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PRAXIS: Taking a teacher test

SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGamingRegistered User regular
edited March 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
So tomorrow I'm taking the Us and World History Praxis, and the Principles of Learning and teaching. Has anyone taken this before? Any tips, or study suggestions? I've done quite a bit of googling and found a cool iPhone app to help with history, but the more stuff to help the better. My googling reveals 99% of the study help stuff is designed to get you to give them 40 dollars before they'll help, so boo to that.

Not sure if I'll get anyone who has taken it here, but can't hurt to ask. I'm pretty good at standardized tests, so the multiple choice and such doesn't bother me, just the content and such.

So, any tips?

SniperGuy on

Posts

  • musanmanmusanman Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    For the PLT try to relate as much as you can to vygotsky / piaget & bloom's taxonomy. And remember everything is about helping children in some way (no answer should ever have anything to do with how it helps you / makes your job easier). Isolate incidents to help children individually (don't punish the group for individual behavior) and always try to help the kid save face with his peers.

    The content tests are what they are, I did math and it had some challenging questions on there but was mostly straightforward in the range of pre-algebra concepts to some calculus concepts as you'd expect for 7-12 math ed.

    musanman on
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  • SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGaming Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    musanman wrote: »
    For the PLT try to relate as much as you can to vygotsky / piaget & bloom's taxonomy. And remember everything is about helping children in some way (no answer should ever have anything to do with how it helps you / makes your job easier). Isolate incidents to help children individually (don't punish the group for individual behavior) and always try to help the kid save face with his peers.

    The content tests are what they are, I did math and it had some challenging questions on there but was mostly straightforward in the range of pre-algebra concepts to some calculus concepts as you'd expect for 7-12 math ed.

    The bolded bit is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Common sense really, but actually cognitively processing that and applying it to the questions will help quite a bit I imagine. So thanks!

    On the short answers, do I need to specifically note when stuff uses the taxonomy and vygotsky and whatnot? Or will answering the questions without specifically referring back to knowledge of those be required? I assume quite a few of the names will show up in the multiple choice section at least.

    SniperGuy on
  • ThundyrkatzThundyrkatz Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I ended up taking the exam 2 times, and failed the first time. Mine was in History and the social studies. The first time i took it was at the end of my last semester on campus, and it was a killer exam.

    I then went and did my student teaching and took the exam again towards the end of that. I nailed the exam the second time, preparing the lesson plans for class and working with the material actually helped me remember more stuff then the first time.

    Admittedly this was a while back, like... 10 years now? But i recall the test covering a lot of material with some fairly specific essay's Though i believe it was a give 3 pick 2 essay situation.

    I am surprised that your college doesn't offer some sort of prep program.

    Thundyrkatz on
  • musanmanmusanman Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    SniperGuy wrote: »
    musanman wrote: »
    For the PLT try to relate as much as you can to vygotsky / piaget & bloom's taxonomy. And remember everything is about helping children in some way (no answer should ever have anything to do with how it helps you / makes your job easier). Isolate incidents to help children individually (don't punish the group for individual behavior) and always try to help the kid save face with his peers.

    The content tests are what they are, I did math and it had some challenging questions on there but was mostly straightforward in the range of pre-algebra concepts to some calculus concepts as you'd expect for 7-12 math ed.

    The bolded bit is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Common sense really, but actually cognitively processing that and applying it to the questions will help quite a bit I imagine. So thanks!

    On the short answers, do I need to specifically note when stuff uses the taxonomy and vygotsky and whatnot? Or will answering the questions without specifically referring back to knowledge of those be required? I assume quite a few of the names will show up in the multiple choice section at least.

    I really don't remember it being super heavy on any particular theory or anything, I just remember the essay portion and how you could sort of read that they wanted you to throw in a certain concept for each question. If you're in a college education program you've seen the theory you'll need and they just want you to apply it to scenarios.

    musanman on
    sic2sig.jpg
  • SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGaming Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Thundyrkatz wrote: »
    I ended up taking the exam 2 times, and failed the first time. Mine was in History and the social studies. The first time i took it was at the end of my last semester on campus, and it was a killer exam.

    I then went and did my student teaching and took the exam again towards the end of that. I nailed the exam the second time, preparing the lesson plans for class and working with the material actually helped me remember more stuff then the first time.

    Admittedly this was a while back, like... 10 years now? But i recall the test covering a lot of material with some fairly specific essay's Though i believe it was a give 3 pick 2 essay situation.

    I am surprised that your college doesn't offer some sort of prep program.

    Sadly in order to student teach here, you have to have passed the Praxis 2. Yes, this is silly. I have seen the theories and such (and got a pretty good study guide book for the PLT) but it's been a year of other courses between the classes that were heavy on Vygotsky and Erikson and such. Our educ department seems ass backwards quite a bit.

    SniperGuy on
  • DeadfallDeadfall I don't think you realize just how rich he is. In fact, I should put on a monocle.Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Everybody covered your specific field, but when I took the test, they were strict on protocol. No bathroom breaks, if your cell phone went off, you were dismissed, stuff like that.

    Deadfall on
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  • ThundyrkatzThundyrkatz Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    There has to be some sort of test prep out there. Having taken a few standardized tests (series 6, 63 & 7), i can say that a lot of these have as much to do with being good at taking their test as knowing their material. It may be worth the effort to buy a professional test prep package and hammer away at that for a bit.

    A lot of the material was stuff i had not looked since taking that class a year or more before.

    Looks like there are lots of options out there. Kaplan was decent when i used it for the securities licenses.

    I seem to remember that each go at the Praxis was like 100 bucks?

    Thundyrkatz on
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