What Qualifies as a Writing Test on the Praxis?

Two separate types of parts make up the Praxis Core Writing exam, which assesses two very distinct types of writing abilities. Your reading comprehension and ability to spot and correct grammatical faults are tested in the first section. Two essay portions that evaluate your capacity to compose an organized, concise essay in a condensed amount of time are next.

Remember that this test is not intended to find the next Maya Angelou or Ernest Hemingway. Instead, this test evaluates your ability to follow the fundamental guidelines of written English and stay clear of typical grammatical pitfalls.

Depending on the section, you should take a different strategy to the writing test. The keys to success on the Praxis Core Writing test are effective time management and an awareness of what the test creator is looking for.

Know What to Expect

Praxis Writing Test Format

Praxis Core Writing

‍

Format: Computer-delivered

Number of Questions: 40 multiple-choice (called “selected response” by the test maker); 2 essays

Time: 100 minutes (40 minutes for multiple-choice section; 30 minutes each for essays)

Essay Types: argumentative; source-based

Multiple-choice section may include pre-test questions that do not count toward your score

No penalty for incorrect answers

Scratch paper is available during the exam (it will be destroyed before you leave the testing center)

Praxis Core Writing: Selected-response Questions
‍

Ironically, the selected-response (multiple-choice) section of the Praxis Core Writing test does not require you to do any writing at all. You won’t be tested on the names of grammatical terms. You won’t need to identify nouns, pronouns, verbs, participles, or gerunds. Whereas a vague sense of how you diagrammed sentences back in the day may help a bit, it’s not an essential skill on these questions.

What the selected-response Writing questions do test is your ability to recognize the elements of good writing, including basic grammar, sentence structure, agreement, and word choice.
As you prepare for the test, read everything—and we mean everything—with an eye toward sentence structure. Look for fragments in advertisements. Find run-on sentences in emails from your friends. Ferret out misplaced modifiers in the newspaper. Develop “proofreader’s eyes” as you read, read, read your way to success.

Introducing The Praxis Writing Question Types

Because these question types may be new to you, you should begin by becoming familiar with the structure of the questions and the directions for each question type you will see on your test. Remember, you have only 40 minutes to answer 40 questions on the selected-response section of the Praxis Core Writing test. Getting familiar with the basics of each question type ahead of time will give you an edge when test day rolls around.

There are four main question types on the Core Writing exam: Usage, Sentence Correction, Revision in Context, and Research Skills. Within these four main categories, you may see some variation in the mode of delivery of the questions. The standard modes of delivery are shown below, but be prepared for some variation. Variations may include interactive questions that require some of the following:

• Selecting all of the answer choices that apply
• Constructing a short response in an entry box
• Entering more than one response in different places
• Checking off boxes (usually for all-that-apply questions)
• Selecting regions on a graph or other visual
• Choosing sentences in text
• Moving answer choices onto targets or into positions
• Choosing an answer from a drop-down menu

Each question type will be accompanied by clear directions for how to answer the question, so please read these carefully if you are not familiar with the question’s mode of delivery.  

‍Usage Questions

Usage questions test a wide range of skills, including redundancy, singular versus plural nouns and verbs, pronoun reference, commas, verb tense, and capitalization. For these questions, you will always have four underlined portions of the sentence to choose from, as well as the option “No error.” Your task is to choose which of the four underlined portions needs a revision, if any. You don’t need to specify what the revision is, just the location of the error. If there is an error in the sentence, it will be in one of the four underlined portions.

Keep in mind that you only have 40 minutes to answer 40 questions and that there is no penalty for incorrect answers. That means you need to move quickly through the Usage questions to allow for the more time-consuming questions. Aim to answer between 2 and 3 questions per minute.

Sentence Correction Questions

Sentence Correction questions are similar to Usage questions, except there will be only one underlined portion for you to focus on. In this case, your task is to pick the best version of the underlined portion. Please note that the first answer will always be the same as the underlined portion in the question, so if there is an error, there is no need to consider the first choice.

You should spend no more than 1 to 1.5 minutes on each Sentence Correction question.

Revision in Context Questions

For Revision in Context questions, the test makers will provide a short essay draft and ask you to choose the best version of a sentence or set of sentences considering the essay’s context. They may also ask you to remove or insert sentences into certain paragraphs or adjust the sequence of the sentences in a given paragraph.

Research Skills Questions

As the name suggests, Research Skills questions will test your basic understanding of acceptable research habits, including assessing the credibility of sources, recognizing different parts of a citation, recognizing different research strategies, and assessing the relevance of information to a research task.

‍