Customer Reviews

Praxis II Mathematics Content Knowledge Test (Test Code 0061): The Best Teachers' Test Preparation

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The good thing about this book is that it has 3 practice tests. The bad thing is that those tests are no where near as hard as the Praxis II Mathematics Content Knowledge Test.

Some parts of the book are well laid out with explanations. Others are not. I found a couple typos which drove me nuts because they were answers to problems.

The drill on probability has no explanations of the answers, and I have no clue how they came up with one answer. I've convinced myself it's a typo, but I don't have proof.

I would have liked more practice drills in the calculus section. I would have liked better explanations in the calculus and probability sections. I would have liked clearer instructions for the discrete math.

There are no explanations in the book about some of the test problems, such as standard deviation. There is an assumption you know about this.

And I would have liked more instruction on using the graphing calculator to solve those problems. I borrowed a graphing calculator and learned some about it, but not enough.

I live in Colorado and need a 65% to gain a "highly qualified" designation in math. On the last practice test, I attained that. However, I don't think I attained that score today when I took the actual test.

These tests are expensive to take and retake. I really want a product that's guaranteed to help me pass that test.

I had high hopes for this book as a friend had told me how great the REA review materials are, but I was very disappointed. I gave it 3 stars over 2 only because there are so few review books for this exam, and I appreciate the effort!

Good points: Exercises are available for most sections (but not all) and there are 3 full-length practice exams.

Bad points: This book is filled with typos, distractingly so. I suppose it's a good test of your math knowledge to be able to find them, but if I did not understand an answer or explanation, I had no confidence that there wasn't a typo involved. Having just taken the exam today, I can say with authority that the practice exams in this book are much too easy. Also, some of the questions didn't seem appropriate. For example, there are a few questions that require Z-score table lookups, which aren't included with this book nor are they with the actual Praxis II exam. I would much rather see questions involving logic I might actually encounter during the actual exam. Also, some of the questions require math knowledge not included in the review materials, which I found frustrating as I had to search frantically for other sources to explain things.

I wouldn't say don't buy this book; there are so few materials available for this test that you should really study everything you can get your hands on. Just be aware that if you use this as your sole review book and you aren't a math genius or it's been a while since you've taken math, I don't think it will give you good practice for the exam.

The CliffsTestPrep Praxis II: Mathematics Content Knowledge Test (0061) (Cliffstestprep Praxis II) also has an okay level of review material, probably better than this one, but no practice exercise and its practice exams are also way too easy. As I mentioned in my review over there, I found that the "Complete Idiot's Guide" and "For Dummies" books were actually quite helpful. I'd suggest reviewing the material in this book (and the CliffsTestPrep one) and then using other more specific books in areas you are weak in.

I am very disappointed by this book. I am taking the test in a week, and began going through this book a couple of weeks ago. It is FULL of typos and errors. It is poorly organized, lacking consistency. Explanations are often confusing or harder than they have to be. This book needs SERIOUS editing in order to be useful - I'm wondering how the company could have let the book go to print with all the errors it has.

I found the practice tests useful, although they had some redundant questions, and they too contained typos and errors and even a couple of questions that didn't make sense (eg. one question asked for the domain and range but the answers were just of the range, one question asked to "solve the triangle" but gave just one of the missing parts in the answer choices.

I'm trying another test prep book for this coming week - I hope it is better written and edited.

Initially, I thought this book would be a great study reference. Then I started to realize there were mistakes in it. The first one I noticed immediately, so it was no big deal. The second caused great consternation, and it took some time for me to work on the surrounding math to confirm my impression - it was wrong.

And this was in the first chapter I worked on (Geometry).

Sorry, but I found too many errors. Some were typos, but at least one was such that I am willing to bet the author's logic was wrong. I contacted the publisher, but got no response. Problems were done without reference to the graphic calculator, and yes the actual exam was MUCH harder.

As I use this book, it has become clear that the material in it was NOT expressly made for the 0061 math Praxis. Very obviously, the publisher quickly slapped together a hodge podge of math materials that they had lying around from other projects. The different sections have a different tone depending on their source. Some sections are very poorly done while others are ok. Some sections have a section that tests you and some do not. Many of the problems were clearly not written for the math Praxis as they are far to remedial and basic. They were obviously pulled or slightly adapted from some source that was intended for some other more basic test.

This book is just a money grab by the publisher with no effort to put forth a quality product. I do not think this book would help anyone who actually has a chance at passing the secondary math praxis. If the test problems in the back of this book are challenging for you and you really have much to learn from most sections of this book, then your math level is so remedial that I doubt you have any chance of passing this test anyway.

Don't waste your money on this book. It is written for people who have trouble with eighth grade math.

If you mainly need a review of calculus, use the much better book Cracking AP Calculus (another one of my reviews).

I did pass the praxis by the skin of my teeth no thanks to this horrible book. Not only are there typos galore, but the difficulty level of the practice tests are several orders of magnitude beneath the REAL test! After handily blasting through these practice tests, I went into the praxis with a false sense of security. Imagine my panic when the reality dawned on me after the first few questions on test day!

This book, as said before, has 3 practice exams. There is also a disclosure that they are not sponsored by ETS. This is important because the exams contained in this book are NOT as difficult as the actual Praxis II and it does NOT prepare you for the exam. Yes, it will help clarify some material you may be stuck on. But, not all. Not nearly everything contained in the Praxis II. Do NOT solely rely on this book. Use it as a supplement.

I currently teach geometry (out-of-field) and purchased this book in order to take the praxis to add secondary certification and HQ status.

The plus is that this book attempts to cover the content areas.

The minus is that there are way too many typos. Basic formulas are incorrect and there are problems that are unsolvable. Also, several drills and practice questions do not have answer sets or they have incorrect answers. The practice tests are no where near the difficulty presented on the actual exam.

It's very disappointing that a book so poorly edited was actually published. I don't recommend you purchase this book.

If you're looking for a good resource to study for the praxis, I recommend you download the bulletin from praxis to get the list of areas being tested and use current textbooks to review this material.

I am no math whiz, in fact, I am not even taking the test the book is for; I am using it to brush up on my math for the GRE, since most of the GRE prep books only have a short section. I haven't taken a real math class in ten years, so my skills are EXTREMELY rusty, but even I spotted a typo in the second chapter (the first chapter with any real instruction).

With my weakling math skills, I was puzzling over how on earth 12 times the square root of 16 could be equal to the square root of 48. And it doesn't. They meant regular old 48, not the square root of 48. How am I supposed to learn from a book that gives wrong answers on the examples? I'd hate to think of getting to the more difficult stuff that I have a hard time understanding anyway and not being able to trust the answers given.

Back to the Borders for this one. Good thing I kept the receipt.