I just want to add to the recent posting trend of commenting on the Praxis II exam I took today. I agree with others who have expressed criticism over the Praxis testing system. They are expensive, somewhat disorganized, and I’m not sure how useful they are. My closest testing center was very far away (wutup sleepy little far western massachusetts, which I had to leave to get to Connecticut), and because the test started at 7:30 a.m., I had to spend additional money to spend the night in a hotel ahead of time. I am pretty relieved it’s over, and I didn’t think it was too difficult, although it was kind of strange. I prepped from a book I bought (also expensive) which was definitely helpful, but also kind of unhelpful in some ways because it wasted a lot of time reviewing minute details of science and social studies when, in reality, the science, social studies, health, and art, and even the math sections were all extremely extremely basic. I probably didn’t need to read any of those sections in the book except maybe the math for some basic review since I haven’t taken a math class in many years. But the language and literature section was kind of hard. The ETS website said the test doesn’t emphasize pedagogy, and I’m not entirely sure what they think pedagogy means, but in my opinion, the language section did indeed do that. There were a lot of questions using teacher jargon that has many different names for the same things that I simply did not know. I am pretty sure I passed, knock on wood, but it certainly wasn’t indicative of any ability to teach or anything else. I also think it’s, I don’t know… unfair, maybe? that my test had a total of 18 review questions provided by ETS and nothing else anywhere. The book I bought wasn’t even really for my exam. There was no real way to prep for the test, and as someone who is not an education major, it was kind of inaccessible. For an alternative certification path, it seemed kind of strange to me. I don’t know. I feel bad complaining about it, to be honest, because if I am going to stand up in front of a classroom in August then passing this Praxis exam is the least I can do. If I default to the, “well I’m not an education major” excuse, then devil’s advocate can default to the, “well then maybe you shouldn’t be teaching” response. I understand that. I just wish it had been easier to prepare and that the jargon and phrases and weird names were concisely explained somewhere accessible. It would really be a shame if I didn’t pass the exam because I don’t know what “basal reading style” is, when if I were given a definition of what it is I am 100% positive I could accomplish teaching it. …Well, maybe not teaching it, just yet, but certainly understanding it and critically determining how to implement it.
adrilicious
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