The Praxis Core test: format, scores, fees and who needs it

Praxis Core is the first of the Praxis tests most future teachers meet. It is not a test of teaching or of a subject such as biology; the Praxis Subject Assessments and the Principles of Learning and Teaching tests do that later. Core checks that you can read critically, write clearly and handle the everyday math a teacher uses.

Whether you need it depends on your state and your program. Some states require it for admission to an educator preparation program, some for licensure, and several now accept ACT or SAT scores or a GPA instead. A growing number have dropped it. Our Praxis Core passing scores page lists each state we could source, with the link to its rule.

Your raw score (how many questions you got right, plus the essay scores for Writing) is converted to the 100-200 scale. The conversion is adjusted for each form of the test so that a score means the same thing whichever version you sat, which is why ETS does not publish a fixed table of raw scores.

Pennsylvania uses a Math cut of 142, Mississippi 130 and South Carolina a Writing cut of 158; North Dakota, South Carolina and Pennsylvania also accept a composite total with lower minimums on each test. Every number, with its source and the date we read it, is on Praxis Core passing scores.

More worked examples, each with its trap, are on Praxis Core sample questions, and the free Praxis Core practice test runs all three tests on timed clocks.

For Reading, practise proving every answer with a line from the passage. For Writing, drill subject-verb agreement, pronoun case and modifier placement, and plan each essay before you write it. For Math, master percents, ratios, mean and median, and two-way tables, and write the setup before you touch the calculator.

Two to three weeks of 30 to 45 minutes a day is enough for many candidates; longer if one test is far below its cut score. The day-by-day plan is in how to pass Praxis Core.

The real cost of a failed test is usually time, not the fee. A month of waiting, plus the days until scores arrive, can push you past a program's admission deadline or a district's hiring window. That is why the cheapest preparation is the one that gets each test passed on the first sitting.

Check whether your state lets you combine scores from different sittings (Alaska does, for example) or offers a composite route (North Dakota, South Carolina and Pennsylvania). Both can change what a "fail" means for you.