Customer Reviews

English Language, Literature, and Composition: Essays and Pedagogy Study Guide (Praxis Study Guides)

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I took the Praxis on Saturday, and I was totally unprepared for the content part of the test, and I did buy that book (see review on that page). HOWEVER, I STRONGLY recommend purchasing this book if you are taking any part of the Praxis II English exams. For one thing, this book gives you not one, but TWO reading lists, and they are actually books with titles (versus the other book which gives you a list of 20 or so authors and no clue as to what part of their works will be on the exam). This book also gives you a good idea as to what will be on the test, not so much as the exact same questions, but the practice test included gives you a good idea of what they are looking for in your answers in order to maximize your score. I felt much better prepared for the exam by having used this book and the reading lists included.

I graduated college in 1987 and am hoping to teach through an alternative certification program. I took the Middle School Language Arts Praxis earlier this year and passed the first time, using the ETS Middle School Praxis Study Guide. Now I'm going to take the secondary English tests 0041 and 0042. I looked at this book at our local college library, but it was only for reference and could not be checked out. This book is a good study guide. It includes lists of authors and titles you need to be familiar with, along with detailed explanations about the types of composition questions, required responses, and scoring guidelines. It even includes a full Practice Test which mirrors the actual Praxis. You won't find a book with all the answers in it, trust me, I've searched for one of those too. You should buy this one if you plan to pass Praxis.

I signed up to take the PRAXIS 0043 English exam. I ordered this book thinking it would help. Delivery was prompt, but the problem is the book's content. For 0043, you're writing two essays. The questions are always the same. You can see the questions by downloading a free Test-At-A-Glance from the ETS website. The only difference is the material you'd be asked to respond to. You can use the suggested list on the free download or any high school reading list and practice writing from there. Even in this book, the practice test offered ten choices of works for response; only three were on their suggested reading list (which is noted as NOT being exhaustive). The section showing how sample essays are graded could be helpful, but out of a possible ten essays, for instance, only one is shown being graded, which doesn't much help you if you wrote on any of the other works. The student response section is fairly self-explanatory; just make sure you thoroughly respond to each part of the question. Overall, I was so bummed to have paid this much for a study guide, to have been made to believe that the guide is written by the ultimate authorities of the test, and to have discovered that it was a big waste.

I used another study guide and failed the essay test. After looking over this study guide, I knew exactly what the scorers were looking for and in what format, and passed the second time.

Here is the problem: Every year the test is different. This prep test isn't going to help you pass the exam. The exam is largely based on what you should already know. But if you must, brush up on the parts of speech, poetic devices, types of poetry, and literary genres. This exam will also test your knowledge of certain authors...there is no way for you to know which author's they're going to ask you about. Luckily these are only a few questions. In short, the few things you could possibly study up on you could find on the internet. You don't need this book.

I haven't had the chance to spend a lot of time with this book yet, but so far, I really like it. Everything is clearly marked and all of the information is understandable and well organized. On the other hand, I do wish the book also covered the Knowledge/Content test as well (test 0041, I think). Also, I thought this book would have the information I would need to study, as well, such as terms, etc. However, the book points you to other sources for this information. This text, for the most part, gives bulleted lists of terms and texts to know. Also, it outlines information about the tests, like how they will be scored, and gives several practice tests for you to take.

I believe the Pedagogy (0043) was very well outlined with multiple examples for teaching literature. It also gives you a list of the books you can read to prepare you for the test and there were several sample responses. However, the were not enough sample responses for the responding to student writing.