David Recine

Should I Get Tutoring for the Praxis Test?

ETS offers plenty of self-study materials for the Praxis test, as does Magoosh Praxis. But what about Praxis test tutoring? Is it a good idea?

Seeing a tutor can be a real time commitment, and it costs more than just buying study materials. But tutors can also be very helpful, giving you the extra boost you need to get a top score. To see if Praxis test tutoring is right for you, read on.

Praxis test tutoring for the Praxis Core

Bear in mind that the Praxis Core is not as hard as other graduate exams such as the GRE or GMAT. The Core Math, Reading, and Writing tests are designed to get you a teaching license– they doesn’t assess the advanced skills you’d need for graduate school.

As a result, Core Math, Reading, and Writing are not any harder than the stuff you’d see on undergraduate entrance exams, or in high school classes. So definitely do not assume you’ll need a tutor.

But don’t rule out tutoring either. Yes, you have learned everything on the Praxis Core before. But in some cases, you may not have studied this content since high school, or since your first year of college.

You might be out-of-practice with academic reading comprehension questions, or with essay writing, or algebra. Sometimes your past learning comes back to you once you start to study for the Core. You may be able to re-learn something quickly if you’ve already learned it once.

But sometimes those old skills do not resurface quite so easily. As you study for the Core, you might feel stuck, not sure that you can recover Praxis-level math or language arts in time for the exam. In this scenario, a tutor may be just the person to get you moving forward toward your Praxis Core target score.

Praxis test tutoring for the Praxis PLT

The PLT focuses on teaching methods, learning theory, and scenario-based teaching questions. If you take the PLT near the end of your teaching degree, most of this content should be pretty fresh in your mind. So you may not actually need a tutor.

However, Praxis test tutoring may be right for you if you have struggled with any of the academic content in your teaching classes. You’ll need to know and apply a lot of specific psychological theories, for example. If learning psychology is something you’ve never felt completely confident in, seeing a psychology tutor could help.

It could also be useful to take a few tutoring sessions for the teaching practice part of the PLT. Knowing how to teach when you’re in the classroom is one thing. Knowing how to apply that teaching knowledge to multiple choice and short answer questions on the PLT is another. If you are struggling with these PLT test skills, sometimes a tutor can help.

Praxis Test Tutoring for the Praxis II

The Praxis II exams are some of the hardest tests among the many Praxis tests. So tutoring for these Praxis Subject Assessments is potentially helpful.

Unfortunately, it can be quite hard to find a tutor for any given Praxis II exam. The Praxis II exams measure really specialized knowledge and skills: how to write a good lesson plan for a specific subject such as algebra, the science of second language acquisition in adolescent students, and so on.

As a result, the Praxis II Subject Assessments are exams you will probably need to study for independently. You simply can’t assume that a tutor will be available to help you.

Author

  • David Recine

    David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he’s helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in many scholarly articles, his Master’s Thesis is featured on the Reading with Pictures website, and he’s presented at the WITESOL (link to PDF) and NAFSA conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru. Come join David and the Magoosh team on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, or connect with him via LinkedIn!

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