Hi All!
I'm new on the forum, but I've been reading it for a while as I have been preparing for my Praxis. Once that is done I look forward to reading the rest of the discussions in the main forum.
I just wanted to share my experience in preparing and taking the Praxis Math 0061 test yesterday. I was very worried going in. I haven't had much time to study and I've been out of college 11+ years (I was a Math major though).
Test Prep Materials:
- Cliff Notes Praxis 0061
- ETS Praxis 0061 Study Guide
- ETS Praxis Sample Test (online)
- College Calc book
First of all, I will note that none of the above materials adequately prepared me for the difficulty of the test. The Cliff Notes did provide an overview of "most" of the subjects that were on the test, but with not nearly enough depth. The 3 practice tests were the best part of the book. Although the questions were easier than the actual test, I consistently scored ~130-135 on all three tests (answering <65% or so correctly).
Strangely enough when I moved up to the more difficult Praxis Study Guide Test and Sample Test my score improved to 150! This is weird because I knew they were harder and I was missing almost as many questions, but the scoring was different! I found that with all the practice tests I was able to understand the approach to solving the problems but always tripped up on something during the process which caused me to pick the wrong answer.
Although I only needed a 128 to pass, I was very nervous because I didn't know how far my score would drop with the added difficulty of the actual test (which I continually read from this forum). My practice test scores were all over the place and my mind was frying from cramming.
So, I took the computer test yesterday and it was TOUGH. I seriously considered not reporting the scores, but I had nothing to lose so I did. Strangely enough, I scored the higher than my practice tests! I scored a 157 with raw score of 37. I have no idea how I did it, but I'll take it.
. (caveat: I do take standardized tests well) . What was different than the practice tests was that there were so many questions that I had no clue about how to approach them and I had to do a a lot of reverse answer-finding (plugging answers into formulas to see which one works). There were definitely questions that I learned how to solve only by taking all the practice tests that I did, so I am thankful for all the materials that I studied.
Anyway, I'm happy to be over that hurdle and on my way to teaching soon. I have to complete my alternate route teacher program and pass my Physics Praxis and hope to land a job!
I just wanted to share my experience!
Take Care!
