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Praxis Articles

This page features blog posts about Praxis. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Let your favorite tutor know that the WyzAnt community could benefit from a blog post about Praxis!
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Preparing for Test Day: Practice Test Tips

One way you can be very well prepared to tackle your exam is by taking practice tests. You probably already knew this. However, here is something you might not have known. The best way to do the practice tests is to replicate real testing conditions as much as possible. In other words, wherever you take a practice test, try to make that space feel like the testing environment. This is very much the same philosophy as the "train as you fight" theory used by the military. it does them no good to practice their combat techniques in ideal conditions because they will not have those ideal conditions...

Writing for the standardized test

In working with students of various ages to improve writing skills, I have noticed three major things (small things, I might add), that make a HUGE different in writing: (1) creating a solid thesis statement, (2) utilizing various transitional phrases between thoughts and paragraphs, and (3) always bringing the reader/audience back to your main point, or thesis.

See the paragraph above? I used a solid thesis statement so my audience would easily be able to follow the organization of the paragraphs to follow. In order to create a strong thesis statement, one might ask, "What am I trying to accomplish...

Knowing the equation can solve your standardized writing woes

Many people that excel in math and science do not do as well in writing and vice versa. My experience is that following a specific formula, typical to mathematical formulas and equations, can assist students in creating a great essay for standardized testing purposes.

Just as a chef would utilize a specific recipe for a delectable dessert, writers must have a writing recipe, or formula, to create a satisfying essay. In the classroom setting, I begin my lesson by showing my students an actual recipe that I use, including measurements and directions. Next, I show them the writing recipe/formula...

What to Expect From Tutoring Sessions

Ever wonder what happens during tutoring sessions? If you’ve never hired a tutor, you may not know what tutors can do to help. This article will take some of the fear out of the tutor hiring process by helping you understand what you should and should not expect from tutoring sessions.

What Tutors Can Do.

In a previous article, I listed several basic things tutors should do (see my article titled “Are you getting your money’s worth from tutoring?” from November 5, 2012). Some examples are gather student’s academic background information and have a long – term plan with goals for their students...

Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth From Your Tutor?

Families hire tutors for a variety of reasons. In general, though, tutors help students and professionals learn some skill or information. So, how do you know whether you are getting your money’s worth from tutoring? Here are five areas you can use to grade your tutor.

1. Communication.Tutors should communicate a lot! Tutors should conduct a background interview before starting lessons. They should gather information about student strengths and weaknesses, academic background, learning styles, and schedule information at a minimum. You can feel confident that they know what they’re doing if...

Top 3 Study Habits

A student, young or older, must have organization skills in order to stay on track. Color coding notebooks or dividers can help with organization. Every week or so a student needs or reorganize his/her information. Secondly, use review sheets from teachers to study what he/she wants you to know. Look in your text, if you have one, or go to the teacher's web site and get the information off of the web. Write, rewrite, and have a member of your family or a friend to verbally ask you questions and see if you know the materials. The questions you did not remember lets him/her to review the...

Grown-ups, and why they're cool.

I lovvvve tutoring adults. In some ways, this surprised me. I'd taught high school English for six years before beginning work on my Ph.D., and I absolutely adored my high school students. I'm still close with many of them and attend their college graduation parties, weddings, and baby showers (where I promptly feel very old). It's only natural, then, that I get really excited when a new high school student signs up for tutoring.

Since I began working at WyzAnt, though, I've had many adult students - and man, they are awesome. Adult students come to me with very clear goals. They've examined...

Because No One Wants to Study.

I get it. We're all busy, and when we're not busy, we don't want to use our downtime to study. Over the years of my own learning, I've found that the hardest step is just getting myself to sit down and work sometimes - I'd rather do a thousand other things.

But studying doesn't have to be time-consuming. In fact, you can do it without taking time away from whatever else you have to do.

Although "real" learning isn't memorization, we do actually have to memorize sometimes: vocab words, formulas, measurement conversions, or special right triangles. But sitting down for a long study session of...

Test Prep Students-2: “We don’t know what we don’t know” About Selecting Test Dates

I struck up a conversation with a home-schooling mom the other day. Parent of a middle-school student, she told me I should talk to middle school parents about this topic because, as she put it, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”

In my blog post “Test Prep Students 1: Before Our First Session, Please,” I mentioned planning ahead to give yourself more time to prepare. Since then, I’ve come to believe that you can’t have too much time to prepare, regardless of what you are testing for

* High school graduation (Minnesota GRAD)

* College National Merit Scholarships (PSAT/NMSQ)

* Advance college...

The Secret Life of a Tutor

Sundays are days to be lazy, to hang out with friends, to read books or swim in pools or play outside. Today is an exceptionally hot Sunday in early June. Since I got up, I've been holed up in my home office, working on tutoring. Even though I've spent the past nine or so hours (with breaks for shrimp tacos, diet Coke, and ice cream) working, I haven't actually had any students today. I realized that not many people are aware of the "behind the scenes" of tutoring (well, at least of good tutoring), and it's gotten me to think a bit about the concept of having an "hourly rate." Realizing that...

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