Preparing for the PPST

Take the PPST practice test given at the beginning of each semester.

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ETS Web site

Go to www.ets.org/praxis -- click on "Test Preparation" for information about Tests at a Glance. This provides the most up-to-date information to assist test takers in selecting the correct information for the test they need to take.

Union Bookstore or Varney's Bookstore

Buy the PRAXIS @: PRE-PROFESSIONAL SKILLS TEST PREPARATION GUIDE (Cliff Notes) or THE BEST TEST PREPARATION FOR THE PRAXIS I PPST (Research and Education Association). Study the 'Introduction', 'Analysis of Exam Areas', 'Mathematics Review', and 'Selective Review of Grammar and Usage' sections in the booklet.

READING-- Purchase the following books at the Union Bookstore or use them at the Reserve Desk ad Hale Library (call number DED 000): Understanding the Main Idea, Making Inferences, and Recognizing Tone all by Jamestown Publishers . Don't write in the books-- you will be able to reuse them. Do each exercise. Verbal Review for Standardized Tests (Cliff Notes): Work through Part II and V of this book.

WRITING -- Purchase the following books at the Union Bookstore or use them at the Reserve Desk ad Hale Library (call number DED 000): Verbal Review for Standardized Tests (Cliff Notes): Work through Part III of this book. You may use the English Department's Writing Center to assist you with your writing skills. For walk-in appointments, a sign-up sheet is posted each Friday afternoon on the bulletin board in 122D English/Counseling Building for the next week's session. If you wish to attend one of these sessions, you should stop by prior to the walk-in and sign up for a twenty-minutes appointment with a Writing Center instructor. You must plan ahead: as the semester progresses, slots fill up fast. Also, you must keep your appointment. Any student who misses two appointments will not be permitted to sign up for a third.

MATH -- Go to the Reserve Desk on the second floor of Hale Library and request call number, DED 000, Basic College Mathematics: An Applied Approach by Aufmann/Barker. Many problems on the PPST involve fractions, decimals and proportions, percents, statistics, and rational numbers. Concentrate on these chapters. You may also want to review the chapters in algebra and geometry. DO NOT WRITE IN THE BOOK. Do the 'chapter test' for each chapter. If you get 85% of the problems correct on the chapter test, moved on the next chapter test. If you get less that 85% correct:

  1. Determine what sections of that chapter had the questions that you missed. This information is in parentheses next to each answer.
  2. Study those sections with which you had difficulty.
  3. Do the odd numbers in the exercises at the end of each section with which you had difficulty. Check these answers in the back of the book.
  4. Do the 'chapter review' for the section(s) you have been working on and check the answers.
  5. Retake the 'chapter test'
  6. If you get 85%, move to the next chapter, if you do not get 85%, repeat the process given above.

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