Customer Reviews

Elementary Education: Content Knowledge Study Guide (Praxis Study Guides)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is a study guide, and includes a specific list of what subjects to review before the test. A Student must use other books to research the materal listed in each subject area. This book alone will not prepare a student to take the Praxis II (0014) test, but will help a student know what to study. The book contains a practice test that is very similar to the actual test questions.
I reviewed all the subjects listed in the study guide and easily passed the test the first time. I would recomend this book to anyone who plans to take the Praxis II Exam.

This book helped me to pass the Content Knowledge Praxis II test on the first try. It has four chapters of "Study Topics" which are outlines of what is on each section of the test. The outlines serve as a guide for what to study for the test. I went through each chapter and thoroughly researched (using textbooks and the internet)and studied each item. The other chapters give tips and advise on how to take the test. There is a practice test which is very similar to the actual test. It took a lot of time and effort but it was worth it. I felt very prepared for the test.

I decided to take this Praxis test last minute with very little time to study. I purchased this book and took one whole day from about 6am to 11:30 pm (the day before the test) and just went through the entire book exceot the practice test. YOU WILL NEED THE INTERNET or an ENcyclopedia set to look up everything it mentions for some background and a more in depth understanding of the topics suggested for study. Studying was very enjoyable because I learned a lot. IF you think you will just buy this book and not need background information on everything it mentions YOU ARE WRONG. However, if you buy this book and look up everything it mentions and read about it & learn the background you will do well. The book gives you names of important names in history and you will need to look them up so you know exactly what they are known for and the period they are from etc. Do not skip over anything or anyone because the test does ask specific questions about the topics they tell you to study. The test had questions that were identical to the study areas listed in the book. I cannot comment on the practice test in the book because I did not have time to take it....However, I would say that if you study all the areas it mentions in this book and look up all the specific items it mentions either using the Internet or even an Encyclopedia set -you will be fine for the test. I am not a strong test taker and I did it using this book and the Internet (I used an Encyclopedia set on the Internet). Further this book is made by the SAME PEOPLE who make the test they are spoonfeeding you what needs to be studied you just need to look up the items on the Internet or an Encyclopedia set. YOU WILL DO GREAT! GOOD LUCK!

I used this guide to study for the Praxis II Elementary Education: Content Knowledge test, which I took today. While this guide gives a good, broad list of content area topics, I do not believe that it truly represents the types of questions that were on the exam. The practice test in the study guide is deceiving in that the degree of difficulty was not comparable to the degree of difficulty of the actual exam questions. The practice test was easy, but the exam was NOT. Also, the exam questions from the test that I took today appeared to be geared more towards upper elementary and middle school content knowledge. This, too, is different than the study guide. I know that each version of the exam will be different, but I wonder at the variability between the study guide and the particular exam that I took today.

The Good:
The strategies for taking multiple-choice exams were useful, and the "Explanation of Right Answers" section was thorough and clear. I like the way the guide is organized in outline form with stars, bullets, and arrows that focus your attention to topics without being overwhelming.

The Bad:
This book was a bit pricy, $25.00 for only test 0014, while some of the other study guides (i.e., Barron's and Kaplan) were similarly priced, but covered several of the Praxis exams, a great bargain for those of us who are required to take multiple Praxis tests. Also, this edition is a couple of years old, published in 2003. ETS prepares the Praxis Series of tests, and I am sure they make regular changes. Since they pretty much have a captive audience, I would like to see them ditch the fancy colored cover, lower the list price by half, and update the guide as a "booklet" each year. This may just be wishful thinking on my part.

The Ugly:
Now that I have taken the exam, I find that I wasted a lot of time studying topics (suggested by the study guide) that were not on the exam, although this could be attributed to the version of the exam that I took.

The Bottom Line:
This guide is okay, but if I had to do it over again (having now taken the Praxis exam), I would not use it as my sole source. I would use it in conjunction with another study guide, maybe one with a more difficult practice test.

This book is a good, basic review guide for the Elementary Education content Praxis exam. It only contins 1 practice test, but gives good explanations for each question and details the main topics covered in the exam. I found it to be a good place to start my studying, but I still needed to brush up on the actual subject matter. For this, I am using the series by E.D. Hirsch ('What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know', 'What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know', etc.) This series is extremely helpful.

This book helped me prepare for the Praxis II content knowledge test. I thought the study questions in the book were very helpful although I did need to use other books and internet resources alongside this book to review for the test. There was also an excellent practice test at the end of the book. I have yet to take the test but I feel that I am fully prepared.

I found this study guide to be a valuable tool while studying for Praxis II. I paid particular attention to the Language Arts and Social Studies sections - everything that was on Praxis II was somewhere in the study guide. I used it as an outline of what concepts I needed to know and then used other resources to elaborate on those concepts. It does not have all of the information on each topic, but it does tell you what you need to study. I would highly recommend it. (I passed Praxis II the first time.)

I passed the test after using this book as my study guide.

This book, I should add, does not teach you the information on the exam, it only gives you an outline of topics you might see on the test. It took me about 2 weeks to thoroughly go through all the topics, and all I basically did was look them up on the internet. I wish I would have read the other review here that recommends the "All your ___th grader needs to know" series. I assume that would have been A LOT easier than having to go through and look everything up. I would definitely recommend making sure to go through everything, especially if you've been out of school for a while.

On my version of the exam, the English and Math portions were very straight forward. The English did not have as much method questions as I expected it to have from the study guide. Science and Social Studies were somewhat killer because the range of knowledge they expect you to know is massive. All I can suggest for that is to study as best you can for those subjects, and then just trust that you're a good guesser, unless you have a wealth of knowledge in those areas.

On a side note, in my stressing about the test and whether I passed or not, I found a good post that calculated out getting 2/3 of the questions right (80/120), would send you well on your way to passing the exam. I think I probably did end up getting somewhere between 30-40 questions wrong with the Social Studies and Science portions, so from my guessing, the 2/3 rule will have you well over passing....at least in my state where the minimum score is 143, and I managed a 182.

This was a good study guide, if you have a lot of other resource books to study and review off of. It gave a lot of general topics about what would be on the tests and subjects to review on, but it really didn't go into detail like other books, Barrons, etc. would have. It gives a good idea of the test format and what to expect, but other then that not much else. There is a practice test at the end that does help. If your looking for an indepth study guide, this is not it...but it is a good book, if your studying for the test a month or two before the test.

If you are like me and you dread standardized tests get this book! The sample questions made a huge difference in how I prepared for the test and how relaxed I felt taking the test. I read this study guide two months before the exam and then reviewed the guide the week before. I passed the exam with flying colors and am now certified to teach!