Kelly Enderle

Professor Wyckoff

Education 299

Sunday April 9, 2017

Praxis Core Exam Analysis

According to the Nevada Department of Education, in order to become a licensed

educator, future educators must have the following requirements: all requirements for

academic preparation (as in education courses, bachelor degree, etc.), student teaching,

and competency testing for the specific area of licensure for which they are applying

(Nevada Department of Education, 2017). In Nevada, it is required that all educators

must pass a competency based test for their field of study, whether it be early childhood

education, elementary education, or secondary education In my case, I would need to

pass the Praxis-Core Exam, which would test me in the areas of Reading, Writing, and

Math comprehension. Currently UNLV, UNR, and NSC (all Nevada universities) are

requiring that incoming education majors pass their Praxis Core-Exam before being

admitted into the program. Passing scores for the Praxis-Core Exam are as noted on the

homepage of Praxis: Math is 150, Reading 156, and Writing 162 (ETS-Educational

Testing Service, Praxis-Core Academic Skills for Educators Tests Overview, 2017).

For my Reading, Math, and Writing practice test, I did not prepare for it because I

felt the need to look at the practice questions for any of them was pretty basic and I

thought I had a pretty good understanding of what was being asked of me. However,

according to this test I took, it does not appear to be that way. I did have a few
distractions going in while I was taking these tests and that partly took control. If I had

taken the necessary steps in avoiding all of those distractions, I think I would have done

better. I think if I study for all the sections of the Praxis-Core Exam and have fewer

distractions that I would do much better than I have done.

In Reading, I scored in the 41% range, which means I need improvement and will

most likely not pass the official Praxis-Core Exam otherwise. In writing, I scored in the

65% range, which means I need improvement. I was mildly surprised that I scored in the

51% range in math, which means I need improvement but I consider myself not great in

understanding math and the mechanics of it. All of scores for the practice test have

indicated to me that I will most likely not pass the Official Praxis-Core Exam if I do not

study and/or concentrate.

In order to be better prepared, I need to revisit some topics and study smarter. I

have not taking a Reading Comprehension test like the practice one in a few years so I

was a bit out of practice, and I did have distractions occurring which made it difficult to

fully focus. In the future, however, I will limit the amount of distractions that occur and

will focus better. I am currently taking math classes that are relevant to what is in the

testing material. I think I may purchase the study book, but there are apps that can

basically function as my study book, such as for SAT prep its kind of the same concept

as the Praxis-Core Exam. I am also using Khan Academy for math.