Praxis II Math Content Knowledge

The second step in qualifying for the career switcher program is to get a passing score in the content area that you are looking to be qualified in. In my case, the test is mathematics content knowledge, Praxis II 0061. I borrowed high school text books and found my college calculus text. I also bought the book sold by ETS which gives a review of covered topics and as well as three practice tests. I started studying about three months prior to the test date. I probably studied around 30 minutes per day on average. One confusing part of taking the Praxis test is knowing how well one needs to do on the test. The state's passing scores are published on the Praxis website. For Virginia, you need to have a score of at least 147 out of 200. But what does that mean? The average score for the Praxis II 0061 test is 142. Therefore more than 50% of the test takers fail the test. Just prior to taking the test, I found out to pass I needed to get approximately 33 out of 50 questions correct. I took the entire 2 hours allowed. I thought I was moving along pretty well and would have time to check answers at the end. But the last few problems were fairly difficult and in the end I didn't have time to recheck as many problems as I would have liked to. I left the test feeling I had done well enough to pass. But I wasn't 100% sure so I was still anxious to get the test results. Unfortunately you have to wait four weeks to get the results. Now the results: I scored 171. I passed and it turns out my score was in the top 10% of test takers. Not bad but I certainly didn't feel like I was a math wiz after taking the test.