Diana Huggins has spent several years working in the field of education. After completing her bachelor of education degree, with a major in English and a minor in history, she began her career as an elementary school teacher and then moved into adult education. As an adult educator, she was responsible for overseeing adult learning programs and developing training
material
Diana also spent some time as an independent contractor, providing technical writing and editing services. During her time as a contractor, she authored several technology-related study guides. Currently, Diana continues to work in the Information Technology industry, where she focuses on communication, technical writing, and adult learning and development.
This introduction provides you with some general information about the layout of this book and what you can expect to find in an Exam Cram. This is followed by a brief overview of the chapter content and basic test information such as question format, number of questions, and passing score, as well as recommendations for preparing for and taking the exam.
About This Book
The chapters in this book have been structured around the exam objectives developed by Educational Testing Services (ETS). This ensures you are familiar with the content that you'll encounter on the PRAXIS Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) and Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) exams.
I recommend that you work through the book from start to finish for your initial reading. After you've read the book, you can brush up on a certain area by using the Index or the Table of Contents to go straight to the topics and questions you want to re-examine. I've tried to use the headings and subheadings to provide outline information about each given topic. After you've completed the PRAXIS I exam, I think you'll also find this book useful as a study resource for the PRAXIS II exam.
Who This Book Is For
This book has been written as a study resource for the PRAXIS I and PRAXIS II exams. It is intended for those individuals who are currently completing or have already completed their college training and are now preparing to take the PRAXIS I and/or PRAXIS II exams. The book assumes that the reader has some background knowledge in high-school level math, reading, and writing.
Chapter Formats
Each chapter of Exam Cram follows a regular structure, along with graphical cues about especially important or useful material. The structure of a typical chapter is as follows:
Opening hotlists—Each chapter begins with lists of the terms you'll need to understand and the concepts you'll need to master before you can be fully conversant with the chapter's subject matter. I follow the hotlists with a few introductory paragraphs, setting the stage for the rest of the chapter.
Topical coverage—After the opening hotlists, each chapter covers the topics related to the chapter's subject.
Exam Alerts—Throughout the topical coverage section, I highlight material most likely to appear on the exam by using a special Exam Alert element that looks like this:
Caution - An Exam Alert stresses concepts, terms, or any other bit of information that will most likely appear in one or more exam questions. For that reason, I think any information that's offset in Exam Alert format is worthy of unusual attentiveness on your part.
Even if material isn't flagged as an Exam Alert, all the content in this book is associated in some way with test-related material. What appears in the chapter content is critical knowledge.
Notes—This book is an overall examination of the different content areas on the exam. As such, I'll dip into many different aspects of reading, writing, and mathematics. Where a body of knowledge is deeper than the scope of the book, I use notes to indicate areas of concern or specialty training.
Note - Cramming for an exam will get you through a test, but it won't make you a competent professional. Although you can memorize just the facts you need in order to pass an exam, your daily work in the field will rapidly put you in water over your head if you don't know the underlying principles in a specific content area.
Tips—I provide tips that will help you to build a better foundation of knowledge or to focus your attention on an important concept that will reappear later in the book. Tips are helpful ways to remind you of the context surrounding a particular area of a topic under discussion.
Tip - You should also read the section in the beginning of the book titled "Self-Assessment." The information contained in this section will help you to determine your readiness to challenge the PRAXIS I exam.
Exam Prep Questions—This section presents a short list of test questions related to the specific chapter topic. Each question is followed by an explanation of both correct and incorrect answers. The practice questions highlight the areas I found to be most important on the exam.
"Need to Know More?" Section—Each chapter ends with a listing of additional resources offering more details about the chapter topics.
The bulk of the book follows this chapter structure, but there are a few other elements that should be pointed out:
Practice Exams—The practice exams, which appear in Chapters 8, 10, and 12 (with answer keys in Chapters 9, 11, and 13), are very close approximations of the types of questions you are likely to see on the PRAXIS I exam.
AnswerKeys—These provide the answers to the practice exams, com- plete with explanations of both the correct responses and the incorrect responses.
Glossary—This is an extensive glossary of important terms used in this book.
The Cram Sheet—This appears as a tear-away sheet inside the front cover of this Exam Cram book. It is a valuable tool that represents a collection of the most difficult-to-remember facts and numbers I think you should memorize before taking the test. Remember, you can dump this information out of your head onto a piece of paper as soon as you enter the testing room. These are usually facts that I've found require brute-force memorization.
You might want to look at the Cram Sheet in your car or just before you walk in to take your exam. The Cram Sheet is divided into sections, so you can review the appropriate parts just before each test.
Test Information
The PRAXIS I Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) is designed to measure your knowledge and understanding in three different content areas: reading, writing, and mathematics. You must pass the PRAXIS I exam to demonstrate basic competency in these three content areas. The exam is also broken into different sections based on these content areas. The three content areas are outlined in the following list:
Reading—This portion of the PRAXIS I exam will test your ability to understand and evaluate written passages. The questions will vary in difficulty with some including passages with 200 words and others with only a few sentences.
Writing—The questions covering this content area are designed to test your basic knowledge of grammar and sentence structure. The writing portion of the exam is broken down into two sections: multiple-choice questions and an essay question.
Math—The mathematics section of the PRAXIS I will measure your knowledge of basic math skills and concepts. Along with focusing on basic math skills, the questions will also test your ability to reason and problem-solve.
PRAXIS Written Test Versus PRAXIS Computer Test
The PRAXIS I exam is available in two different formats: a paper-based exam or a computer-based exam. Both exam formats cover the same content areas and include the same types of questions. The main difference between the two exam formats is the number of questions and the time allocated to answer the given number of questions. Table I.1 outlines the number of questions that will appear on the two different exams.
Table I.1 Written and Computer Exam Questions
Section
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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I am so glad I did not rely solely on this book to study for the PRAXIS in Math and Writing. The math section is really good. I especially liked the CD because it gave me a feel for the real exam (I took the CPPST version). The "cheat sheet" was helpful because all the information needed was in one page. However, this book did not do it for me in the Writing section. The book did not cover a lot of areas found in the exam. If you really want to pass the PPST, you're better off buying Barron's How to Prepare for PRAXIS book. That book has more info and covers a lot more subjects. Other than that, I give Exam Cram 3 stars.
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I've purchased many Exam Cram books over the years. This one was disappointing. A major reason for buying it was the CD with test prep questions and test bank. The actual CD contains a very limited test bank and the "full" bank of questions must be purchased at additional cost. Given the price of the book, it should come with the full test.
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I think this a good book to use to for preparing for praxis I. It has a CR-ROM that goes with it. It give what you need to prepare for the exam in a short period of time.
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