Taking My Teaching Certification Exam

            As my last semester before student teaching wound down, I was in my teaching writing course. For the last class, my professor opened up the discussion for my classmates and I to ask any questions we had about teaching in general. One of the questions was about the certification exam, that as teachers in the United States we have to take. If you are unfamiliar with U.S. policies, all teachers have to take a certification exam in order to become “certified” to teach certain things. The specific exam varies depending on what you want to teach and from state to state, but all states have certification exams.

A Sudden Realization

            My professor explained to us that if we wanted to sub in the spring, after we graduate in the fall, as I plan to do, then we should have our certification exam completed before then. Suddenly, it dawned on me that then I would either need to take my certification exam during student teaching or over the summer. Since I don’t want to add another thing onto my will be already really full plate during student teaching, I realized I needed to take it in the summer. Giving myself enough time to take it again if needed, hopefully not, I would need to take it rather early in the summer.

Ahhhh

I started to panic. This was too real, too official for me to handle. Trying to stay calm, I asked my professor how she had prepared for her certification exam, as she used to be a high school English teacher. She gave me some brief advice, but assured me that she had never heard of someone from Penn State not passing the certification exam.

            My classmate joked, “Hmmm I wonder why we took all those literature courses on the romantics.”

Plunging Ahead

            I chuckled, but was unconvinced. As finals wound down, I scheduled a meeting with my advisor to see exactly what certification exam I would need to take.  Following the meeting I registered for my test, allowing for enough time to study for it. While it cost $120 dollars, I was able to take it out of my college savings. Since I, as I might have mentioned once or twice, am preparing for student teaching, I am trying to save enough money so that I can cover my electric bill and pay my credit card bill in order to build my credit score more (link) without working during student teaching. Although this set me back in working towards my goal, I thought it was appropriate since it helps me get towards my goal of becoming a teacher.

Preparation

            For the next several weeks leading up to the test, I read everything online I could find out about my certification exam, which was a praxis test. I learned about the testing center location, which turned out to be the same place where my boyfriend took the GRE. I practiced answering the questions people have posted to Quizlet* varying which question sets I used in order to make sure that I was exposed to a breadth of question types that could appear on the exam. During this time, I probably spent around 26 hours studying for the exam. That might be lower than the amount I did and it could be higher, as I didn’t keep close tabs on how much time I was spending on the quizlets. However, I do know that I studied to Quizlet’s completion definition at least 4 sets, made by different people, that each had around 200 “terms”**.  In total, I spent the better half of 5-7 days, each during a different week, using Quizlet to make sure I had prepared well enough for the exam.

Practice Exam

            Nevertheless, I wanted to double check that I had prepared adequately and so I took the free partial practice exam that was on the praxis website. After three day of Quizlet practice, spaced out of a couple of weeks, I set aside time to take the practice exam. Judging by the fact that I scored well on the free practice exam, I believed that I did not have to up my preparation. As the exam drew closer, I practiced the quizlets some more, but I didn’t pay for a full practice exam.  Although Praxis offered that option on their website, due to the high passage rate among Penn State students and the fact that I ended up scoring well on the free one, I didn’t feel the need to spend more money. Had I not performed well on the free practice exam, my plan was to increase my Quizlet study significantly and then take the paid practice exam.

The Day Approaches

            As the date for my certification exam, I grew nervous. As with student teaching, this exam was more evidence of the “real world” sneaking into my life. How would I do? Had I prepared enough? I arrived at my exam location around 30 minutes early, as per the exam entrance ticket’s instructions. Once there I filled out some brief paperwork, turned out my pockets and the test proctor scanned me; then I was walked to my testing area. The room looked like a stereotypical office space with gray cubicles, desktop computers, and nothing but the sound of occasional clicking. While some bright read noise-canceling headphones were provided within 10 minutes of starting my test I had taken them off. I needed the subtle sound of clicking and occasional typing in order to make me feel more at ease. As I mentioned earlier, this was the same testing location that my boyfriend took the GRE at. Therefore, I knew that the people around me in the other cubicles weren’t taking the same test I was. They could have been taking any test, but it was reassuring to know that we were all in the same test-anxious-filled boat.

A Weird Surprise

            In my experience the quizlets prepared me fully for my exam. The only odd thing was that before my exam I thought I had read that there were short answer questions and so I was trying to save time for them after I completed the multiple choice questions. However, when I finished the multiple-choice questions, I got a message that said I was done the exam. It asked me if I wanted to submit my scores. I clicked yes. Then it showed me my score. I passed! Part of me was still attempting to process that there weren’t any short answer questions, as I collected my purse and left the testing center. The results appeared online within about a week confirming that yes I did pass. While I still have to graduate and complete student teaching (heh…heh just that only small things right? /s), I was so close to becoming a teacher. It felt so surreal.

In Summary: Steps

            In case you wanted the steps all in one place, here is how I prepared for my certification exam in the form of a list. Good luck on your certification exam!

1.     Attend college offered seminar***/ Talk to your Advisor

2.     Research the test

3.     Figure out how much time you need to prepare

4.     Register for the test

5.     Study (quizlet and practice test(s) )

6.     Take the test

7.     You did it!

Do you have any tips for how you prepare for certification exams? Le me know in the comments down below!

Notes:

*Not paid to promote quizlet. It’s just really useful.

** The word term is very loosely used here because sometimes the question was a list of authors and the answer was the time period. So it wasn’t just matching terms with dictionary definitions. 

***If offered. Penn State did, but I was working that night and couldn’t get off so I just talked to my advisor. Even if you do attend an information session, I would still recommend talking to your advisor to get information specific to your situation.

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