Praxis Study Tips

Practice questions provide focus for each study session by showing what you still need to learn and by helping you draw connections between what you already know and what you will be studying. Studies show that students who test ahead of time score higher after studying than students who don’t pre-test themselves. If your practice questions have explanations, be sure you take the time to read them carefully. Building familiarity with the structure of the questions and answers will help you feel more comfortable with the test itself.

This may seem counterintuitive, as we’re used to practicing one skill at a time in order to improve each skill separately. But research shows that weaving topics together leads to increased learning by creating semantic connections in long-term memory. Not only that, test makers often include more than one topic in a single question. Studying in an integrated manner is the most effective way to prepare for this test.

Drawing attention to difficult or critical content can ensure you don’t overlook it as you read and re-read sections. The best way to do this is to make it more visual—highlight, make tabs, use stickies, whatever works. We recommend highlighting only the most important or difficult topics. Selective highlighting is great for emphasizing parts of the text, but over-highlighting can have the opposite effect.

Many people try to memorize concepts by repeating them over and over again in succession. Our research shows that retention is improved by spacing out the repeats over time (this technique is sometimes called spaced learning or boosting) and mixing up the order in which you study content. For example, try reading the chapters in a different order the second (or third!) time around. Revisit practice questions that you answered incorrectly in a new sequence. Often, information you reviewed more recently will help you better understand questions and solutions that you haven’t seen in some time.

When you finish reading a section for the first time, stop and think about what you read. Jot down a few thoughts about why the content is important or what topics came to mind when you read it. Thinking about what you’ve just learned activates a part of your memory called metacognition and can help long-term memories form more clearly. Associating new learning with a memory you already have is another fantastic way to retain information.
This also works when answering questions. After answering a question, take a moment to think through each step you took to arrive at a solution. What led you to the answer you chose, even if it wasn’t correct? Understanding the steps you took will help you make good decisions when answering future questions.