Physics Praxis II Exam

I have already passed the math Praxis II exam. That was enough to get me into the Career Switcher Program. To make myself more marketable, I decided to take the Praxis II exam for Physics as well. I started studying for the Physics test after I had finished the math exam in September. That gave me about two months to prepare. As a mechanical engineering major, I had been well grounded in the mechanics and thermodynamics aspects of physics. But I was not so well prepared for the electrostatics, magnetism and relativistic parts of the exam. To prepare for the exam, I bought the Praxis study guide: "Sciences: Content Knowledge for Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, General Science, Physics and Combination Tests". The math study guide had contained a review of the material and three sample tests. This combined book only had sample tests. Nevertheless, it was still helpful in giving me an idea of the difficulty of the questions to be expected. I also bought "Cracking the AP Physics B&C Exams". Finally I borrowed the text used at Alleghany High School. I also had my college text to study from. Since calculators could not be used during the exam, the difficulty of the questions had to be limited. However, the breadth of information covered on the exam was significant.

The test consists of 100 multiple choice questions. The passing score in Virginia is 147. The test is two hours long. With 100 questions in 120 minutes, you have to move quite rapidly through the test if you hope to finish. I went through the test and probably had five to ten questions remaining unanswered. I went back and answered those and then had only about five minutes remaining in the test period. I decided to count the number of question that I felt confident about the answers. I think it was about 70 questions. I knew that was enough to pass so that was good. I will receive the results in mid December and will report them at that time.

I hope to also pass the Chemistry Praxis II exam before starting school next year. My career switcher classes start on January 12th, 2008. This is also the next date for Praxis II testing. So I will probably hold off on taking the test untilJune 2008. I may do some preliminary studying before the career switcher classes start in January and then more studying just before the exam. I had already done some studying in May 2007 when I thought there was a chance of getting a teaching position in the fall of 2007 in chemistry and physics.