Let’s face it – graduate school is tough! By the time you’re finally at the end, the last thing you want to do is study for the Speech-Language Pathology Praxis Exam. Trust me, I know (I have been there and done that). It can be done, though, and it can be done efficiently and effectively. I decided to write up how I studied and passed the Praxis in one go with a score of 187 (screenshot below). Hopefully this post will help others who are struggling to study find their groove on how to study along with what to use to study!
Please Note: This is what worked for me and might not work for you. Hopefully this can give you some insight into how to make it work for your studying style!
Let’s start with the materials that I used to study:
- An Advanced Review of Speech-Language Pathology
- Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Praxis Study Guide
- Speech-Language Pathology, Interactive Practice Tests
- Notes from Graduate School
While the list above is only 4 bullets long, it was still a lot of information to go over. The first thing that I did was gather all of my notes from graduate school and grouped them by class. I hole punched them and put them into a binder. There was a TON of information as you can see below.
It looked terrifying when I looked at it the first time. How was I going to go through all of that information?! I needed a place to start, and that starting place happened to be the Advanced Review of Speech-Language Pathology book.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this book, it’s a comprehensive guide that breaks down everything we learned in graduate school into different chapters. I used the chapters as a guide to plan out what I would be studying and focusing on each week. At the end of each chapter, they have a quiz that you can take to test your knowledge. This is a great starting place for seeing what areas you need to focus on more later on down the road in your studying.
I started my studying over winter break before heading into my externship. I planned to work and study with a date of taking the Praxis on April 10th. This gave me about 17 weeks to prepare for the exam. I should note that this studying also helped prepare me for my comprehensive final that I had to take 2 weeks before the Praxis. There were 15 chapters in the review book, and I knew I wanted to have the book completed a few weeks before my comprehensive final and Praxis so I used a planner and wrote out the different chapters I would study each week. Depending on the length of each chapter, I would study up to 3 chapters each week.
I started my studying off with areas I didn’t feel as confident in so I would have enough time later to go back and focus on them if needed. The areas I felt very confident in were placed last in my studying since I knew I would be able to go over the information quickly.
I would go over each chapter and then review my coursework notes. After I felt confident in what I reviewed, I would take the practice test at the end of the chapter and see what I remembered versus what I didn’t. This allowed me to know what I needed to go back and focus on at the end. I kept at this for days in December, spending an hour or so each night studying and reviewing.
At the beginning of January, I decided to take one of the practice Speech-Language Pathology Praxis Exams that is available to buy on the ETS website. I knew I had not gone through all the information I wanted, but I also wanted to test my knowledge and see where I stood if I took the exam at that time. I don’t remember the score that I got, but I know that I did not “pass”. Taking the first practice test so early helped me realize my weak points and the areas to continue to focus more on.
I continued my studies for all of January with the same workflow. I would read the Advanced Review chapter and then study/review my graduate school notes that coincided with the guide. Once I felt confident enough, I would take the practice quiz. I ended up taking the second practice Speech-Language Pathology Praxis Exam in the middle of February and ended up getting a better score! Again, I was able to determine what areas I needed to focus on further and help prepare me for the final practice test and the actual Praxis.
I took the final Speech-Language Pathology Praxis Exam two weeks before my comprehensive final in March. My score reflected the hard work that I had put in but there were still questions I missed that showed me areas I needed to continue to focus on. I ended up creating notecards to help me study the areas that I was having more difficulty with for each class (see the picture on the right). I was confident in most of the information by March so I wanted to start focusing on what I couldn’t remember.
I also want to add that I ended up researching online and coming across the SLP Praxis Study Guide on Teacher’s Pay Teacher. If you are someone who likes detailed and colorful study notes, this is for you! I used it along with the notecards that I created above to have all the information that was jam-packed into my notes and the comprehensive guide listed out in a structured and easy-to-read way. It was something that I was able to run through quickly at night to keep my mind fresh on the topics I was prepared for but didn’t want to forget.
When it came time to take my comprehensive final, I was able to ace it and was also able to see if I needed to further focus on any other subjects before my Speech-Language Pathology Praxis Exam. I had two weeks left and those two weeks ended up only being refresher study sessions using the notecards I made and TpT Praxis Study Guide I had bought. When I walked in for my exam, I felt nervous but confident in the studying that I had completed. From the score I posted above, I ended up passing it on the first attempt taking it!
The Speech-Language Pathology Praxis Exam is not an easy exam to take but it will challenge you and put your thinking skills to use which is what is needed in our field. The thing to remember is that you know the information. Everything you are being tested on are things you learned in graduate school. These are things you have already been tested on before. If there is one piece of advice that I can give to anyone who is starting to study for this exam, it’s to breathe and plan out what you want to study each day. Give yourself enough time to study everything that is needed and make sure you take rest days so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Good luck to you on your studying and on your next adventure!