Praxis Physics: Content Knowledge Online Center
This Praxis Physics: Content Knowledge Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
Praxis Physics Practice Center
Take a full 150-minute form with no calculator, then read the explanation under every question you missed. Mechanics is more than a third of the test on its own, so score that block separately; if it is weak, nothing else you study will matter as much.
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Praxis Physics: Content Knowledge at a glance
Two facts shape how you should prepare. Mechanics is thirty-five percent of this test, more than twice any other content category, so it deserves more than a third of your time. And there is no calculator: ETS says you will not need one, which is true because the numbers are chosen to be clean, but it does mean estimation and ratio reasoning matter more than algebra.
| Test code | 5266 (Physics: Content Knowledge) |
|---|---|
| Status | Current. 5266 is itself the successor to the older 0265 and 5265. |
| Number of questions | 125 selected-response questions. There is no constructed response. |
| Time limit | 2 hours 30 minutes |
| Calculator | Not provided. Despite what some prep guides say, ETS states test takers do not need a calculator on this test. |
| Reference materials | A periodic table is provided on the Help screen, along with a table of physical constants and SI conversion factors. ETS does not describe it as an equation sheet. |
| Format | Computer-delivered |
| Score scale | 100 to 200 |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state sets its own qualifying score. |
| How it is asked | Half or more of the questions integrate a science and engineering practice, and roughly a quarter to a third assess a task of teaching science. |
ETS publishes counts and percentages for all five categories: Mechanics 44 questions and 35 percent, Electricity and Magnetism 26 and 21 percent, Waves 21 and 17 percent, Principles and Models of Matter and Energy 19 and 15 percent, and Nature and Impact of Science and Engineering 15 and 12 percent. If you have an older study guide showing six categories with separate optics and modern physics sections, it is out of date: optics now sits inside Waves, and thermodynamics and modern physics are both inside category II.
The five categories, in plain language
ETS lists each category and the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you.
III. Mechanics (35 percent, 44 questions)
Over a third of the test. Treat it accordingly.
- Kinematics in one and two dimensions, and projectiles
- Newton’s laws and free-body diagrams
- Friction and the normal force
- Circular motion and universal gravitation
- Work, energy, power, and conservation
- Momentum, impulse, and collisions
- Torque, rotational motion, and angular momentum
- Simple harmonic motion and fluid statics
IV. Electricity and magnetism (21 percent, 26 questions)
Fields, circuits, and induction.
- Coulomb’s law, electric fields, and potential
- Capacitance
- Current, resistance, and Ohm’s law
- Series and parallel circuits and power
- Magnetic fields and forces on charges and wires
- Electromagnetic induction, Faraday and Lenz
V. Waves (17 percent, 21 questions)
Now includes everything optical.
- Wave properties and the wave equation
- Superposition, interference, and standing waves
- The Doppler effect and sound
- The electromagnetic spectrum
- Reflection, refraction, and Snell’s law
- Mirrors, lenses, and ray diagrams
- Diffraction and polarization
II. Principles and models of matter and energy (15 percent, 19 questions)
Thermal physics and modern physics together.
- Temperature, heat, and specific heat
- The laws of thermodynamics and heat engines
- Kinetic theory
- The photoelectric effect and atomic spectra
- Nuclear structure, decay, and half-life
- Mass-energy equivalence and special relativity in outline
I. Nature and impact of science and engineering (12 percent, 15 questions)
How physics is done and communicated.
- Science and engineering practices
- Experimental design and uncertainty
- Graphing and interpreting slope
- Dimensional analysis and significant figures
- Laboratory safety
- Science, technology, and society
A study routine weighted the way the test is
If you split your time evenly across the five categories you will have spent twelve percent of it on the category worth thirty-five. Do not.
Complete topic map
Every topic ETS lists under the five categories, weighted the way the test is weighted.
Nature and impact of science and engineering (12 percent, about 15 questions)
- 01Recognize that scientific knowledge involves a variety of investigation methods rather than a single fixed scientific method
- 02Recognize that scientific knowledge is based on experimental evidence that is reproducible, and that major concepts develop and change over time in light of new evidence
- 03Construct and test hypotheses, and explain natural phenomena using existing models and theories
- 04Develop, use, evaluate, and revise models of physical phenomena
- 05Apply science process skills including observing, categorizing, comparing, generalizing, inferring, concluding, and communicating
- 06Use standard units of measurement, dimensional analysis, unit conversion, and scientific notation
- 07Distinguish vector from scalar quantities and perform vector addition both graphically and mathematically
- 08Design an experiment, including developing and using models, identifying variables, planning data collection, and showing how the design supports testing the hypothesis
- 09Process data using mathematics and computational thinking, and organize and report data
- 10Perform error analysis, including accuracy and precision, means, and percent error, and identify the sources and effects of error
- 11Interpret data and draw conclusions from it
- 12Follow correct procedures for the preparation, use, storage, and disposal of laboratory materials
- 13Select, calibrate, maintain, and correctly use laboratory and measurement equipment
- 14Apply safety procedures and precautions in the physics laboratory
Principles and models of matter and energy (15 percent, about 19 questions)
- 15Describe atomic and subatomic structure, including protons, neutrons, and electrons, and the Bohr model
- 16Relate atomic spectra to electron energy levels, including electron energy transitions in atoms and absorption and emission spectra
- 17Describe radioactivity and radioactive decay processes, including half-life
- 18Distinguish alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma radiation
- 19Analyze fission and fusion, applying conservation of mass energy, charge, and nucleons
- 20Apply basic quantum physics, including the wave-particle duality of matter and electromagnetic energy and the photoelectric effect
- 21Treat temperature as a measure of average kinetic energy and distinguish temperature, heating, and thermal energy
- 22Apply heat capacity, specific heat, and latent heat
- 23Describe the thermal mechanisms of energy transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation
- 24Use and convert among the Kelvin, Celsius, and Fahrenheit temperature scales
- 25Apply conservation of energy to thermal processes as the first law of thermodynamics
- 26Apply the second law of thermodynamics, that entropy does not decrease in a closed system
- 27Apply the third law of thermodynamics and the concept of absolute zero
- 28Apply the zeroth law of thermodynamics and the concept of thermal equilibrium
Mechanics (35 percent, about 44 questions)
- 29Distinguish properties of scalar quantities such as distance, mass, speed, time, and energy from vector quantities such as displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, and momentum
- 30Analyze linear motion and two-dimensional motion including projectile motion
- 31Perform graphical analysis of motion
- 32Analyze circular motion and simple harmonic motion
- 33Apply frames of reference, including coordinate systems, inertial reference frames, and relative velocity
- 34Apply Newton’s first law, including mass, inertia, and the inertial reference frame
- 35Apply Newton’s second law, relating net force, mass, and acceleration
- 36Apply Newton’s third law
- 37Apply Newton’s law of universal gravitation, and analyze satellites and orbital motion
- 38Relate acceleration due to gravity to the gravitational field
- 39Distinguish weight from mass and relate density to mass
- 40Apply Kepler’s laws of orbital motion: elliptical orbits, equal areas in equal times, and the relationship between orbital period and mean orbital radius
- 41Apply fluid statics, including buoyancy, density, and pressure
- 42Apply fluid dynamics, including Bernoulli’s principle and the continuity equation
Electricity and magnetism (21 percent, about 26 questions)
- 43Describe electric charge and induced charge, and apply conservation of charge including charge transfer
- 44Apply Coulomb’s law to point charges and analyze electric forces and electric fields
- 45Apply electric potential, electric potential energy, and potential difference
- 46Distinguish conductors from insulators by their electrical properties and identify material examples
- 47Relate current, resistance, potential difference, and resistivity, and apply Ohm’s law
- 48Calculate electrical energy and power and distinguish direct current from alternating current
- 49Apply capacitance and analyze capacitors
- 50Analyze series, parallel, and combination circuits, including equivalent resistance and capacitance, Kirchhoff’s laws, Ohm’s law, and power
- 51Identify sources of electrical potential including batteries, photocells, and generators, and apply electromotive force
- 52Apply magnetic field and magnetic flux and calculate magnetic force
- 53Describe bar magnets and poles, permanent magnets, and electromagnets, and explain transformers, motors, and generators
- 54Determine the direction of fields and forces using the right-hand rules
- 55Apply the Biot-Savart law to the magnetic field generated by a steady current and analyze the force between current-carrying wires
- 56Apply the Lorentz force on moving charges in magnetic fields
Waves (17 percent, about 21 questions)
- 57Distinguish transverse from longitudinal waves and mechanical from electromagnetic waves
- 58Relate amplitude, wavelength, frequency, period, speed of propagation, and energy
- 59Apply superposition and phase, and analyze intensity, spherical and plane waves, and standing waves
- 60Analyze reflection, refraction including Snell’s law, and total internal reflection
- 61Analyze diffraction and interference, including Young’s double-slit interference experiment
- 62Explain polarization, scattering, absorption, dispersion, and transmission
- 63Apply resonance, natural frequencies, and harmonics
- 64Apply the Doppler effect for a moving source or a moving observer
- 65Describe electromagnetic waves in terms of electric and magnetic fields, the speed of light, and energy
- 66Identify the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays, and the visible spectrum from red through violet
- 67Apply the Doppler effect to electromagnetic waves
- 68Describe sound as a compression wave and analyze the speed of sound, including sonic boom and the sound barrier
- 69Relate pitch to frequency and loudness to intensity, and analyze beats
- 70Analyze resonance in open and closed pipes and on strings, and apply the Doppler effect to sound
Before test day
Three errors cost more points on this test than any gap in knowledge. Treating the normal force as always equal to mg, which fails the moment there is an incline or a vertical acceleration. Adding centripetal force to a free-body diagram as though it were a separate push, when it is the name for the net force already there. And dropping units, which turns a correct method into a wrong answer that is sitting in the choices waiting for you.
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