Overview of the system

The Praxis Series Tests are taken by individuals who want to enter into the teaching profession. This is an integral part of the certification process required by many states and professional licensing organizations. There are two broad premises on which the candidates are tested, namely, Praxis I Preprofessional Skills Tests (PPST) and Praxis II Subject Assessments. PPST is taken by one at the beginning of his/her college career and it covers the areas of reading, writing and mathematics. The basic academic skills of an aspirant teacher are judged in PPST. There are two modes of PPST, a. Computer-delivered Tests and b. Paper-delivered Tests. They are strictly multiple-choice type. It also contains an Essay section. Praxis II Tests evaluate an individual on specific subject(s) spanning from K-12 standards and also general and subject-specific teaching skills and knowledge. They also generally occur in two formats, a. Computer-delivered Tests and b. Paper-delivered Tests. There is no negative marking. The questions are set and rechecked by a team of experts to ensure a high quality and assessment standard. Candidates should check the state-specific requirements to ensure which test one has to take up to enter into the teaching profession within the realm of the state.

Procedure to take a demo test

The concerned official website offers the candidates an opportunity to take up a demo test in order to prepare for the real one. The procedure is very simple and is enlisted as follows:

A candidate should first check the state requirements to ensure that he is on the right track.

He/she should compulsorily download a .pdf document named Test Preparation Flyer that outlines key information and resources to help prepare for the test. There are two types of preparatory modes for demonstrating a test, a. Free Test preparation and b. Priced Test preparation. There are live web sessions which facilitate interaction between experts and aspirants. The aspirants may ask their doubts and get them clarified. The Test at a glance provision on the concerned official website zooms on the contents of the test, the topics required to be covered by the aspirants, the distribution of questions and marks in the test and also sample test questions. Video demonstration of computer-delivered tests is also available where the aspirants can get a real feel of what will happen on the day of the assessment. All the above provisions pertain to the Free Test preparation mode. For Priced Test preparation mode, e-books are available on the concerned official website which the aspirants can buy and go through.

Quality of questions

Educators, faculty of teacher preparation programs and disciplinary specialists prepare the questions. The developers and reviewers follow rigorous, standardized procedures to ensure that test material reflects the skills being tested and meets high quality assessment standards.

Each question is reviewed by ETS experts as well as content advisory groups, who are also engaged in establishing guidelines and standards for what the tests should measure.

After test questions have been reviewed and revised, they are administered in trial situations and assembled into tests.

Tests are then reviewed according to ETS procedures to ensure that all tests are free of cultural bias.

Statistical analyses of individual questions ensure that all items provide appropriate measurement information.

A comparative study with Study Island

Study Island caters to students with a defined mode of assessing their academic improvement. In Study Island, teachers can prepare an assessment based on a set of standardized questions and cater them to the student(s) so that they go through the assessments to get a feel of where they actually stand, academically, at present. Praxis Tests evaluate a teaching professional aspirant. In Study Island, the state-specific requirements are different, same as the situation is in case of Praxis Tests. In Study Island, both the teachers and students are involved but when it comes to the Praxis Tests, we can see the involvement of only individuals raring to join the teaching profession. Study Island doesnt pertain to the different categories of students like children with special needs, etc. but Praxis Tests do have that feature. They pertain to different categories of aspirants like people with disabilities and health-related needs, individuals whose primary language is not English etc. Of course, Study Island assessments are free whereas Praxis Tests arent.