Prepping for the Praxis

In order to gain teacher certification, in any state, a teacher candidate must pass the Praxis I and II.  The Praxis I is very similar to the SAT test, with Math, Reading, and Writing.  However, the Praxis II is specific to the content that the teacher wants to teach.  Since I want to be an English teacher, I have to take two tests-the English Content test and the Pedagogy test. On Saturday, I took the English Content Exam.

In the few weeks leading up to the exam, I was scared that I wasn’t going to know anything, and that I would fail the test.  The week before the test, I feel like all I did was study.  I bought a study guide so that I could also take some practice tests.  I looked over all of the chapters in the study guide, even though some of what was in there was common sense, but I wanted to make sure that I could answer as much as possible.  I knew that there were bound to be some questions that I would have no clue on, since there was no way that I could possibly read every piece of literature that they might ask about.  The night before the test, I took two practice tests and scored myself.  After I took it, I went out to my living room and started telling some of my roommates what some of the crazy questions were.  Some of them were super easy, but some were ridiculously hard and specific.  However, after taking the practice tests, I still felt more confident about my chances of doing well on the test.

I attempted to go to bed early, but I was too nervous to fall asleep and I ended up staying up til 4 AM.  Considering I had to be at the testing center, which was conveniently just across campus, this was not good. I still wasn’t fully awake when I got to the testing center on Saturday morning, but once we started filling out the test booklet, I knew I would be fine.

I walked out of the test feeling confident that I had done well, which is always good!  Unfortunately, I have to just keep those good feelings up for a month until I find out my scores.  Now, it’s on to the next test-the Pedagogy test in January!