on the reading, writing and mathematical skills of the participant. prior to being admitted in the teacher training program, this Praxis I Exam is almost a mandatory program for most of the states in the US. The aspirants have the choice to choose either the online version or the paper format to give the exam. The online test can either be a full length four and a half hours test or two separate tests of two-hour duration. For the paper exam, three different one hour tests are necessary to complete the first part. However, it's up to the student to take the tests on the same day or separately. The reading and the math section are formatted in the multiple choice question patterns along with an essay question. However, all the sections are timed. The more the number of answers you can attempt correctly, the more you score in the PPST. Also, there is no penalty for not trying out all the questions.

Praxis II Exams

With multiple Praxis II exams available for the potential teaching aspirants, it evaluates the knowledge of the specific subjects of their related teaching skills. To complete state teacher certification requirements, the Praxis II exam is mandatory. Traditionally, there are three types of different Praxis II assessments that one needs to know about.

PLT test (Praxis II Principals of Learning and Teaching) - this exam is for evaluating the pedagogical knowledge of the kindergarten through 6th grade or early childhood. It also evaluates the knowledge of 5th through 9th grade, or 7th through 12th grade.

The teaching foundation tests - this helps to focus on the five major subject areas like math, science, social science, language arts and English.

To measure the knowledge of the teaching skills on particular topic, subject assessment is necessary. Those complying with the national drive to employ teachers these tests are generally used to award teaching endorsements. This guarantees that the participant is highly qualified to teach the specific subjects.

The Praxis III Exams

Unlike the Praxis I exam, the Praxis III Exam is used to determine the teacher readiness. This is applicable for those teaching under temporary or provisional license. According to this test score, the teaching skills and the classroom practice techniques can be assessed.

Course fee

The course fee can differ according to the needs. Depending on the course subject, the fee could be anywhere between $50 and $140. The California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) is another similar test like Praxis. They generally have the same guidelines. With the successful qualification of the Praxis exam, your career opportunities increase manifold from being a school management administrator to teacher of specific subject.