Praxis exam prep

Praxis Core Reading Online Center

This Praxis Core Reading Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.

2 free pop-up tests · 102 flashcards · 38 connected lessons
2 pop-up practice tests38 connected lessons1 complete flashcard deck


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Praxis Core Reading Practice Center

Take a full 85-minute form under real conditions, then read the explanation under every question you missed. The explanations point at the line in the passage that settles the question, which is the habit the test is actually measuring.

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Praxis Core Reading at a glance

Around forty states use Praxis Core, either to admit you to a teacher preparation program or to certify you. The reading subtest asks nothing about teaching. It hands you short nonfiction passages, a few longer ones, a paired set, and a couple of charts, and asks whether you can say what the text supports. The difficulty is not vocabulary; it is resisting the answer that is true in the world but not in the passage.

Test code 5713 (Reading). The combined Core test is 5752.
Part of Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators, alongside Writing (5723) and Mathematics (5733).
Who takes it Candidates in roughly 40 states, usually for entry to a preparation program or for certification.
Number of questions 56 selected-response
Answer options Four per question
Time limit 85 minutes
Format Computer-delivered. Passages range from a single paragraph to several hundred words. Some items are built on a chart or table, and some come in paired sets on the same subject.
Content categories Key ideas and details 35%, Craft, structure, and language skills 30%, Integration of knowledge and ideas 35%.
Passing score Set by each state, so check the requirement where you are certifying rather than a national number.

ETS publishes the approximate percentage of questions in each category, and those figures are in the table above. Two thirds of the test sits in key ideas and integration, which both come down to the same discipline: point to the words that make your answer true before you choose it.

The three categories, in plain language

ETS groups the test into three content categories. Here is what each one actually asks you to do.

Category 1: Key ideas and details (35% of the test)

Can you say what the passage says, and what follows from it?

  • Identify the main idea and the primary purpose of a passage
  • Identify supporting ideas and specific details
  • Draw inferences and identify implications the passage supports
  • Determine what the passage says explicitly and what follows from it
  • Summarize a passage without importing outside knowledge

Category 2: Craft, structure, and language skills (30% of the test)

Can you read how the passage is built and how the writer sounds?

  • Determine the meaning of a word or phrase from its context
  • Identify the author’s attitude and tone
  • Analyze how a passage is organized, including transitions and cause and effect
  • Distinguish a statement of fact from a statement of opinion
  • Recognize the function a sentence or paragraph performs in the passage

Category 3: Integration of knowledge and ideas (35% of the test)

Can you judge an argument and combine sources?

  • Interpret information presented in a chart, graph, table, or other format
  • Evaluate an argument, its evidence, and its assumptions
  • Identify a claim that is supported and one that overreaches
  • Compare and contrast two passages on the same subject
  • Combine information from a passage with information from a display

A study routine that fits 85 minutes of testing

Fifty-six questions in eighty-five minutes is about ninety seconds each, and that has to cover reading the passage. You cannot afford to read everything twice, so the skill worth building is a first read that already knows what it is looking for.

DiagnoseTake Practice Test 1 cold, all 56 questions in 85 minutes, in one sitting. Note whether your misses cluster in one category or scatter.
Fix the reading, not the guessingFor every miss, find the words in the passage that make the right answer right. If you cannot find them, the answer was not supported and you were reasoning from outside the text.
Drill the languageRun the flashcard deck until the question types are familiar. Knowing whether a stem is asking for the main idea, the primary purpose, or the function of a paragraph is half the work.
Prove itTake Practice Test 2 under the same conditions and check your pace at question 28. If you are past 45 minutes there, the fix is reading less carefully on the first pass, not faster.

Complete lesson map

Thirty-eight lessons on the reading skills this test measures. Each one opens in a new tab so you can keep this page open while you work.

Before test day

The reading subtest rewards one habit above all others: before you choose, put your finger on the words that make the answer true. Candidates who miss questions on this test are rarely bad readers. They are readers who accepted a choice because it sounded right, in a test built almost entirely out of choices that sound right. Slow down for two seconds at the point of choosing and most of those points come back.

A USEFUL NEXT STEP

Praxis Core Reading: study questions

What can I study in this Praxis Core Reading Online Center?

This Praxis Core Reading Online Center includes practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Topics on the page include Category 1: Key ideas and details (35% of the test), Category 2: Craft, structure, and language skills (30% of the test), Category 3: Integration of knowledge and ideas (35% of the test).

How should I use the Praxis Core Reading resources?

Choose a topic or practice activity from this Online Center. Review the linked explanation, try the practice, and use the result to decide what to study next. Check each resource’s directions for its format and access requirements.

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