Praxis Core Guide: Reading, Writing, and Math

These come straight from the current ETS study companions. Question counts are approximate and include unscored pretest items.

You'll see long passages (about 200 words, 4–7 questions), paired passages (about 200 words total, 4–7 questions), short passages (about 100 words, 2–3 questions), one- or two-sentence statements (1 question), and visuals such as charts, graphs, and tables. Every question has five choices.

What's tested: main idea, details, and inferences; tone, organization, word meaning in context, and fact vs. opinion; evaluating arguments, comparing paired passages, and reading data.

Worked example (original)

"Since the district added a later start time, first-period attendance has improved. The later start is clearly the reason."

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the claim? The right answer will offer a different cause for the improvement — say, a new attendance incentive launched the same semester. Answers about whether parents like the schedule or what it costs are off target: they don't touch the cause-and-effect claim.

Strategies

• Read the question stem first on short passages and statements, so you know what you're hunting for.
• Prove it from the text. If you can't point to the line that supports an answer, it's not the answer.
• Watch for extreme words (always, proves, completely) in inference answers. Correct inferences are usually modest.
• On paired passages, summarize each author's position in five words before answering relationship questions.

Common traps: a detail from the passage attached to the wrong subject; confusing a view the author reports with the author's own view; assuming a table shows causation.

The first 40 minutes are selected-response questions of four types:

• Usage: a sentence with four underlined parts. Pick the part with the error, or "No error." There's at most one error.
• Sentence correction: five versions of an underlined portion. The first choice repeats the original.
• Revision in context: questions about a short draft — transitions, combining sentences, cutting irrelevant sentences, improving organization and tone.
• Research skills: judging source credibility and relevance, identifying parts of a citation, and choosing research strategies.

Worked example (original)

"Each of the reports were reviewed by the committee before the vote." The subject is each (singular), not "reports," so the verb must be was. Prepositional phrases like "of the reports" are the most common way test writers hide a subject.

Research skills example (original)

A student is writing about the effects of later school start times on teenagers. Which source is most credible? The best answer will be a recent study or report from a research or public-health organization that measured teenagers directly. Weak choices share telltale flaws: out of date, written by someone selling a product, anonymous, or about the wrong group (adults, not teens). Credibility questions are really asking: current, qualified, unbiased, and on topic?

The grammar that shows up again and again

• Subject–verb agreement (including neither/nor and subjects hidden behind phrases)
• Pronoun case (between you and me, not between you and I) and pronoun reference
• Adjective vs. adverb
• Verb tense sequence (past perfect for the earlier of two past actions)
• Dangling and misplaced modifiers
• Parallel structure in lists and comparisons
• Comma splices and run-ons

The two essays (30 minutes each)

• Argumentative: take a position on a prompt and support it with reasons and examples from experience, observation, or reading. Write for an audience of educated adults, in several paragraphs.
• Informative/explanatory: read two short sources, then explain the important concerns they raise. You must draw on both sources and cite them whether you quote or paraphrase.

Both essays are scored holistically on a 1–6 scale. Spend about 3 minutes planning, 22 writing, and 5 proofreading. A clear thesis, one focused point per body paragraph, and specific examples beat length and fancy vocabulary.

Three question types: single-answer (five choices), select one or more (select every correct choice — plan as if there's no partial credit), and numeric entry, where you type an integer, decimal, or fraction into boxes. You get an on-screen four-function calculator and a formula sheet with circle area and circumference, rectangle and triangle area, and rectangular box volume.

What's tested: fractions, decimals, percents, ratios, rates, and unit conversions; mean, median, spread, data displays, sampling, scatterplots, correlation vs. causation, and probability; expressions, equations, word problems, and geometry (angles, congruence and similarity, perimeter, area, volume).

Worked example (original)

A $120 item is marked down 20%, then a 10% coupon is applied to the sale price. What's the final price? Sale price: 120 × 0.80 = $96. Coupon: 96 × 0.90 = $86.40. The trap answer is $84 — adding the discounts to get "30% off." Successive percent changes multiply; they don't add.

Numeric entry example (original)

A recipe uses 2/3 cup of oil for 12 muffins. How many cups of oil are needed for 30 muffins? Set up the rate: 2/3 ÷ 12 = 1/18 cup per muffin, and 30 × 1/18 = 30/18 = 5/3 cups. You could enter 5/3 in the fraction boxes. Before typing, read any instruction about the form of the answer (fraction, decimal, or rounding). Scaling works too: 30 muffins is 2.5 batches, and 2.5 × 2/3 = 5/3.

Strategies

• Use the calculator for arithmetic, not thinking. It's four-function only, so know how to square numbers and handle fractions by hand.
• Check units and the question asked. A lot of wrong choices are correct intermediate values (the rate, the radius, the value of x).
• On select-one-or-more, test every choice independently.
• Back-solve from answer choices on equation word problems when the algebra gets messy.

Those are averages, not targets. A brief-statement Reading question should take well under a minute, which banks time for paired passages. In Math, the first read of a word problem is where the time goes; if you have no plan after about 30 seconds, make your best guess and move on rather than sinking three minutes into one point. On Writing, usage questions are fast once you know the rules — that's where grammar review pays off in both points and time.

1. Week 1: Take our Praxis Core practice tests in exam mode. Rank the content categories by percent correct.
2. Week 2: Math foundations (fractions, percents, ratios, linear equations) plus the grammar list above. Do 20 mixed questions a day.
3. Week 3: Reading paired passages and argument questions; write one timed essay of each type and score it against the 1–6 descriptions in the Writing study companion.
4. Week 4: Retake practice tests, review every miss, and do a full timed run of whichever test is your weakest. Confirm your state's qualifying score and your test-day setup.