The moment you complete a Praxis Core exam in the testing center, you’ll be able to view your unofficial Praxis scores for Reading and Math immediately. At most testing centers, you will also be given your raw score as soon as the exam ends.
Praxis Scores: Raw vs Unofficial
The raw score of any exam is simply the ratio of correct to incorrect answers to questions. So if you take the Praxis Core English exam and get 50 out of the 56 questions right, your raw score would be 50.
In contrast, the unofficial score is more complex. For one thing, the unofficial score is based on the percentage of answers you get right, not the percentage of correct questions. Although your raw score gives each question a value of one raw point, sometimes a question has more than one correct answer and is thus worth more than one point in scaled score calculations. If a question has multiple correct answers (as seen on pages 46-47 of the Core Reading Study Companion and pages 36-37 of the Core Math Study Companion), it would contribute more than one point to the percentage of correct responses, as calculated in the unofficial score.
The unofficial score is also based on the Praxis Core’s 100-200 point grading scale. This means the lowest possible score on a Praxis Core exam is 100 points, the highest possible score is 200, and the point range is 100. To calculate the unofficial score, the Praxis takes the percentage of correct responses and proportionally adjusts it to the 100 point range within the 100-200 scale. Click here to see passing scores by test and state.
To show you exactly how this adjustment works, let’s look at an example. Suppose you took a Praxis Core Reading exam that had 52 questions with only one possible answer choice, and 4 questions where you needed to select two correct answers. This would mean 60 possible correct answers. Now suppose you got half of those answers right. (This would be a terrible score, but half is a simple, easy-to-understand proportion for this example.) Your adjusted score would have 50 points, half of the 100 point scoring range. But since the scoring range starts at 100 instead of starting at zero, the actual adjusted score number would be 150.
Unofficial Praxis Score vs. Official Praxis Score
The difference between the raw and unofficial Reading/Math scores is somewhat complicated, as you can see above. The difference between your official and unofficial Praxis scores is much simpler. In fact, the vast majority of the time, there is no difference between the unofficial and official scores. This is because the Praxis Core is not adjusted for the relative difficulty of a set of questions, or the performance of other students on the same questions you took.
ETS does make difficulty and average-performance based adjustments for some of its other exams, such as the TOEFL and GRE. But with Praxis Core scores, what you see is what you get—both the unofficial and official scores are based on your percentage of correct answers, and nothing more.
Why You Still Need to Wait for Official Scores
There is one instance in which your official score can be different from the unofficial score you get on test day: test-center error. It’s possible for the test center computer to make some sort of miscalculation, assigning the wrong number of points to the raw score, or accidentally counting the number of right and wrong answers… that sort of thing. It’s rare for this to happen, but it can happen. And when it does happen, it’s obviously important to catch such mistakes. The screening process for this takes time.
It also takes extra time to calculate Praxis Core Writing scores. This is because essays are constructed responses. They involve far more than just entering in an answer that is either correct or incorrect. The quality of a test-taker’s writing must be carefully assessed by an actual human being. Only after getting your writing rated can you get a full score on the three-skill Core assessment required in most states. These three official scores will be available 10-16 days after you sit for the three-subject version of the exam.
Average Praxis Scores
The minimum Praxis score required for licensure is the number you’ll want to pay the most attention to as you prepare for the Praxis.
However, it’s also good to know how you did in comparison to other test-takers, for a variety of reasons. Demonstrating above average Praxis performance can give you an edge in your job hunt, and is definitely worth mentioning on a resume or in a cover letter. Moreover, higher-than-average Praxis scores also look great if you apply for a graduate program in education or a promotion at your school. And in the most immediate future, some universities offer peer tutoring positions and other perks to students who stand above their classmates in terms of Praxis performance.
National Averages
ETS makes the national averages for Praxis scores easily accessible. The national average score range appears right on your Praxis score report. But you can also look up the national averages for each Praxis exam in advance on the official Praxis website.
Bear in mind that the national average score ranges for each exam change a little from year to year. The current year averages are always linked directly to the “Understanding Your Scores” page on the Praxis website, and you can also go directly to the 2015-2016 averages (current as I write this) right here. If you already took the Praxis sometime in the last several years, the ETS archive for average score ranges by test is still available for 2014-2015, 2013-2014, 2012-2013, and 2011-2012.
State Averages and School District Averages
ETS does not publish averages Praxis scores by state, much less by individual school district. Still, knowing if you’re above the average within your state or district can be useful. Every state has different Praxis benchmarks for licensure, and schools often look at applicants in terms of their in-state competitiveness. It can’t hurt to contact a state department of education or a local school district office to see if they keep statistics on average Praxis scores, so that you can aim for a truly competitive score.
Averages within a Teacher Education Program
Most university teacher education programs do keep tabs on the average Praxis scores of their teachers-in-training. If you attend a public university, you may even be able to get the averages for all student teachers within your state’s university system. Check with your adviser or department chair to see how other students in your program have been performing. Then aim to outdo the current average. Being at the top of your class can only help you in your academic career and your future teaching career.
The Takeaway
Many teacher preparation programs and potential employers will be interested in knowing your unofficial Praxis scores, even before the official ones are formally issued. (For example, I was asked to show my unofficial scores to The New Teacher Project after receiving a conditional job offer from them.) It’s very important to understand the difference between your raw score and your unofficial score, so that you can state your unofficial score correctly. It’s also important to know that your official score could be different from your unofficial score, but that such a scenario is unlikely.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We’ve gotten a lot of comments and questions in response to this post, both about unofficial Praxis Core scores, and about Praxis scoring in general. If you have a question about your scores on the Praxis Core or on another Praxis test, check out the comments section below this article. There’s a good chance you’ll find an answer to your question.
David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he’s helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.David has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in many scholarly articles, his Master’s Thesis is featured on the Reading with Pictures website, and he’s presented at the WITESOL (link to PDF) and NAFSA conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.Come join David and the Magoosh team on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, or connect with him via LinkedIn!
Comments
570 responses to “Praxis Scores for Praxis Core: What You Need to Know”
Ayanna
So basically you are saying that if I need to make a 150 on the core math that ideally means I only need to get 50 percent of the questions correctly? Also what percent correct is a good goal or guideline for the math, reading, and writing ? Some of the Prep book are saying about 60 percent based on the scores required by many states.
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David Recine
That’s correct, Ayanna. 50% correct amounts to a score of 150 on the exam. 50% will also get you 150 on Core Reading. With Core Writing, the results of getting 50% correct on the multiple choice answers is not as predictable, because that exam also has essays that are graded on a rubric, and weighted differently than individual multiple choice questions.
As for your personal good goal or ideal score, as the prep books mention, this varies widely from state to state, with some states accepting low scores and other states accepting higher scores. To know for sure what your target score should be, check with the state or states where you want to receive a teaching license.
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Amber
David, I took the multiple subjects (5001) test today and on the science part, there were 50 questions and at the end it said my score was 137 and in Alabama you need a 144 to pass. Does that mean I failed?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
I would say it does. This test (or set of tests) very rarely has any score adjustments after the unofficial score is given in the testing center. When adjustments do happen, the score will only change by a few points– there’s seldom more than three point change. So it’s very unlikely than an adjustment in score will bring you all the way up to a 144. Still, you’re close— only 7 points off! Start preparing for a retake, and you’ll have a good chance of passing Elementary Ed Multiple Subjects the next time around.
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Jess
Hello, I took a math praxis core practice test (5733) and I got 35 questions correct. Based on certain websites and other information from the ETS website I should be dividing my correct answers by the total amount of questions and then adding 100, correct? So overall, I would most likely receive a 162 on the Math praxis core test?
Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Jess,
Yes, a 162 is a good estimate for getting 35 questions correct on the Praxis 5733. However, your official score on the real Praxis exam may change a little bit (1-3 points) depending on whether ETS makes any changes for difficulty, experimental questions, or etc.
Erica
Can you help me understand the score needed for the School Media Specialist Cert.? I just took a practice test and got 98 out of 120 questions correct. Would I have passed? I think it says you need a 138 to pass this test.
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I took the praxis core reading and my unofficial score is 154, is there a chance it will increase or decrease?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Melinda,
Official scores on the Praxis are often the same as the unofficial scores. However, scores can be changed for various reasons (differences in difficulty, throwing questions out, etc.), so it’s not impossible to increase or decrease! Most of the time it only changes 1-3 points, but you’ll have to wait for your Official Score to see.
Best of luck!
Ashley C
So if I took the Praxis today for SPED-LD. It had 120 questions I need a 151 score and it showed me that I had 76 correct after I finished. So does that mean I might have passed?
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David Recine
Yes, definitely! 🙂 76 puts you at 63%, comfortably above the 51% you’d need to get a 151.
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Brandon M
Hey David – I just took my Special Ed 5354 Praxis and I can’t remember if I saw a “Raw” or “Unofficial” Scott at the end. Also, I saw either a 173 or a 73 so with two variables in the equation, I’m struggling to interpret the score. Has anyone that has recently taken it seen raw or unofficial as the language? Thanks for answering so many questions and helping folks out!
Ty
Ashley C, did you pass with your 76 correct?
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Sheryl
I took the slp praxis today, passing score is 162, I think I saw raw score of 161 after the test.Is this final, can I ask for a recount? I only need one point to pass, it this is indeed final.
Is there a possiblility that there will still be a difference of one point in the actual score? …thanks!Magoosh Test Prep Expert
In most cases, the unofficial score and the official score are the same. There is a small chance that your score might change, but I’m afraid you can’t count on it. Unfortunately, it’s also unlikely that a score review will lead to a higher score for a multiple choice test, but you can read more about the process here. Good luck!
Shemekia
Did you get a raw score?
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Carlos
Hello,
I need help understanding my scores. I recently took the Praxis Math test and I received a 138 score (which means I did not pass). Now, I looked at how many answers I got correct and incorrect and I got 28/56 questions correct. In other words I got 50% of them correct. So, why did I get a 138 and not a 150? Please help.
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David Recine
Hi Carlos,
I’m sorry your official score was so much lower than your unofficial score in the test center. While it is common for scores to receive a slight adjustment after test day, that big change to your score is very unusual. Such a change might be possible if you primarily missed questions that had greater “weight.” Certain questions on Praxis Core Math can be worth more points than others, and these point-weight adjustments show up on the officials core report, but usually don’t show up in the testing center.
Like I said though, this is unusual. If you haven’t done so already, I recommend calling Praxis customer service to see if you can get some more definite answers on what happened.
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Carlos
Hello,
What I am trying to say is that I got 28/56 in my official test scores. So why did i get a 138 not a 150 on my praxis math test? I answered half the questions correctly.
Tara Keen
I am taking the business education 5101 in October. What score is required for me to pass? I have not been able to find that anywhere.
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David Recine
It can be hard to find the specific Praxis score you need, since every state has different requirements. See the main state requirements page on the official Praxis website. From there, you should be able to click on the sate where your’e applying for the license, and then find links that lead to the 5101 requirements specifically. But if you’re still having trouble, Tara, come back here and leave me a comment telling me which state you’re in. I can help you look it up and post the requirement here if the Praxis Sate Requirement page hasn’t worked for you.
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Amanda Yarbrough
I just took the 5101 yesterday and it showed my score was 146. According to the website my passing score has to be 154. Is the score showing on the computer the official score ( every question was multiple choice). Or should I pay to retake the exam?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Amanda!
I would recommend retaking the exam. This test (or set of tests) very rarely has any score adjustments after the unofficial score is given in the testing center. When adjustments do happen, the score will only change by a few points– there’s seldom more than three point change. So it’s very unlikely than an adjustment in score will bring you all the way up to a 154- that’s an 8 point difference! However, you’re very close 🙂 Start preparing for a retake, and you’ll have a good chance of passing the next time around.
David
I just took the reading praxis 5002. In my state you need a 157. I got a raw score of 47 with 80 questions being asked. Does this mean I passed ? Unfortunately the testing center did not give me my unofficial score.
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David Recine
Hi Jennifer,
Happy to help. 47/80 means you got 58.75% of your answers correct. Add 100 to the percentage of correct answers you got, and you’ll have your estimated scaled score. So you’re at 158.75, which should round up to 159. This means it’s highly likely you passed. While ETS does sometimes adjust your raw score by a few percentage points, it’s extremely rate for them to adjust the score downward. If your score is adjusted at all, ETS will likely add rather than subtract points. So congratulations! 🙂
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Tonya
Hi there,
So I am in NJ and just took Elementary Praxis (5001) on Nov 1st. The only scores that I saw were;
Reading – 18
Writing, listening, speaking – 25
US History, G’ment, Citizenship – 13
Geography, Anthropology – 10
World history, Economics – 8
Numbers, operations – 6
Algebraic thinking – 5
Geometry, measurement, data, statistics, probability – 6
Earth science – 5
Life science – 6
Physical science – 6
What do these scores mean? HELP!!!
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David Recine
Praxis 5001 score reports are especially complicated, I know! This is because 5001 contains four subtests: Reading & Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. In addition,there are multiple subcategories within each subtest. The Reading and Language Arts 5001 subtest has two subcategories: Reading and Writing/Listening thinking. The Science 5001 subtest has three categories: Earth Science, Life Science, and Physical Science. And so on…
Often, the raw score report you see right after you take the test will show the number of questions you got right in each subcategory for each subtest. So to get an idea of your score, you need to know how many questions there are TOTAL in each subcategory.
The total number of questions in each subcategory can be found on pages 6, 9, 13, and 15 of the Praxis 5001 Official Study companion PDF. Below, I will reproduce the question totals from the Reading and math subtests and their subcategories. Then, I’ll help you calculate your subtest and subsection scores for these two portions of Praxis 5001.
READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS SUBTEST
Reading: 38 questions total
Writing, Speaking, and Listening: 42 questions totalMATHEMATICS SUBTEST
Numbers and operations: 20 questions total
Algebraic thinking: 15 questions total
Geometry and Measurement, Data, Statistics and Probability: 15 questions totalSo your subtest scores and subsection scores would be as follows:
Reading and Language Arts scores
Reading: 18/38 = 47%
Writing, Speaking, and Listening: 25/42 = 60%
WHOLE SUBTEST: 43/80 = 54% = 154 Praxis scaled scoreMathematics scores
Numbers and operations: 6/20 = 30%
Algebraic thinking: 5/15 = 33%
Geometry and Measurement, Data, Statistics and Probability: 6/15 = 40%
WHOLE SUBTEST: 17/50 = 34% = 134 Praxis scaled scoreNote that your scaled score for each subtest is calculated by taking the percentage number and adding 100. A 54% score means a 154 on the Praxis, a 34% score means 134 on the Praxis, and so on.
Similarly, you total score for the 5001 as a whole can be calculated by looking at the total percentage of correct answers out of 235 (the combined total number of questions from all four subtests)
To complete these calculations, look at your subtest and subcategory scores for Reading & Language Arts and Math above. Following that model, look at the total number of answers (and number of subcategory answers) for the Social Studies and Science tests (pages 13 and 15 of the 5001 Study Companion). Then calculate your remaining percentages and 100 to the subtest and whole-test percentages to get your Praxis scaled scores.
(Phew.) Praxis doesn’t make it easy when they show you your 50001 score report, that’s for sure! Hope this helps, though.
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Matt
Hi David!
I’m going to be taking the Praxis ii Middle School Math (5169) i need a passing score of 165 and I’ve been taking praxis practice test. I keep getting 78% (55 questions in total) on them but after reading all the comments is this considered a good thing?
Thank you!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Matt 🙂
Yes, scoring 78% on your practice tests puts you in a good position for passing the actual test. You can estimate your scaled score by taking the your raw score percentage (i.e. 78) and adding that to the base score of 100. So, 78% correct is more or less equivalent to a scaled score of 178 🙂
Hope this helps!
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Coach
I just took Praxis 5081 social studies content…unofficial score was 152…Alabama requires a 153…and chance it would get bumped up a point?
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David Recine
There’s certainly a chance, since it’s not uncommon for your official score to be adjusted by a point or two. That being said, there is at least as good of a chance that you’ll stay at 152… and your score can actually go down slightly too. I’d say hope for the best, but be ready to retake 5081, just in case.
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Ebony
I took my core reading today and it showed my score was a 156. How long should I wait for an official report
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Jenny
Does getting the unofficial score mean you reported your scores
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Hi, I just took the Math portion for the praxis exam and at the end of the exam it asked me if I wanted to report or cancel. I clicked report and then it displayed 150. I need a 150 to pass though so I’d this what I made on it??
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Sarah!
Most unofficial scores are exactly the same as the official scores, and if they change at all, it’s generally just by a point or two. However, this could be a shift in either direction (+/-). To err on the side of caution, I would start making arrangements for a retake, because there is always the chance you’ll fall a single, annoying point too low. Hopefully, though, your scores will come through! Good luck. 🙂
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Kristen
Sarah-
Was your official the same as the unofficial? Curious to see if you passed! I took my math today and scored a 152. If it fluctuates down by 3 points I’ll fail…. so now I wait the dreadful wait! I am hoping I am like most and the unofficial/ official are the same!Reply
Today I took the praxis core math, and my score was 148. Will the official score from ETS increase or stay the same?
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David Recine
Official scores can change compared to the unofficial score. Typically, the change, if there is one, will move the score by 1-3 points. Usually changed scores go up, although they can go down. Hope this helps!
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Caleb
I took the middle school science 5440 exam this morning. It was 125 questions. I got 65 correct, and my Ross score was 143. Will I see much change to meet the required 150 for my state?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Caleb!
There are only 125 questions on the Praxis 5440, so it’s likely that the 143 was your unofficial score. Unfortunately, this doesn’t look like it’s going to be high enough to pass. However, all you can do is wait for the official scores to know for sure.
Ashley Fleet
Hi, I take my Praxis Core math this Saturday, and so far on the practice test I keep scoring 28 out of 56. I need 1:50 to pass the core math, and I know 28 is half of 56. So in your opinion when I take the core and if I scored 28 again would you say this is a passing score of 150.
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David Recine
Hi Ashley,
It is likely that you’ve passed! Remember, though, Praxis scores are sometimes adjusted by a few points in the official score report. So there’s also at least some chance that you’ll fall short of the requirement by a few points. My advice is to hope for the best, but also start studying for a retake just in case.
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Danielle
So I just want to get this right, is this the same for praxis concentration. For social studies I need a 147, if I got 47 out 90 correct which is a 52% does that mean technically I passed?
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David Recine
Nearly all Praxis Subject Assessments are graded on that 100-200 point scale, yes. And this includes both of the Social Studies Praxis Subject Assessments (tests # 5081 and 5086). But the minimum you need to get is tied to percentage of correct answers, not simply the number of correct answers. So actually, if you got 47 out of 90 correct on a Praxis exam that was 100% multiple choice, you’d have a score of 152%, because you’d be at 52 percent. To get a minimum of 147 on a Praxis Subject test that’s has ONLY multiple choice questions, you’d only need to get 43 correct answers for a score of 47% correct. That’s less than half!
That being said, a minimum of 43 correct answers on a Social Studies Praxis II will not necessarily get you a passing score on the specific exam you’re taking. This is because the Social Studies Praxis exam is NOT just multiple choice. Both versions of the Praxis Social Studies tests include 3 constructed response questions where you need to give a written answer. So there’s no way to know for sure if you passed until after your exam is sent to a scoring team and your constructed responses are scored by actual human beings.
But yes– some states can set very low minimum scores for Praxis exams. This is because teacher licensing boards look at a lot of different factors in granting a license– the teacher’s portfolio, successful completion of student teaching, good academic performance during teacher training, etc….
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Joe Van Vactor
So what would be a ballpark number of correct questions to pass for the (5089) Middle School Social Studies if my written responses was zero?
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David Recine
Yikes! Hopefully that didn’t actually happen to you. As you can see on page 5 of the official Study Companion for Praxis Middle School Social Studies (5089), the essays are about 25% of your score. This correlates to 25 points on your official score report. So if you got 100% of the other questions right, you’d be sitting at a 175. Your score would go down from there. If you give me the exact score you need in your state, I can give you a specific ballpark numebr.
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Angela Hunter
Hey David,
I recently took my the Praxis Core combined. I got an unofficial score of a 150 on both my Core Reading and Math. I am not to much worried about the Math, because I needed a 130 to pass. However, on the Reading I needed a 156 to pass. It is anyway possible that I could have passed?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Angela,
The unofficial score at the testing center is usually the same as the official score. There are rare reports of a change by 1 or 2 points, but generally the score is not adjusted more than that. You may want to start planning for a retake of the reading section. Good luck 🙂
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jamie gillum
I have taken the praxis II history 5941 twice and both times received a 124. when it broke it down on each section in world history up to 1450, world history 1450 to present, us history up to 1877, us history 1877 to present I have a total of 63 the first time and a 53 the second time but got a 124 on both times….. I do not think they score these on a percentage or I would have got a better score the first time versus the second time, correct?
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Kayla
I just took the praxis core math about an hour ago. I scored a 148. I’ve taken this test numerous times. It’s frustrating to be that close to passing it. I’m beginning to think it’s something wrong with the scoring.
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David Recine
This does sound very frustrating Kayla. So sorry you’re going through this. Unfortunately to my knowledge, Praxis offers score reviews and appeals only for essay questions, not for the “selected response” questions seen throughout the Core Math exam. But if you really do feel there may be a mistake in your scores, I recommend contacting Praxis customer service. They may be able to help you review which answers of yours were marked wrong, and see if there were any mistakes. It may also help to talk to someone at your testing center. Mistakes in Praxis multiple choice scoring are rare, but when mistakes do happen,t hey usually originate at the local testing center. So your local test site may be able to help you check and see if any scoring mistakes were made.
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Sydney G
Same happened to me but I haven’t gotten my official score back yet. What’d you get as your official score?
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Autumn Owens
Same here. I took it yesterday and got a 148 as well. ? This is my 4th time taking it. It’s very frustrating.
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Steph
Same for me today! :(. Totally bummed!
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Jay
I was having trouble with praxis core so I retook the ACT to bypass it… not sure if that’s an option for you but just a suggestion
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Hello,
I just happened to be skimming through and found your post. Today Ifind myself in the same situation. Could you tell me, did you end up passing your test?Reply
Riley Braem
I have a question much like the others posted. need a score of 159 on the Theatre Praxis II exam. There are 120 questions (all multiple-choice). I just took a practice test and got 79 out of 120. How would this translate?
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David Recine
Multiple choice questions are equally weighted, and the Praxis II/Praxis Subject tests don’t adjust scores for difficulty. (At least not for multiple choice questions.) 79 out of 120 comes out to 65.8%. Since that’s equal to about 66/100, your score on the 100-200 point scale of the Praxis II Theater exam should be about 166. This would pout you in the clear. My only caveat on this prediction is that ETS is pretty secretive about exactly how they calculate official scores– everything they have stated in their official Praxis materials does indicate you’d get around a 166, though.
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Lin Davis
I just took the Praxis II (General Science: Content Knowledge Exam #5435). When finished I received a raw score of 135. The test had 135 multiple choice/answer questions. Last time I took the exam I received a NS and my actual score was a 141 (needed a 151). Has anyone else recently taken this exam, if so what raw score did you earn to pass the exam. Currently stressing more than before the exam.
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Nan
Hi Lin ,
Can you brief me on how the questions are going to be on praxis general scienceplease . I have no clue. Just preparing with study material and only 3 test papers to try before exam . Please help !Reply
parimala
Can any one please help me in giving information how to find out what tests do I have to take to write by Biology praxis .Do I have to write maths exam too as it is written in the net that we have to write reading,writing and Maths for praxis 1.
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Tia
Did you pass this. I need 152 and got 151
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I scored a 134 on the 5018 elementary content test. There were 140 questions. What does this mean?
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David Recine
Based on all of ETS’s publicly available information on Praxis scoring, this would mean you got 34% of your answers correct. That does seem quite low though! If you’re pretty sure you answered more than 34% of the questions correctly, you may want to contact Praxis customer service. Sometimes their help line has access to information about scoring methods that hasn’t been published yet.
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Dominique
Hello I am taking the Health 5551 there are 120 questions on the test, I got 65 questions correct and scored a 146, I need a 149, how many do I need to aim to get correct.
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David Recine
If you got 65 questions correct but got a 146, it means you got 46% of the answers correct. This probably means that certain questions you missed have multiple answers. Or questions you miss might have been counted as having more than one answer, based on the way the questions were structured. For instance, a question about a two different aspects of a school health program might be counted as having two answers for scoring purposes, even if there’s only one correct answer choice. (See question 30 on page 16 of your exam’s official Study Companion for an example of this: https://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/5551.pdf .)
So it’s hard to tell exactly how many questions you’d need to get right in order to boost your score by three points, because your percentage correct is calculated by the number of answers, and some questions have more than one answer for scoring purposes. I can give you an estimate though— if you can answer at least 70 questions correctly the next time you take the exam, you have a very good chance of getting a 149 or higher.
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Jon
I’m taking the Social Studies Praxis (5081) there are 130 questions, mostly multiple choice and a few matching (drag and drop type questions). About how many do I need to get correct to pass (the state I live in requires a score of 161)? Are all the questions weighted the same? Thank you
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David Recine
Hi Jon,
Not all questions are weighted the same. The drag and drop questions are usually worth at least two points. The single answer multiple choice questions are almost always worth one point, but in rare cases, a single answer question could be worth two points.
ETS is a little secretive on exactly how they weight each and every question, so it can be a little hard to tell how many points total the 130 question set in 5081 is. What you can know is that the percentage of correct answers plus 100 will roughly equal the official score. Get about 61% of your answers right, get a 161. So if you get 80 questions right, you have a good chance of making it past the 161 cutoff. But I would aim for 85, 90, or 95 questions right, just to be safe. You can’t know for sure how many points you’ll lose on a given question, and it’s better to aim higher than your minimum target score anyway.
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Drew
Hi David,
I took the same exam it looks like in Virginia. I got a 162 unofficially and will know in about 2 weeks what my official score was. There were only 130 multiple choice single answer questions on mine. I answered all of them. From reading the article and some comments, it looks like the official score could change but is unlikely. is that correct.
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David Recine
That’s correct. More often than not, the unofficial score and the official score will be the same. In rare cases, the official score can be slightly adjusted from the unofficial score. When that happens, the score will usually change by 3 points or less, and will usually go up a little rather than going down.
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Cam Hill
Hey David, so just wondering the unofficial score you receive for reading and math after the core is essentially the score you will receive officially?
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David Recine
In all likelihood, yes. Recently, the Praxis has started making some difficulty-based score adjustments for some specific multiple choice tests in the Praxis II lineup. But to my knowledge, they still don’t make adjustments to Praxis Core scoring for multiple choice and numeric entry questions. So you should expect your official scores for Core Math and Reading to be the same as your unofficial scores, unless there was some kind of error in the testing center.
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Robert
Hello David.
I just took the Praxis Middle School Social Studies test for Virginia (5089). At the conclusion of the test, it did not give me any data on questions correct/incorrect. I asked the examiners if this was standard, and their response was simply ‘if it doesn’t give you that info, that’s the way it is designed’. Is this correct?? It’s kind of frustrating to have to wait for nearly a month for ANY insight into my performance.
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David Recine
Robert,
At the end of the exam, you should be able to see your raw and unofficial scores— so if you didn’t see those, something definitely went wrong. But it sounds like you’re saying that you did see the scores, but weren’t given any info on which specific questions you answered correctly or incorrectly? If that’s the case– yes, that is unfortunately normal for the Praxis. Unlike most other tests that are designed by ETS, the Praxis provides no opportunities to review your individual answers or see any details about your performance, other than the scores themselves. So you won’t get to see a detailed, question-by-question report on your performance at all, even when you get your official scores.
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Robert
Actually I saw NO score at all. All I saw was that the exam was complete, and it asked me if I wanted to send my score. Of course I did, although now I’m stuck for weeks having NO idea how I did. Very, very frustrating, especially if I simply missed the score. Would the score(s) have been something easily missed??
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David Recine
Hi Robert. I decided to wait until this week to answer your latest question, because I wanted to call Praxis customer service and ask them if it’s ever normal to not be able to see a score. Apparently, this is not completely unheard of. Sometimes, for any Praxis exam,t he testing center computer may be unable to calculate scores for you, for one reason or another. Normally, you will see a score, but you can also expect score displays to NOT appear at the end of an exam on occasion.
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Sara
Hi. I just took the Middle School Math Praxis Exam. At the end of the test it said “raw score: 200”. But then below it said “Points earned per topic” and it was numbers 2 sections, one was 17 and another 27. So I am confused if the 200 is just saying that is was the max I could have earned was, or if that was my score? And do the bottom numbers represent the numbers of questions I got right, so out of the 55, I answered 44 correctly? I didn’t have a screen that told me exactly how many questions I answered correctly out of the total.
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David Recine
Wow, that does sound like a really confusing screen display! I’ve never seen an end-of-test score screen for that particular exam, so I can’t tell you what each score field meant with 100% absolute certainty.
I can tell you that its pretty much unheard of for anyone to get a perfect 200 on the Praxis’s 100-200 point scale. OIn fact, there are entire years where not test takers manage to get the full 200 on a given test. So it’s very likely (almost 100% likely) that you actually got 44/55 points on the exam as a whole, and that the 200 just represents the maximum score you could get (in theory). 44/55 will probably lead to an official score of about 180, by the way. That’s a pretty good score by most state standards!
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kingaita Rudolph
Just took my middle school math praxis and I got a 122 raw score and then there were 2 more numbers at the bottom. Can’t really remember what they said. This is all confusing. If this is the real score, why do we have to wait 4 weeks for them to poste it on the praxis website.
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David Recine
There’s usually a raw score and an unofficial score on the preliminary score report you see at the end of your test session. Without a screen shot, I’m not 100% sure what the third number would be. My guess though, is that the third number was the total amount of points possible on the test.
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Jessica vasquez
I have taken the early childhood education praxis II exam and scored a 137 as shown at the end of the testing. There were 120 questions. What percentage does that leave me in for passing it in the state of New Jersey
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David Recine
Because all of the questions in Early Childhood Education (5025) are multiple choice, your 100-200 ranged score will be similar to the percentage of questions you got right, minus 100. So your score of 137 means you got about 37% of the answers right when you took the test. You’ll need to get about 65% of the answers right to meet New Jersey’s requirement of 165 for this exam. So you’ll want to raise your performance by 28 percentage points.
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Jill
Hello. I’ve taken the social studies praxis, content knowledge where there is 130 questions. I have taken this test MANY times now and I cannot pass. My state requires a 157. In May when I took the test I got a raw score of 151 and then once the scores were reported I got a 153 (so it went up 2 points) and according to the praxis website it said that they will account for difficulty that varies between tests and this may change a raw score. I just took it again today and I got a 155!!!!! Soooo frustrating. Do you know how this test scored? I can’t imagine having to take this again being that I am so close!! I know that certain subjects (world history, economics etc) are weighted. Any insight on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
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David Recine
Your situation really does sounds frustrating… but also hopeful in some ways, because your score did go up on the last retake. It sounds like you can beat this test, probably on the next try.
Now it sounds like you’re taking Social Studies: Content Knowledge (5081)?
This exam is all multiple choice. This means your unofficial score will roughly correspond with the number of correct answers you had. So when you took the test in may and got an unofficial score of 151, it means that you got about 51% of the answers right. Assuming each of the 130 questions was only counted as having one correct answer, that would mean you probably got 66 questions right.
So you’ll want to get at least 74 questions right on your next test— this would mean 57% of your answers were correct. But you should probably aim higher, because it’s possible your score could actually be adjusted downward if you get questions that have a lower than average point-weight/difficulty. Based on how this test is scored, I’d say it’s safest to aim for at least 80/130 correctly answered questions, and maybe even 85+. Does this make sense?
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Andrew
David,
I just took this same test the Social Studies 5081 test and received a raw score of 180 (there were 130 total questions) does this mean I passed?
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David Recine
If you got a 180 as a raw score,t hat would be a raw scaled score. Your final official score will be the same as your raw scaled score, or very close to it. As long as 180 is above your state’s requirements for Praxis 5081: Social Studies, then you’ve passed.
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Elizabeth Coleman
I am taking the Praxis Middle school math test for Pennsylvania. (I am taking it before the core because I just passed middle school math in Ohio) I am taking practice tests that have 60 questions. How do I know when I am doing ok. What percent will I need to be in range to pass.
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David Recine
Congratulations on passing the middle school math assessments for Ohio! Now, it sounds like It sounds like you’re taking the Praxis II entitled the Pennsylvania Grades 4-8 Subject Concentration: Mathematics? If that’s the case, you’ll need to get a 173 on the test, which corresponds roughly to getting 74% of the answers right. Assuming that your practice tests have questions that are very similar to the real thing, if you’re getting more than 45 questions right on each test, you’ll probably reach your target score. (The higher you get over 45, the better, of course.)
If you haven’t done so already, I would recommend also recommend going through the Praxis questions in the official online study companion for your Pennsylvania Math Praxis. these questions will be the most similar to the questions you’ll actually see on test day, so the study companion provides a good additional way to gauge your performance.
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Elizabeth Coleman
Thanks you have been so helpful. Do you have practice guides for the core tests (5152). I didn’t have to know science or social studies for middle school certificate in Ohio.
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David Recine
Happy I could help, Elizabeth. 🙂 Right here on the blog, we don’t have any supplemental practice guides for the Pennsylvania core tests. (Not yet, at least.) But I’d strongly recommend looking at the free official Study Companion PDF for this test, and purchasing some official ETS interactive practice tests.You can find all of these on Praxis’s official prep page for exam 5152.
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Shannon
Hi, I have taken the core math three times. On the third time my raw score was a 148. If there a chance that my official score could be a 150.
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David Recine
There is a chance your score could be adjusted upwards by 2 points, yes. But there isn’t a very big chance. In almost all Praxis exams, the unofficial score and the official score will be the same. But minor adjustments of 2 or 3 points– either adjusted up or adjusted down– also do happen every once in a while.
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Stephanie
I am taking the English Language Arts: Content and Analysis. There are 2 constructed response questions in addition to 130 multiple-choice. I need a 168 to pass. Does anyone know how the constructed responses are weighted in comparison to the multiple-choice? I feel very confident about my constructed response questions, but I am wondering if they are weighted more heavily than the multiple-choice where I feel less assured of succeeding.
Thanks in advance!
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David Recine
Individual constructed response questions are weighted more heavily than individual multiple choice questions on the Praxis. Exactly how heavily constructed response questions are weighted varies from test to test. You can get some insight into how much weight your constructed response questions will have by looking on page 5 of the official Praxis English Language Arts: Content and Analysis Study Companion. Notice that the two “question content categories” that include a constructed response question are worth twice as much as the category of questions that is all multiple choice.
If it helps, I can also tell you that I took this test myself— and my good performance in constructed response really did compensate for some problems I had int he multiple choice section… and I ultimately passed. 🙂
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Kara
I am taking the Praxis core combined test soon. Can you tell what percentage I would need to get for a passing score?
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David Recine
That really depends on the state you’re in, since every state has different minimum score requirements for the Praxis Core. What I can tel you is that the percentage of correct answers tha tyou need will roughly correspond to your required Praxis score, minus 100. So if your state requires– say— a 165 on Praxis Core math, that means you need to get about 65% of your answers right in order to get your 165.
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Jeremy
Hi,
I took the business education praxis today. My score was 157. I need a 154 to pass in TN. Do you think my score means I passed?
Thanks,
Jeremy
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David Recine
Praxis scores can be adjusted once the official score is issued, but they are almost never adjusted by more than 2 or 3 points. Moreover, scores are more likely to be adjusted upward than downward. So you’re probably good to go, nice! 🙂
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Jessie Peterson
David,
I have heard many different things in regards to how the raw scores are equated. I have taken multiple practice tests for reading and writing (Praxis Core) And I have been consistently around 70 percent as far as my raw scores are concerned.
I have looked tirelessly for the answer as to how the raw scores equate, and what percentage of correct questions has to do with the scaled score, and I can’t seem to find a definitive answer. I see that you believe that you just need to add 100 to the raw score and that is very close to your scaled score, but how confident are you really in that? I am asking because I just want a definitive answer, so please don’t take it that I am questioning your ability.
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David Recine
Don’t worry, Jessie, it’s understandable that you’d want to know just how confident I am in my predictions, since your Praxis score is so important to your long-term career!
As for how confident I am, I’d say my confidence is… “medium high, and could perhaps also be described as 75% confidence. Allow me to explain….
For certain tests, especially the Praxis Core, the “percentage correct + 100” prediction formula has very high accuracy. On the Core in particular, that approach to score prediction yields completely accurate results most of the time. And even when the numbers are off, they are usually only off by a point or two. But when the predictions aren’t reasonably accurate for the Core, they can be way off, sometimes by 4,5,6, or 7 points. And frustratingly, when that happens, ETS will not tell test-takers much about why it happened.
However, for some of the other Praxis II (aka Praxis Subject Area) tests, 100+ % correct can be wildly, inexplicably off depressingly often. Don’t get me wrong– my prediction formula still works most of the time for Praxis II. But generally, when a student comes here to comment/ask about a score that was really far from the prediction, they are much more likely to be asking about Praxis II than about the Core.
I hope that makes sense. But certainly let me know if you have any more questions or concerns. My door is always open for questions like this, even over the holidays. 🙂
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Amanda Johnson
Just took Praxis 5018 (elementary Ed content knowledge), and was given an unofficial score of 164. Is it likely that the official score will be different?
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David Recine
It’s unlikely that the official score will be different… but not impossible. A small number of Praxis tests have adjustments made to their official score after the unofficial score is issued. These adjustments usually occur either due to test center error, or due to adjustment based on the relative difficulty of the questions on your test.
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Ellen
180 just seemed high, which is why I’m asking at all. I’ve seen you answer this question several times. I did study extremely hard and enjoyed the test quite a bit.
EllenReply
Meyosha
So what if I was one point away from passing my test. My required score is 165 but I made a 164. Do you think that the scale score would change my score? I really don’t know what to do at this point. I just took the test yesterday and the ‘ official ‘ score comes out on July 30th.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Meyosha,
That’s frustrating! It is possible that your score could move, and you should hold out hope, but you should also make arrangements to retake again just in case. That way, you aren’t taken by surprise if it turns out to stay at that 164.
Good luck! 🙂
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VALERIE
Did your score change? I just took the test and scored a 164 and need a 165.
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Ellen
Hi David,
Thank you for taking the time to answer all these questions.
I just took the Praxis for Art Content and it said “Your Score” 180. I’m really hoping that is the actual score I’m going to get on my final report. How often would you say there is an error in computing on unofficial scores?
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David Recine
Hi Ellen,
Happy to help. 🙂 Errors are pretty rare. There’s a pretty good chance that your score will indeed be 180, and if it is adjusted, it will probably only be adjusted by a point or two. That’s a great score by the way— way to go!
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Josh
I am taking the 5086 praxis tomorrow. It has 3 constructed answer questions. The highest score you get on a question is 3. So 3 perfect scores gives you a 9, but it is out of 18 on the scoring sheet. So 3 perfect scores only gives you 9/18?
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David Recine
Most Praxis constructed response questions have two independent scorers, and your score on the response is based on combined input from both of those scorers. What’s likely happening here is that exam 5086 adds the two scores rather than averaging them. So if one scorer feels you deserve a 3 and the other feels you deserve a 2 on the same response, your score for that response would be 5. A prefect score from both scorers– 3 points from each scorer– would be a total of 6 points (3 + 3). On that basis, 3 perfect scores would be 6 X 3, or 18/18.
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L Johnson
Hi there,
I took the praxis 5622 today. During the exam, I answered all of the multiple choice questions but flagged about 6 that I wanted to go back and review at the end if there was time. However, after finishing my last essay the time was blinking and I had no time to go back and look at those flagged answers. I am hoping because I answered them they will still go through? I did flag them, will this make a difference?
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David Recine
Flagging shouldn’t make a difference for scores. No worries! 🙂
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Debbie
So I just took the Early Childhood Education Praxis 5025 which is the new test. When I finished it said score 159 unofficial and in my state I need 156 so does this mean I can assume I passed. I have really bad test anxiety so I am hoping this means I passed
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David Recine
You have a near 100% chance of passing. In very rare cases, your unofficial score might be adjusted after test day, but even when that does happen, it’s extremely uncommon for a score to be adjusted downward– or upward– by more than 6 points. Test anxiety is common and understandable, but you’re probably fine! 🙂
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Keri
I am getting reading to take the Praxis lol test on Education Leadership. The state score I need is a 141…. is this a high or low score. I am taking practice test daily
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Keri,
A 141 is not an impossible score to get! It is firmly in the midrange of scores, so neither too high nor too low. Good luck! 🙂
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Keri
So as I practice, I should find out my percent correct and add that to 100 to get a feel for where I am at?
Tekka
Hi Debbie. My name is Tekka and I too took the praxis 5025 and scored the same 159. I took the test today and I’m wondering if 159 is a passing score. Did you pass?
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Mills Sonja
I just took the Praxis Core and on the screen for scores it reported my reading score was 200 and math was 156. Are those the scores that I refer to in determining meeting criteria for my state?
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David Recine
The scores you see on the screen are your unofficial scores. In almost all cases, these 100-200 scale scores you see on test day are the ones that determine if you meet state criteria. In very rare cases, your final official score report that you show to the state will adjust the scores you saw onscreen. But any adjustments will be small, 1-3 points usually. Congratulations on your perfect Core Reading score by the way!
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Veronica
Congratulations Mills Sonja!! Do you mind sharing what study material/resources you used for Praxis Core?
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Stephanie
Congrats to you Mills Sonja…that’s impressive! I too would like to know what study materials you used for Praxis Core? Any advice you could give would be much appreciated!
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Sydde
I just got 126 on my Praxis Math. I needed 150 to pass. How many questions do you think I got correct out of the 56 questions?
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David Recine
Your official Praxis score roughly corresponds with the percentage of questions you answered correctly. So a 126 means you got about 26% of the questions right. That would mean 14 or 15 correct out of 56.
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Sandra
It’s interesting to see that because I got a 122 on the math praxis core and my raw score was 17. So I think there might be a difference with the scoring….
I need a 150 to pass for my state do you know how many raw points I need to pass?
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David Recine
Hi Sandra– yes, the formulas for estimating your official score usually work. But sometimes there are strange, unpredictable gaps between your raw score and your official score. From what I’ve heard, the initial score reports given out int he test center can have errors.
To get a 150, you need to earn 50% of your raw points. So if you get half of the questions right, you should– in theory at least– get a 150 on the Praxis. It’s safer to be at least a little bit over the 50% mark, of course.
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Nancy
I was so stressed when I finished the exam I don’t remember what it said my unofficial score was
How can I find this out without having to wait for the official score? It says the score won’t be posted until the end of the testing session
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David Recine
Unfortunately, your unofficial scores are only viewable in the test center, at the moment your test ends. You definitely have my sympathies here, as I too got nervous and forgot my unofficial scores after taking one of my Praxis IIs.Fortunately, you should get your official scores soon. For more information, see my post on timelines for getting Praxis Exam results.
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Hi David,
Thanks so much for the information. I took ESOL today and got a raw score of 75/120. The official score came out as 135. I’m worried because power went out during the exam. The last time I took the same exam, I got a raw score of 73, unofficial & official score of 139. I need 141 to pass this exam. Oh God!
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David Recine
Sorry to hear about your 135. The whole situation does sound disappointing and frustrating. And it does seem strange that your score would come out lower. Given that there was a power failure, test center error seems like it might be a possibility. However, if you got issued an official score, that means that ETS didn’t notice any issues at the test center. It might not hurt to contact ETS customer service or the staff at the test center and talk to them about the possibility of an error in computer scoring.
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Hello, Just finished Physics content Praxis 2 in state of New Jersey. Unfortunately, ran out of time and received raw score of 119. Need at least a 141 to pass. Screen also read further analysis need next to the asterisk of raw score 119.
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David Recine
When you get a note that further analysis is needed, that means you’re taking a Praxis Test that is “norm-referenced.” On a norm-referenced test, if you get nay questions that are harder-than-average, you’ll be assigned extra points if you answer those questions correctly. Unfortunately, norm-referencing can only adjust your score upward by a few points. So you’ll need to retake your Praxis. So sorry to hear this happened to you!
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Kirstyn
I just took the PA Grade 4-8 Core Assessment ELA and Social Studies Praxis subtest. At the end of the test, the score shown was a 150 with an asterisk at the end of the score. I needed a 152 to pass. Is a 150 most likely my final score, which would mean I missed the passing score by 2 points?
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David Recine
There is definitely a chance that 150 will be your final score… but sometimes the score you see int he test center can be adjusted for the relative difficulty of the questions you answered. Adjustments are on Praxis Subject assessments are rare, but they do happen. When scores are adjusted, they’re usually adjusted upward rather than down. A small adjustment– if you get one– just might bump you to 152. So there’s at least some hope that you’ve passed. You can’t know for sure until you get your official scores though. Good luck! And let us know how it goes.
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Meghan
I took the core combined recently math, reading, and writing. I just got my official score back for math and reading but did not get anything for writing. Will that come in later? I just assumed they would release all the official scores together.
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David Recine
The full Praxis Core Writing score always comes in later, because the essays are scored by human scorers and not computer. Int he test center, you will usually see a raw score for your Core Writing multiple choice questions… but not always, as you’ve just found out.
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Natha n
So to pass Praxis 1 math at 150 all that is needed is 28 out of 56 questions answered correctly? Because all questions have 1 answer and are weighted identical.
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David Recine
In theory, yes, that’s all that’s needed, unless the Praxis makes other unexpected adjustments. (Rare, but sometimes happens– the Praxis is less transparent about their scoring methods compared to other ESL tests.)
Generally though, on the Praxis Core, a score of 150 means 50% of the answers were right. A 180 requirement is the same as the requirement for an 80% correct score, etc….
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Ah
I have taken core math 3 times now. The first time I got 25/50 (6 questions wer field questions that didn’t count) and scored a 136. The second time I got the same 25/50 (still 6 field questions) but scored a 142. The last time I took it, which was yesterday, it said 140. I definitely think you need more than half to pass. I am completely devastated. I don’t know what to do to pass it. I’ve passed core reading with a perfect score, core writing, and praxis II biology. I’m at such a loss!
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David Recine
Amber,
That certainly does sound frustrating. I’m sorry to hear you’re facing so many challenges on the Praxis Core! 🙁 The good news is that many test-takers have been in your situation, and still reached a point where they’re able to beat the Core Math test.
So, what should you do next? Well, if you haven’t done so already, I definitely recommend doing all of the practice problems in the official Core Math Study Companion PDF, and doing all of the practice problems in Form 1 and Form 2 of the official online Praxis Core Math practice exams. (This is equivalent to taking two full exams.)
But don’t just do the practice. Also check our answers. Make note of the kinds of math problems you do the worst in, and the math problems where you’re strong. You should be able to discover a pattern of strengths and weaknesses for yourself. Form there, you can focus on your weaknesses, improving in your trouble areas. And you can build on your strengths. For example, suppose you’re especially good at converting fractions to decimals. This indicates that you have strength in division and counting by 10th, hundredths, and thousandths. You can apply that strength to other kinds of math problems as well.
To find ways to improve in math, you may want to hire a math tutor. But that also might not be necessary. There are tons of self-study tools online that can help you improve select math skills, such as Khan Academy, or the Praxis Core Math archive right here on this blog.
If you’ve already done the official Core Math practice questions and tried to break down your strengths and weaknesses, let me know. If you need more advance beyond what I’ve given you, we can continue to troubleshoot your Core Math challenges with me here in the comments. And other test-takers who’ve had similar struggles or have suggestions are very welcome to join in.
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Paul
Hi David and everyone else,
I took the English Language Arts (5038) today. I needed a score of at least 167 and got an unofficial 169. What are the odds that my official score won’t go below 167? Thanks.
Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Paul and everyone else. 🙂
Paul, I’m happy to tell you that the odds you’ve passed are very high. The ELA Praxis usually receives no adjustments after test day. And when adjustments happen, your score will nearly always be adjusted up, not down.
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Wow. Thank you for all of you valuable input. I took the Praxis 5624 7-12 today and I’m obsessing. I received no information about scores after testing & I have thought of 5 answers that I’m sure I missed. So frustrating. Although the 4 constructed answers need to be scored it would be nice to know a percentage of the 70 multiple choice that needed to be correct.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
The 7-12 PLT. Yes, sometimes you don’t get any unofficial scores in the test center for that one. The Praxis isn’t consistent about this and you’re right– it IS frustrating! If you can, come back here and let us know what score you got, once your report comes in.
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Hi David,
I have taken the praxis core math several times but timing seems to be an issue for me. I usually run out of time and start guessing answers towards the end. If I were to go slower and not finish the test of 56 questions, how is the score figured? Would it be the number correct out of the number of questions completed?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Sorry to hear you’ve had to do multiple retakes on Praxis Core Math. How frustrating! A question you get wrong and a question you simply don’t complete have the exact same “points cost.” If going just a little slower allows you to get almost all of your questions right but miss the last several questions entirely, this might improve your score. But it’s best to really work on your pacing. This blog offers some tips and tricks for going through Praxis math problems faster, while still answering correctly. Here is the reading I would recommend:
Pacing and Timing Yourself on Praxis Core Math
How to Improve Your Praxis Core Math Score
Praxis Math Forumulas Cheat SheetThe third link above is an article by Mike McGarry. In general, I would recommend reading anything by Mike about math on any of our blogs. (He writes math content for the Magoosh GRE, GMAT, and SAT/ACT blogs too.) Mike has also done quite a few video lessons that can help you improve your math pacing and performance. You can view these if you subscribe to Magoosh’s Praxis Core Prep services.
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Hello
I have one question I just took the Praxis 5372 and my unofficial score was 156 and I needed 154. Is there any chance I should worry?
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David Recine
Until you get your official score, you can always find some reason to worry…. but I wouldn’t worry very much in this case. 😉 The Special Education BD/ED sometimes does have slight adjustments between the unofficial score and official score. But when adjustments are made, the change is usually only -13 points. And adjustments nearly always shift your score upwards, not downwards.
So you’re probably OK here. If you get time, come back here and let us know what your official score ultimately was.
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Jay
I recently took the praxis 1 core writing. I’m in NJ where the passing score is 162. The first time I took it my raw scores were 21 out of 34 and 14 out of 24(essays). I figured I’d retake the test and I got the exact same raw scores but my overall summary score was a 158. How is this possible? I’m questioning the validity of this test.
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Jay
Sorry forgot to mention my first score was a 160.
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David Recine
Hi Jay,
It is possible to have the same raw scores but different official scores for Writing, because the Praxis can make a number of different possible score adjustments for essays. Your situation does sound unusual though— and frustrating! It may be worth your while to contact the Praxis and request a score review for your essays.
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John
David,
Thank you so much for this information! It has been very helpful! I just took my General Science Praxis II exam and received an unofficial score of 155. The passing score is 152. I’m nervous to see this number go down below 152! Is this a common thing? I’ve already taken this exam 4 times and last time I missed the passing mark by 3 points!
Thank you!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi John,
The only evidence we have is very anecdotal, but as hard as it is, you will need to wait and see the final scores. The unofficial score could be off by more than 3 points, but I would feel fairly confident in your unofficial 155 to get you where you need to go. Patience will see you through, and I hope you get the passing score you need! 🙂
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David Recine
I’d add to our test prep expert’s reassuring words by saying that scores are usually adjusted up and not down (again based on our anecdotal evidence here at Magoosh). Worry if you must, John… But don’t worry too much. 😉
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Jennifer
Hello. I just took Educational Leadership Test 5411 and my unofficial score popped up as 154. In Pennsylvania you need a 143 to pass. Will 154 most likely be my official score?? Help.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Jennifer,
While we can’t guarantee your official score will be 154, I would be very surprised if it dropped below that 143 you need, so you should feel quite confidence that you’ve passed! 🙂
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Alise Cremonini
Hey David,
I’ve scoured the Internet in search of an answer to the following question–I’m hoping that perhaps you have some insight! So I just took the Praxis Core Math 5732 and received a ‘144’ on-screen after submitting my answers. No other information was given. The last time I took the test, I received a ‘130’ on-screen and in my official score report, learned that only 50 (of the 56) questions had counted. Officially, I earned 24 points out of the total 50 questions counted. I recently learned that on some versions of the test, ETS poses 6 ‘pretest’ questions that supposedly ‘do not count’ toward a given score. What I’m wondering is; if the test version I just took also included 6 pretest questions, were these 6 questions still counted in the test center’s calculation of my ‘144’ unofficial score? It doesn’t seem fair that a pretest question that was answered correctly would simply not count, especially if it would help the test taker’s official score. If I got two pretest probability questions correct for example, will those questions simply not count in the overall calculation? I guess my main question is–if my test version did include the 6 pretest questions–would my score of 144 have been calculated off of total correct/56, or total correct/50?
Thank you in advance for your help!
-Ali
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David Recine
Apologies Ali,
For some reason I wasn’t able to spot this first comment, and I accidentally answered your second comment before getting to this one. You raise a good point. Actually, your pretest questions DON’T count toward the raw score you see in the test center. So your raw score should line up closely with your official score in most cases. Both the raw and official take the pretest questions out of the equation. See my reply to your second comment for thoughts on other reasons for the discrepancy in raw and scaled scores that you’re seeing.
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Alise Cremonini
Hi David,
One more question I just thought about–upon looking at the score report from my first go at the Praxis Core Math, I received 24/50 raw points, yet only a 130 scaled score. If 24/50 = .48, how is it that the scaled score is so incredibly low in comparison? If (as someone said in an earlier comment) theoretically a 28/50 raw points translates roughly to a score of 150, is there any possible way my first test was scored incorrectly? I can’t wait to receive the official scores of my second test (144 score) and to compare my two sets of scores, because none of this is making sense to me!
Thank you again in advance for your help,
Alise
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David Recine
Alise,
I agree, this does sound strange. One thing I can tell you is that certain questions on the Praxis can be counted as having more than one answer. Most obviously, this can happen when you actually select more than one correct answer. But on Core Math, it can also happen with questions that test multiple math principles or require you to complete particularly complex multistep operations. If you missed a lot of these questions, your scaled score could be a lot lower than your raw score would suggest.
Still, this is— as I said– strange. Very frustratingly, Praxis doesn’t have an official process for appealing scores or requesting rescores on exams that are 100% multiple choice/selected response. But you may want to contact Praxis Customer service and ask them if they can tell you why your raw score and your official score were so off. If you can, come back to the comments field and let us know what your official scores on Core Math ultimately are!
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Kate Shamburg
Hello- I just took the Elementary Education Multiple Subjects Test (5001). If I did not pass one of the subjects, do I need to take the whole core battery test again, or may I take the subject subtest only? Thank you. I cannot find this information on the Praxis website.
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David Recine
You can retake the subtests individually. Just remember that the 21 day rule for retakes will still apply. If you want to retake just one part of Praxis 5001, you’ll need to do the retake at least 3 weeks after you initially took the whole Elementary Education Multiple Subjects test.
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Jason
Hello,
I took English Content Knowledge (5038) on August 1st. I can’t remember what the actual testing window was for that particular test. I am waiting for my scores to be reported and need to know the approximate date.
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David Recine
If you can’t recall your testing window, Praxis customer service can look it up for you— they’re really customer friendly when it comes to the timelines for receiving scores.
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Betty
I recently took the praxis ll Ed of Young Children 2 times; 157/160 and 151/160. I studied more on the categories I scored low in–so the second time around I went up in the low scoring category but dropped in the high scoring category. Can I use composite scoring by comprising my highest scores from each category?
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David Recine
You probably can’t do composite scoring in this way, as most states strictly look at the scoring on a single exam. However, every state has different rules. It couldn’t hurt to check with your state’s licensing board– or with an academic adviser– to see if composite scores could be accepted.
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Em
Hi David! I am taking the 5018 Elementary Core Knowlege test tomorrow and purchased the Praxis Practice exam. Do you know if there’s any way to convert the scores that I got on that to have some idea of where I stand? There were 140 questions and I answered 102 correctly.
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David Recine
Sorry I didn’t get to this before you took the exam. But it’s still a good question, and hopefully my slightly late answer can still be of use to you. Yes, there is a way to convert your practice test scores. Take the percentage of questions you got right and add 100. 102/140 = 73%. That’s like getting roughly a 173 on the real exam.
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Kim
Hi David, I have taken the Praxis ii 5018 several times now. I need to pull up my social studies and science grade in order to pass. I’m currently using mimetic flash cards to study. Is there other material you would recommend to bring my scores up? I need 16 more points to pass. I take it the first of October.
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David Recine
I can tellyou that there are some pretty good flashcards on Quizlet. These are created by Quizlet users— often other Praxis elementary content preppers. So the quality varies. But like I said, most of them are pretty good. Here’s a set I especially like. And here’s a Google custom search of the whole Quizlet website that you may find helpful.
Also, if you haven’t checked out ETS’s interactive practice test for Praxis 5018: Elementary Content Knowledge, I strongly recommend it. It does cost $20, but it is– in my opinion– very worth it. It’s a full test with really solid answer explanations. (Be sure to review ETS’s free Elementary Content Knowledge Study Companion too.)
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Esther
I just took the PRAXIS 2 today for Professional School Counseling and scored a 170, I need a 156 in Hawaii to pass. I’m not sure how the whole raw score thing works and am still confused even after reading your article, although it was very informational.
Did I pass?? This is my first time taking it and it was so expensive… I hope I don’t have to take it again.
Thanks!
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David Recine
Yes, you passed! 🙂 To make a long story short, if you take a test with no essay questions, the score you see in the testing center will be the same as your final official score, possibly with an adjustment of 1 or 2 points. You’re in the clear. Congratulations!
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Kendra
I was given a 154 on screen when I finished the 5018 praxis II. Is there a chance my official score could be a 163?
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David Recine
Because the Elementary Education: Content Knowledge Praxis II is 100% selected-response and numeric entry, your score will remain roughly the same at it was in the test center. They may be an adjustment of a point or two for the relative difficulty of some questions, but an increase of 9 points will be pretty much impossible.
Sorry to give you this bad news! 🙁
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Jamie
If I got 82/152 questions and I need a cut score of 152 would I pass?
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David Recine
Assuming that your exam has only 152 selected response questions and no essays, an 82/152, this would put you at about 53% correct answers. 53% corresponds to a 153 on the Praxis. So you should be just over the line. Congratulations! 🙂
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Edith
I just took the middle school math, test 5169, today. Raw score of 177 was on the screen. I tend to panic during tests and felt very uneasy about this. Virginia website says 165 is passing. Have any thoughts about this so I can maybe sleep a bit better this weekend? I appreciate it. Off to study for the next exam now.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Your raw score and your official score will either be exactly the same or very close— plus or minus three points. So with a 177, you’ve comfortably passed Praxis II Middle School Mathematics for the state of Virginia. Congratulations, and rest well this weekend, Edith. 🙂
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Megan
So I’ve now taken the PRAXIS Core Math 3 times and I now have a tutor to help me out. One of the professors at my university said that with the PRAXIS if you don’t know an answer it is better to leave it blank than to answer it incorrectly. Is this true?
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David Recine
It’s never better to leave a Praxis question unanswered. Your professor likely said that because he or she mistakenly assumes the Praxis has a guessing penalty. This is a common misconception– quite a few standardized tests find ways to penalize test-takers for random wrong answers that seem to be guesses. The Praxis doesn’t do that, though. To quote ETS’s recent official Praxis webinar: “remember not to leave any questions unanswered — you will not be penalized for wrong answers, so you should guess even if you are unsure of the correct answer.”
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Sissie
I have taken the Praxis Core Writing numerous times. I can’t seem to get above a 158. I have noticed on the essay section I only have a score of 12 and that’s on ALL the test I have taken. What score do I need on the essay part and how do I better prepare myself?
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David Recine
Hi Sissie,
It’s hard to say exactly what score you need on the essay, since the Praxis doesn’t say exactly what percentage of your score is based on your performance on the essay– it only says that questions on text types, text purposes and text production, combined WITH your two essays, comprises 60% of your final score.
As for how to prepare, what I’d recommend the most is to use the free Praxis Core Writing Study Companion PDF. This online document has extensive essay writing tutorials, including sample responses and scorer commentary. You can find the essay writing support on pages 27-40 of the PDF. Be sure to also check out the Writing Archives right here on the Magoosh Praxis Blog– we’ve created a variety of tutorials and advice pieces for improving your Core Writing Essay scores.
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Way
I just took the Praxis II middle school science test and received an unofficial score of 149. My state requires a 150. Is there a chance this score will be adjusted for difficulty and bump my official score up above the 150 minimum? So nervous to see my unofficial score just one point below the threshold!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Way,
It definitely is possible, but we cannot know for sure until the official report is out. Hang tight, keep up your hope, and good luck! 🙂
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Justine
Did u pass with the one point difference?
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Kaity
I took the Praxis II 5001 tests today
LA – 46
SS – 34
Sci- 36
Insight? I have been reading so much about the raw scores and it is driving me nuts because the score was available to me for the Core. Driving myself a little crazy. I most certainly have to take math over so I will concentrate on that for now.
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David Recine
ETS isn’t very consistent about letting you see your raw score in the testing center, especially for Praxis II. This definitely cna be frustrating. But I’m happy to give you some insight into your raw score right here and now.
To get your raw score, look at the percentage of questions you answered correctly, and add 100. On 5001, Language Arts has 90 questions, and Social Sciences and Science have 50 questions each. So….
LA: 46/90 = .51 = 51% = 151
SS: 34/50 = .68 = 68% = 168
Sci: 36/50 = .72 = 72% = 172Those final 3 digit numbers in my equations would be the scaled scores for individual sections of 5001. Without seeing your Math score for 5001, I can’t be sure about your averaged scaled score for the whole exam. But hopefully this helps.
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Courtney
I just took Fundamental Subjects: Content Knowledge. At the end of the test it showed me the correct number of answers for each area of the test. My total correct answers (it was all multiple choice with only 1 possible answer per question) was 76. The test had 120 questions, which is 63%. In the real world of test taking, that makes me want to vomit, but would that be an unofficial score of 163? I need a 148 to pass….
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David Recine
Hi Courtney– yes, that is a 63%, and yes, that translates into a 163 on the nose. That means you almost certainly passed. ETS seldom adjusts your raw score form the testing center, and when they do, they adjust upwards.
You’re also right that a 63% would be pretty terrible in a standard test in a college course. before you beat yourself up about getting this “low” score on the Praxis, bear in mind that the Praxis is designed very differently than a course exam— the purpose of the test you took is to see that you have a reasonable grasp on a wide variety of subject areas. On any given Praxis II, there will be plenty of questions that virtually no one could get right, and other questions that nobody should be missing. As long as you hit the mark more often than not, you have a decent handle on the content. a 63% on the Fundamental Subjects test is probably equivalent to a B on a “real” test. Not bad!
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Ashley
I just took the Praxis 5511 Fundamental Subjects Content Knowledge for Sped. I did not get my unofficial score at the end, but I did get a raw score of 75 out of 120 questions. I need 148 to pass in North Carolina. I am worried that I didn’t pass. Do you think it is possible that I passed?
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David Recine
I can be pretty much certain that you passed, Ashley. 🙂 And here’s how I can tell. To get your approximate scaled score, you take the percentage of questions you got right and add 100. 75/120 is 62.5%. Rounding up to the nearest percent, we get 63%. 100+62 = 163. This means your scaled score will be 163, give or take a point or two if ETS chooses to make a difficulty based adjustment to your score. (Adjustments don’t always happen, but when they do, they’re very minor.) Way to go! You’ve passed your NC Praxis II!
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Lindsay
Hi! I just took my science praxis 2 exam (5005)… i scored raw points of 13, 11, 12 totaling to 36. I am guessing this is my raw score? There were a total of 50 questions in all! I need a score of 159 to pass. Do you think I passed? I have taken this test about 4 or 5 times and i thought I did very well today but now i’m not sure :/ Looking forward to your response! Thanks!
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David Recine
Yes, that sounds like your 5005 raw score. It also sounds like you did indeed do pretty well. 36/50 is 72%. And 72% corresponds roughly to a scaled score of 172. (To get approximate scaled score, take the percentage of questions you got right, and add 100.) Looks like you passed! Congratulations!
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Katie Smith
Hello! Is it possible to pass with 157 when raw scote is 51 on praxis 2 5001?
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David Recine
That would be a bit short of what you need for a 157, as a 157 requires that you get 57% of the questions right in total. Sorry for the disappointing news, but based on what you’ve told me, you’ll need to retake the 5001 Praxis subject Area Test (Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects)
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Meg
Hi I have a question. This morning I retook my Praxis 2 exams in Reading/LA, Social Studies, and Science. Previously, when I took this the first time last month the scores I received (including the raw) are show below.
SUBJECT RAW SCORES FINAL SCORE
Reading/LA 20 , 20 156
Social Studies 11, 9, 5 137
Science 8, 8, 10 146
However today I only received my raw scores (shown below) and won’t have my actual score until the 31st…It’s driving me crazy because I need to have my scores by November in order to student teach this upcoming semester. 🙁 STRESS X 100
SUBJECT RAW SCORES
Reading/LA 23, 23
Social Studies 16, 9, 7
Science 9, 7, 13
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David Recine
Hi Meg,
Yes, I can definitely see how this would be stressful. The good news is that it takes 10-16 days after a Praxis test to receive your official scores. This means that your official scores may be viewable online through your ETS account, as of this week. If you can’t access your official scores yet, you’ll definitely be able to see them by early next week.
Based on what you’ve told me, Meg, your most recent scores are somewhere between 157 and 160 for Reading/LA, between 158 and 161 for Social Studies, and between 158 and 161 again for science. So you’ve improved across the board. I hope this helps.
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Hi,
John
I just took 5440 (middle school science) score was 110 out of 125 questions all were multiple type question.What does that mean .Did I passed or not .
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David Recine
110 out of 126 means you got 88% correct. This translates into a scaled score of 188. If your state requires 188 or less on the Praxis 5440, it looks like you passed.
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Laura
Hi! I just took the new ESOL 5362 test today and it said my score was 194. It didn’t say raw score or anything. It was out of 120 questions. So is the my total score? I’m a little uncertain because that seems really high to me!
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David Recine
That is a little strange. There are some irregularities in the way that scores display in the test center though. It strikes me though, that this would have to be your scaled raw score. The scaled scores have a range of 100 to 200 that corresponds roughly to the percent of questions you get right. So a 194 likely means you got 94% of the questions right on the ESOL Praxis II. (Impressive!) It also means that your official score will also probably be a 194, give or take a point or two. Congrats.
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Daniel Roueche
Hi David,
I took a practice test for SPED Core Knowledge and Applications (5354). I scored a 102 out of 120 questions. What does this mean for my standardized unofficial score?
Thanks,
Daniel
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David Recine
To get the equivalent official score for a practice Praxis, add 100 to the percentage of questions you got right. 102/120 = 0.85 = 85%. 85 + 100 is 185. So if you perform similarly on test day, you’ll get about a 185 on the Praxis II for SPED.
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DeShawnda
I took the SPED (5354) today and it only gave me the scores:
Development and Characteristics 11
Planning and Learning 13
Instruction 14
Assessment 11
Foundations 12
Did I pass for Mississippi?Reply
David Recine
Let’s look at the figures. There are 120 questions on the Praxis 5354 (Special Education: Core Knowledge and Applications). These questions are divided into five categories. Between the five categories, you got a total of 61 correct (11+13+14+11+12 = 61). 61 out of 120 is a score of 51% (61/120 = 0.51 = 51%). 51 + 100 is 151, so that’s your estimated Praxis II score for 5354.
You need a 152 for Praxis 5354 in Mississippi. So it appears you’re one point short. Here’s the good news, though: sometimes your official score will be adjusted by a point or two, compared to your unofficial or raw score. And when these adjustments happen, the number of points usually increases rather than decreasing. So there’s still a chance you passed, if your score is adjusted upward by even one point.
If you get a chance, come back to the comments and let us know what your final official score was. We’ll all keep our fingers crossed for you!
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DeShawnda McClendon
Thank you so much! My fingers are crossed to. I will let you know as soon as my scores post.
DeShawnda McClendon
You are right, I missed it by 1 point. I’m so disappointed but I’m gonna try again. I also have to take my math core over too.
David Recine
Man, so sorry to hear that, DeShawnda. 🙁 You’re close to the score you need though! Once you’ve passed, let us know. It’s always great to see student success stories here on the blog, and it sounds like you are destined for success, even if it takes another testing session or two.
Rachael A
Hi David, I am a little confused. I got a 39 Raw Score on the 5003 Ele. Literature Praxis II and it showed there were 64 Raw points available; however there were 80 questions. Do i divide the 39/80 or by what is shows the raw points to be 39/64? Those are two completely different outcomes. Can you help?
Thank you!
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David Recine
That’s an interesting question. I’m honestly not quite sure what to make of this. There should never be fewer raw points than there are questions, as each question is worth a minimum of 1 point. So if there are 80 questions and you saw a display of 64 raw points available, it seems to me that number of total raw points displayed on the screen was actually incorrect– maybe due to a computer error(?) I would go with 39/80 for your calculation, but again, I’m not sure how that 64 number factors in, or if it’s a factor at all.
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Anna
Hi David. I really need to know if I passed the praxis or not. I just finished the science subtest for praxis II and for the first time I got raw points for each of the sections. The test consisted of 50 questions and my raw points for all three sections equal 42 points. Since I live in Connecticut, I need a 170 to pass this test. What do my raw points equal? Did I pass? Please help because ETS won’t let me know my actual score until 3 weeks from now. I’m very anxious.
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David Recine
Hi Anna! I’ll be happy to walk you through these calculations and clear up your anxiety. 🙂 To get a 170, you need to get 70% of your questions right. (Your percentage of correct answers plus 100 equals your raw score.) 42/50 = 0.84, or 84%. This is a raw score of 184. Official scores are seldom adjusted from the raw score. In the rare cases where an official score is adjusted, it will only be adjusted by 1-3 points, and will usually be adjusted upward, not down. So you’ve cleared the 170 requirement handily. Way to go, Anna!
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Anna
Best news I got all week. Thank you so much David!!! 🙂
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Andria
I recently took the Praxis L/A 5002 and answered 45/80 correct. I needed a 157 to pass, any chance I made the cut?
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David Recine
Unfortunately, it looks like you are just under the cut. 45/80 = 56%, and your raw score is your percentage correct, plus 100. This amounts to 156. In rare cases, your score can be adjusted upward by a point or two, so there’s at least a small chance you’ll be bumped up to 157 in your official score. But it’s much more likely that you’ll need to retake the Praxis II 5002 (elementary language arts). Sorry for the bad news. 🙁
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I just took the science praxis 5005. There were 50 questions on the test. There were three sections to the test. I got 14,12, and 12. That would be a raw score of 38. With that as a raw score, and I need a 159 to pass, would that be enough points to pass?
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David Recine
That should be a passing score, yes. 🙂 28 is 76% of 60. Your percentage plus 100 (76+100=176) is your raw score; 176 also your likely official score, since official scores are seldom changed from the initial raw score.
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Ricky
Hello! I took the Praxis multiple subjects (5001) on Thursday. I felt good about the test and have all of my raw scores for each of the 4 content areas, but am not sure how to arrive at whether I have passed/failed each of the subjects that are scored individually. A 157 is required in the state of Colorado, and my lowest percentage in any of the 4 areas was a 64%. Should I add 100 to my 64% to arrive at a passing 164? or do I multiply my .64 by 200 to arrive at a 127, which would be failing? I’d appreciate any and all help in figuring this out!
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David Recine
Good news: your first, more optimistic formula was the correct one. You add your percentage correct to 100 to get your likely score. If your lowest score was a 64, then you’ll get more than 164 on the exam as a whole, and you should be in the clear.
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HKS
Hi,
I just finished taking my Praxis Core Math (5732) this morning. This was my third time. I did awful the first two times. My unofficial score was 136. Based on the fact that my unofficial scores for the other two tries didn’t differ from my official scores, I doubt I passed this time around. My passing score needs to be 150. I was 14 points shy. I don’t know if I will ever pass this test. Is there any chance I could be wrong and the score is different? I doubt it. Figured I’d ask though.
I don’t know why I need to take it considering my concentration is in literature not in mathematics.
I know that it’s best if you finish the exam. This was the first time I got to finish all questions. It’s best not skip questions either. I think I skipped a couple though.
This is just so frustrating. I have to take it again because I need to pass. I can only work even harder to ensure I pass the fourth time around. Especially since it costs $90.
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David Recine
I’m sorry to hear you’re facing these challenges with Praxis Core Math. As someone who also had to take Core Math to get an English Language Arts certificate, I can certainly sympathize.”
The bad news is that it’s very likely you score will remain the same as your unofficial 136 score this time around too!
The good news is that this exam is beatable, even for non-math-people like us. It sounds like your’e working hard and are on the right track. If you need any specific math skills advice, don’t hesitate to ask us right here on the blog. (And check out our blog’s Praxis Core Math archive if you haven’t done so already.)
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Emma
I’m going to take praxis core math for the FIFTH time tomorrow. The last time I took the test I went from a 118 to 136. I’m hoping and wishing and praying I can make it to 150 that is all I ask. If I don’t pass my graduation date gets pushed up a year because in my university you have to complete core before you move on with the education program. Thanks for all the tips on your website and the comments section has been helpful.
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David Recine
Thank you for your kind words as well, Emma. We’ll all be pulling for you. Let us know how it goes!
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Jan
I am taking the school counseling praxis in Dec and I need 151 for the state of Alabama. The test has 120 questions. What do I need a raw score of to pass? Would it be 61?
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David Recine
61 will likely be passing, yes. But you can’t be 100% sure you passed with a 61. Sometimes individual questions are worth more than 1 point, and sometimes they’re worth just one. So a 61 could be slightly below that 51%/151 mark if you missed a lot of “weightier” questions. The higher you get above 61, the more sure you can be that you passed.
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Steph
HI,
I recently took the Praxis 5001 series. I was given raw scores but I received a “NS” for my scaled score. Is there any chance you have some type of conversion from raw scores to scaled scores for these tests. I feel as though I am teetering between passing and failing. Also, does a scaled score mean a curved score in a round about way?
Thank you!
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David Recine
There is indeed a system for converting raw scores to scaled scores…. And it’s a simpler system then you think. To convert your raw score to a scaled score, calculate the percentage of questions you answered correctly (# of correct questions divided by total number of questions) and add 100. That’s your scaled score. So if you got– say– 81% of your answers right on Praxis 5001, that means you have a scaled score of 181.
Scaled score doesn’t mean curved score. It simply refers to you score as it will appear in the Praxis’s 100-200 point scale that is used on official score reports. Curving and adjusting of scores on Praxis 5001 is pretty uncommon, although there is a chance your score could be adjusted by 1 to 3 points. When such adjustments are made, the score usually goes up and not down.
So calculate the percentage right on your raw score and see what you got. Hopefully it’s good news!
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Lindsay Paris
Hi! I posted a few weeks ago! I was wondering when I will receive my praxis scores! I read the approx days but I took my tests Oct 3 and 5 and it’s now the 24th :/ How much longer will it be until I hear back? It’s driving me crazy I check my email every 5 minutes lol
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David Recine
Yes, you should have access to your Praxis scores by now. Sometimes ETS will post your scores to your Praxis Account, but doesn’t send you email notification. Have you tried logging in to your Praxis account to see if your scores are viewable that way? If not, then I’d say log in and check right away.
But if you have checked for scores in your Praxis account and they’re not in there either, then you should probably contact Praxis customer support and ask them what’s causing the delay.
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Summer
Hi David,
I just received my official test scores online for the Math and Reading but my score for the Writing portion still isn’t up. Does the Writing official score take longer than the 10-15 days?
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David Recine
Hi Summer,
Yes, the Core Writing results take a little longer. This is because they include “constructed response” questions. (This means essay questions.) Essay questions are graded by people rather than machines, so it takes an average of 15-16 days for your overall Core Writing score to come in. I’ve even heard of it taking 17 or 18 days. If you get to the 20 day mark but still have no results though, then you may want to contact Praxis customer service and see if there’s a problem.
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May
I took the math praxis today for the third time – very frustrating – and it was definitely harder than in the past. At the end, I did not get my score as I did in earlier tests. It said “no score – needs to be reviewed.” What can that mean, especially since they did post my raw score?. Thanks.
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David Recine
Hi May,
I looked into this. It turns out this error message doesn’t mean anything bad. It just means that– for one reason or another– the computer filed to calculate your unofficial score immediately at the end of your testing session. When this happens, your score still gets calculated after you leave the test center. Even though the computer didn’t properly convert your raw score on the spot, you should still be able to make a raw-to-unofficial score conversion on your own. Just calculate the percentage of quesitons you got right and add 100. That’s your estimated unofficial score! 🙂
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Hi. I took my Social Studies Praxis 5004 test for the 4th time today! I had my best results ever but did not get a pass or fail. My raw scores were 15, 11 and 8. I need to pass by 12/15 to be able to student teach in January 2017. Do you think this converts to a total score of 155 passing grade? Help I’m desperate. I’ve passed all my other Praxis months ago and feel extremely frustrated. Thank you so much!!
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David Recine
This does sound like a frustrating situation. But I’l be glad to help you get some clarity on your latest score. To understand what the three 15, 11, and 8 figures mean on your Praxis 5004 exam, you need to be aware of the three subcategories of questions on the 5004 test. Social Studies Praxis 5004 has a total of 55 questions. Subcategory 1 (U.S. History, Government and Citizenship) has 25 questions. There are 16 questions in Subcategory 2 (Geography, Anthropology and Sociology). The remaining 14 questions are in Subcategory 3 (World History and Economics). (This info can be found on page 13 of the Praxis Elementary Education Multiple Subjects Study Companion.)
So your 3 raw scores for the subcategories, added together, are the total number of answers you got right out of the 50 questions on Praxis 5004. 15+11+8 = 34. You got 34 out of 50 right on the Social Studies test. 34/50 = 68% right. To get your actual scaled Praxis score for the Praxis 5004, you then take the percentage of answers you got right and add 100. 68 + 100 = 168. So your 68% score means you earned a 168 on Praxis 5004. Congratulations! You finally passed! 🙂
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Mary
I just took the School Psychology Praxis exam and got a 77 raw score on a 140 question exam. I need a 147 official score to pass. I did not receive this score yet. Is it likely I passed?
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David Recine
77 out of 140 means that 55% of your answers were correct. You get your scaled score by taking the percentage of correct answers and adding 100. So 77/140 = 55% = 155 scaled score. It’s VERY likely that you passed. 🙂
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Lindsay Paris
Hi! I’m sorry for all the questions! This morning I just took my Praxis II Social Studies exam for the 11th time. I am super frustrated as to why I can’t pass this test. My raw scores were 13, 11, and 8 totaling to a raw score of 32 (which is about 58%). On my highest scoring SS exam (taken last april) my raw score was 12, 11, and 9 which also totals to 32. I received a 152 for that exam and I need a 155. Do you think I have ANY chance at passing the exam I just took?!
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Ginger Dixon
I took the Praxis Core Math and got this message from ets-Please contact ETS at 1-800-750-6991 to obtain information on your delayed score report.When calling, inform the customer service representative that your Praxis scores are not available to access on your account. I’m nervous. What does this mean?
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David Recine
That definitely is a scary sounding message. This could mean just about anything, though, so don’t try to overthink it. There could be a computer error, or an inability to verify the identification you gave in the test center.
In rare cases, people also can get this message if they’re suspected of cheating. But even then, don’t let yourself worry too much. Cheating allegations can often be cleared up with a phone call, and in the unlikely event that the Praxis suspects someone of cheating, they don’t actually put that on a score report or announce their suspicions to anyone.
Worst case scenario, you’ll need to retake the exam. The best case scenario– and the most likely scenario– is that ETS just needs a little extra information from you before they can process and release your scores.
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Lindsay Paris
Adding on to my last question… i just found out that my friend scored a 155 (passing score) with a raw score of 29. I don’t understand why i didn’t pass the other one 🙁 I hope this one will be different :/
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Tonya
Good Morning,
So I took the Praxis (5001) on November 1st and received these following scores,
Language Arts: 18, 25
Social Studies: 13, 10, 8
Math: 6, 5, 6
Science: 5, 6, 5
What do these scores mean? Did I pass or fail any of the content areas?
Thank you in advance for your help.
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Lindsay Paris
Those numbers are your raw scores. If you add them up for each section, that’s how many questions you got correct. Based on my test results, you might have passed LA and SS. You’re going to have to retake math and science. My friend passed with a total of 29 points for social studies. I scored a 32 last april and didn’t pass, but I just took the test again yesterday and I have to wait and see. Do you know what scaled score you have to pass? For example in NJ you need a 157 for LA and Math, 155 for social studies and 159 for science.
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tonya0503
Hi there Linda,
Thank you for responding. I am new to teaching / praxis.. So when you say “scaled score” I’m a bit confused.
All I know is that for;
LA and S/S I need 157…
Science, 159…
Math, 155…When I calculated LA according to the help I received here, my score was 154 and I needed 157.. However, at the end of the test, I also saw NS meaning “No Score”…. So I’m hoping that I did in fact passed LA and S/S… Math and Science are my weaker subjects, so I know I have to retake them.
This waiting game is driving me nuts. I’ve already started studying for the retest.
I’m surprised that you didn’t pass with a 32 in S/S.. Because my score was only 31. This praxis is crazy.. So many variations.. Questions can range from anything under the sun..
So it’s like, not how much you know.. But more of how many questions you can pick quickly before time runs out. If we sat there and tried to figure out each question, we’ll be there all day.. Well at least me… Lolol..
Good luck this time around. Let me know how you did.
Thx again,
Tonya
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David Recine
To both Lindsay and Tonya, thanks for sharing your experiences here. Very illuminating… and also confusing and frustrating at times. Praxis doesn’t seem to have a universal way of generating that initial score report at the end of the test. Some people get unofficial score reports that are very straightforward, while others get ones that are incomplete and confusing.
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David Recine
Also, a scaled score is a score measured on the special scale/range used on a test’s official score report. for the Praxis, scaled scores normally range form 100 to 200. You can calculate your Praxis scaled score by taking the percentage of answers you got right and adding 100. A 50% on a Praxis test is a scaled score of 150, a 75% is a scaled score of 175, and so on.
Tonya
I just saw your response to my question from last night.. SO no need to respond to this .. thank you, I would erase it, but I don’t know how to.
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Zachery M Mitchell
Hello!
So I just took the Praxis chemistry core content knowledge for the second time. The numbers that I received do not add up or make much sense. The test was out of 125 both times. The first time I took it when I got my official scores back it said the number of questions was only 100 when broken down by specific areas and the number of correct responses in those areas in total added up to 49. So assuming I got 49 correct like the report said wouldn’t that score be somewhere around 149-150? Even if I divide 125 by 49 i get like 39% (which is terrible I know) but, wouldn’t that still at least be a 139? My final score was a 129 the first time which blew my mind. I just got done taking it again and it said my raw score was a 133. To pass in my state its a 135. It just seems weird to me that the numbers aren’t adding up. I also took the bio content knowledge and passed with a 150 when I only answered 61/150 questions correct when broken down by subject area. A little clarification would be great!
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David Recine
It sounds like you’re referring to Praxis 5425 (Chemistry: Content Knowledge).
I’m also pretty confused by the numbers you were given. I clearly see 125 questions listed on page 5 of the Praxis 5425 Study Companion. And there’s no way a breakdown of questions would reduce the number of total questions. The questions do break down to 100%, of course. Maybe that’s where the 100 number came from?
You’re right that, at face value, 49/125 should be about 139 on the Praxis. Most Praxis II tests have a few questions that are worth more than one point. If you missed all of the multiple point questions, then you might get as low as a 29%/129, so that’s one possibility. This is really hard to say though. One of the frustrating things about the Praxis is that the reports they give on test day can really vary, and sometimes contain incomplete or oddly formatted information.
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Julia
David,
Hello! I am taking test 5025 and I was wondering if this calculation applies to this test as well? Also, if you skip a question does that count against you? I failed this test once before by one point and I think it was because I filled in a few questions I wasn’t too sure about and I’m thinking now I should have just skipped them. What should you do in that situation? Thanks for the help!
Julia
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Julia
never mind! I just read a post from September and found my answer! thank you!
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David Recine
Hi Julia,
Yes, Praxis 5025: Early Childhood Education follows the same formula as any other Praxis exam that’s 100% selected response. Take the percentage of questions you got right, add 100, and you have your approximate official score.
And no, the Praxis doesn’t have a “guessing penalty”. On any Praxis test, you lose just one point whether you leave an answer blank or give an incorrect response. So it never hurts to guess on questions you’re not sure about. If you guess correctly, you get the point. If you guess wrong, it’s no worse for you then leaving the answer blank.
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Keeley
Hi David!
I just took my Praxis yesterday in Special Education 5354. I had to take a mental picture of the questions that I got correct and couldn’t remember the actual section that the numbers were under.
The test actually consisted of:
Development and Characteristics of Learners: 20
Planning and the Learning Environment: 27
Instruction: 27
Assessment: 22
Foundations and Professional Responsibilities: 24
I do not know the sections I got these numbers in, but I know my numbers were:
14
19
17
13
11
If that is the case it would be 74/120 = 61%
Would that make my Praxis score a 161?
I needed a 152 to pass.
Best wishes,
Keeley
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David Recine
You’ve calculated correctly, Keeley! (Except that 74/120 might actually round up to 162, which is even better.) Your final official score should clear 152 quite comfortably. Congratulations. 🙂
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Cassidy
I just took the reading specialist 5301 Praxis. As I was proofreading my final written response, the test timed out before I hit “continue/submit/next”. I was still reading. Will the text I typed be submitted or do you have to hit the button to submit?
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David Recine
Hi Cassidy,
To my knowledge, your response is still saved, even if you don’t hit “submit” before the exam times out; this actually happened to me on Core Writing a few years ago and I still scored well, so I assume that my essay was saved. I also know that most other ETS tests will save your work even if the test times out while you’re in mid keystroke. If you want to be 100% sure that you’re OK, though, I recommend email [emailprotected] and explaining the situation to them. If you use that email, you can get in contact with a Praxis support rep who can confirm whether or not your essay would have been lost on that exam under those circ*mstances.
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Anderson
David l recently took my Praxis ll test for history in Alabama. The required passing
score is 143. I had a raw score of 169. Does it seem like l may have passed? Thx
Clint
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David Recine
Your raw score will either be the same as your official score, or very close too it. So it looks like you passed with flying colors, Clint. 🙂 Way to go!
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Shermaneice
I just took my Praxis yesterday in Health Education 5551. I had to take a mental picture of the questions that I got correct and couldn’t remember the actual section that the numbers were under.
The test actually consisted of:
Health Education As Discipline : 20
Heath Promotion and Prevention Of Injury and Disease : 36
Health relationships and Mental and Emotinal Health: 36
Community Heath and Advocacy : 14
Health Education of Pedagogy: 14
I do not know the sections I got these numbers in, but I know my numbers were:
13
16
20
7
6
If that is the case it would be 62/120 = 51
Would that make my Praxis score a 151?
I needed a 149 to pass.
Best wishes,
Shermaneice
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David Recine
Those calculations do look correct, Shermaneice (and actually round up to 152). Nice work! 🙂
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Kash
Hey David I took the praxis core math which has 56 questions. my raw score was as follows 10,8,2,6 =26 and the available raw points were 15,15,10,10=50 if you divid those totals it would give me 52% why did my official score say 140 and not 152 if it based on the % correct ?
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David Recine
That is very confusing. I’m honestly not sure where the 140 came from, because even 26/56 is higher than 140 (it’s 46%). Sometimes there are irregularities in the way your score report displays in the testing center. And these irregularities can actually be quite unpredictable and difficult to account for. In this situation, I’d actually recommend contacting Praxis customer service and asking them if they can clarify your initial unofficial score report.
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Shermaneice
It also had a 140 on the scree David. So I’m a little confused though. Can you try to explain what could have happen. I don’t know if that was my actually score.
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Bridget
Good morning David! I am new to this thread could you please tell me how to score the praxis writing exam?
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Bridget
writing exams based on MS scores.
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David Recine
I assume you mean Praxis Core Writing. Unfortunately with Praxis Core Writing, you can’t know your score just based on the preliminary score report you get at the end of your testing session. This is because Core Writing includes constructed response questions, in the form of two essays. These questions can’t be scored instantly in the test center, Instead, they have to to be sent to actual human scorers who give you a score using a rubric. Your essay grades are a huge factor in your final Core Writing score. As a result, you can’t know your Praxis Core Writing score until you get your official scores, 2 to 3 weeks after the test.
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Molly
Hi,
I just took the praxis core last week and at the end I got my reading and math scores right away on the computer. It said I got a 156 for the math. I literally cried when I realized I passed because math has been a huge challenge for me in life. Well, today my official scores are up and my score for math has been changed to 142. I’m shocked it’s so much lower than what was given To me on the computer. Could this be a mistake? I feel so cheated.
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David Recine
That is very strange, and I’m very sorry to hear you’re going through this. It’s very rare for the Praxis to make a mistake like this. But if your in-test-center score report says 156 and your actual final Praxis Core Math score is 14 points lower, it seems possible that there could be a mistake. The real issue is whether the 156 score is a mistake or the 142 score is a mistake.
This is a strange enough case that I would advise actually contacting Praxis customer service, possibly even by phone. Do you have a printout of the unofficial scores you got on test day? That will probably be pretty important to launching an investigation.
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Quinn
Okay I took the 5002 Reading and Language Arts praxis exam on November 3rd and waiting to get my real score on November 28th. When I finished the test I saw I had a raw score of 22 in Reading and 24 for Language Arts. Based on that I scored 47/80 and if I divide that I get 0.575. For New Jersey I need to score 157 to pass and really nervous cause in Clinical 1 student teaching now and this is the only section I have not passed and need to pass this time in order to finish my student teaching. Will this score be good enough to pass the New Jersey state requirement score of 157? Cause I know this means I scored a 157.5 on the test.
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David Recine
Wow, that really is quite close to the cutoff. In rare instances, your official Praxis score may go down a few points from your unofficial Praxis score. However, more often than not your official score will be the same as your raw score, or will be 1-3 points higher. So you’re probably in the clear. But if you get a chance, come back here and let us know what your official scores were, once you see them. Until then, good luck, Quinn!
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Thomas
Hi—I am planning to take the Grades 4-8 Pennsylvania Core Assessment – Praxis #’s 5153, 5154, 5155 – Pedagogy, English/Language Arts & Social Studies, and Math/Science. I would need a 162 for the Pedagogy, a 152 for English/Language Arts, and a 164 for Math/Science. Do you know approximately how many questions I would need to get correct in each area to pass. Thanks for your time
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David Recine
Hi Thomas,
Since your score is the percentage of questions you got right, plus 100, you’ll need to get at least 62% correct in Pedagogy, at least 52% correct in English/Language Arts, and at least 64% correct in Math/Science.
Each subtest in Praxis 5152 has 70 questions. So this means getting at least 44/70 correct in Pedagogy, at least a 37/70 in English/Language Arts, and at least a 45/70 in Math/Science. These are just the minimum scores at which it’s possible to pass, though. Final official scores can sometimes be adjusted downward by a few points. So to have a sure chance at passing, you’ll want to aim as high above those minimums as possible.
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Jennifer
Hello! I was reading through the comments to figure out how I might estimate a scaled score for my practice Praxis II Art Content Knowledge exam (5134). I’m assuming it’s similar to many of the other exams, where 100 is added to the percentage of questions answered correctly. In my case, I scored a 90/120= 75%, which converts to a 175. I believe I need a 158 to pass, which is reassuring. My main concern is that I’m unsure of how some questions are weighted, as there were a handful of questions that required multiple selected responses, i.e. “select all that apply.” Do you think my calculations are an accurate representation of test readiness? Thanks!
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David Recine
Hi Jennifer. I see you’ve really done your homework. 🙂 The weight of particular questions is tricky. Obviously multiple selected response questions will have a greater weight. But how much greater weight is hard to say, and it’s also sometimes possible for single-answer questions to be weighted differently. Ultimately, the Praxis isn’t all that transparent on this.
Fortunately, you’re well enough above the minimum percentage you’d need. So even with some unpredictable question “weights,” it’s highly likely that you’ve passed.
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JR
HI, I took the social studies and the science multiple subjects tests (part of the 5001 series) and received a 30/55 in social studies and a 32/50 in science. Those are my raw scores. I’m not sure if any of those test questions didn’t count or if they all counted. In my state, I need a 155 to pass social studies and a 159 to pass science. Do I have a chance?
Thanks!
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David Recine
It’s always hard to be sure that all of the test questions will be counted. But what I can tell you is that the Praxis is more likely to count all questions than not.
So for the purposes of estimating your final official score, we’ll treat these exams as if every question counted. A 30/55 score equals 54.5% correct.
This *might* be rounded up to a 155, but if it’s adjusted even slightly downward, you’ll be at least 1 point short of the score you need. Sorry for the potentially bad news– there’s still at least some chance this will count as a 155, but certainly no guarantee.
Now here’s the good news: a 32/50 is a 65%, which translates into a scaled score of 164. So you’re almost certainly in the clear for Science 5001! 🙂
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Lindsay
i received a 32 also for social studies and needed a 155. i scored 32 back in may and got 152/155 but last month i scored 32 and got 151/155. i’m so over this. i’ve taken it 10-11 times. my friend got 29 and passed with 155.
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Sarah Thornton
I am needing to take the middle school science praxis. It contains 125 selected response questions. I need to make a score of 150 to pass. How many questions do I need to get right in order to make a 150?
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David Recine
Your scaled score is the percentage number for the questions you got right, plus 100. Since 125 is an odd number, you’ll need to get more than half of the questions right in order to go over 150. Specifically, you’ll need to get at least 63 questions right to get a 150. (63/125 = 0.504 = 50.4% = 150 scaled score.)
However, there’s also always a possibility that your score could be adjusted by a few points before the official score is given. So it’s better to aim for at least a 153 or higher (63/125). That way, you’ll safely exceed a raw score of 150, and hopefully be able to make a 150 if your score is adjusted downward.
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Lindsay
Why can’t I pass my Praxis II 5004 Social Studies exam? I am beyond frustrated and upset. My last score was a 151 and my highest (back in may) was 152. I need a 155 to pass and I have taken the exam about 10 or so times. Do you have any tips on what I could study with? I’m about to be out another semester because of this exam 🙁 My family is so disappointed in me.
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David Recine
The pain of failing a Praxis test! 🙁 It’s sad to hear you’re going through this, Lindsay. The first resources I recommend for any Praxis are the official study companion PDF and the official web-based practice exam. The study companion for Praxis 5004 (Elementary Education: Social Studies) is actually a section within the big, 84-page study companion for the whole Praxis 5001 set of subtests. The Praxis 5001 (Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects) Study Companion is available for free on the ETS website. Study material and practice questions for Social Studies can be found within that PDF, along with Language Arts, Science, and Math prep.
There are also two full practice official tests available for Social Studies (5004). You can purchase either test individually for about $20, and you can get both tests in a two-for-one deal priced at around $31.
So check out those official resources if you haven’t done so already. Also, take a good look at your previous score reports. The Social Studies 5004 subtest has three subsections: United States History, Government, & Citizenship; Geography, Anthropology and Sociology; and World History and Economics. Your previous score report should show you how many answers you got right in each individual subsection. Seeing how you do in specific aspects of Social Studies can help you isolate your mistakes on the exam, so that you know which skills need to be improved the most.
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Sausha
Hello,
Looking through all of the comments I tried to find an answer but failed. I recently took the Early Childhood PLT exam and missed by one point. I am merely curious if it is worth my time and/or money to have it re-evaluated. I have, in the past, used this option when I missed by 1 point on the writing core but received a letter stating that the score remained the same. Also, how does the retake process work? Do I have 21 days from the receiving of my score or from the date of examination? Do I have to repay and get refunded? Any information on this process is greatly appreciated but my main interest pertains to the possibility of my PLT score changing. Thank you!
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David Recine
I’m sorry to hear you fell short of your PLT score requirement by just one point. That certainly sounds frustrating! 🙁
We really do have a long involved discussion going on here in the comments, and you’re right– this question of yours adds something completely new to the dialogue. Let’s get some answers to your important questions….
First, you want to know whether it’s worth your time and money to get the essay portion of your PLT reviewed. As you probably already know, score review costs 65 dollars and can take up to a month to complete (for other readers, you can find details on this in my post on what to do when you failed the Praxis). As you probably also already know, there’s a chance your score won’t change.
This is a tough call. If you want my advice, I’d say that it is worth the extra $65 to request a rescore, especially because all you need it one extra point to pass. If your score improves at all after a score review, you should be pushed to where you need to be.
However, while you’re waiting for your rescore results, I’d also recommend retaking your Praxis PLT. That way, if your rescore doesn’t help you, you’ve still got a chance at scoring better on a retake. And at the same time, if you don’t reach the minimum score on your retake, your previous rescored test might get you there. In other words, by both requesting a rescore and retaking the Praxis PLT, you increase your chances of success, because you’re trying to get your target score by two different methods.
As for when you can retake the Praxis, you can retake it 21 days after your actual previous test day. You don’t need to wait until 21 days after you receive the actual scores. So you can easily retake your PLT while you wait for your scores from the previous exam to be reviewed. The bad news is that you will need to pay a whole new, full testing fee. And you don’t get refunded on your fee from the previous test.
Does all this make sense/ You’ve asked some pretty involved questions here. So if you still have any doubts, just let me know.
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Ronie
My daughter took the Science section (5005) of the Praxis today. She scored 10, 9, 12, 153. 10 + 9 + 12 = 31 which is 62% – her score should be 162, correct? What is the “153” score that was on her test? Will her actual score be 162 or 153? We live in Alabama, where only a score of 144 is needed to pass.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Ronie,
62% does not mean she should get a 162. The scaled score is not quite as simple as adding 100 to the percentage. If she was shown a 153, that is the estimated scaled score, but it won’t be official until the results are released. Either way, it sounds like she has definitely exceeded the necessary 144, so congratulations! 🙂
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Shannon
Hi. I took the school psychology praxis (5402) today and my unofficial total score was 171, and my raw score was 90. I need a 147 to pass this test. Is there anyway that I should be worries about my unofficial total score dropping below 147 when I get my official score?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Shannon,
In the majority of cases, there is no difference from unofficial and official scores. And, if there are differences, it’s typically minimal. It is definitely not common for your unofficial total score to change that drastically, and I would be surprised. So, I would not worry too much! I would relax and wait for the official scores to be released. 🙂
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Erica
Hi, I just took Praxis Art Content Knowledge 5134 this week. My raw score shows 53 and 37 from two different areas. The test is 120 multiple choice questions. I need 158 to pass. I am extremely anxious about the result. They said that the result wont be available until the end of December. Do you think that I will pass? Thank you.
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David Recine
I really do think you’ve passed, Erica. 🙂 53 + 37 combined gives you a raw score of 90 our of 120 for the test. 90/120 = 0.75. 0.75 is equivalent to 75%. To get an estimate of your final Praxis score, take the percentage number of raw points you got, and add 100. 75 + 100 is 175, so that’s your estimated score. Now, it is true that official scores can change slightly from the estimated scores. But official scores are still only adjusted by a few points. So you should be in the clear. Congratulations!
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Richard
Hi all. Happy I found this site. Recently took the Praxis 2 Biology (computer-based). At the end of the test it shows a score of *176. I must admit I didn’t read the entire page, so wanted to know what this was. What does the asterisk (*) signify and is my score?
Thank you.
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David Recine
Hi Richard,
Glad the Magoosh Praxis Blog has been helpful for you. 🙂 Based on what you’ve told me, the 176 is almost certainly your unofficial score. Your official score will likely be the same or almost the same. Sometimes official scores are adjusted by a few points.
I can’t tell you for sure what the asterisk means. But it probably signifies that 176 is only your unofficial score, and that your true official score may change slightly.
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Rebecca
Hi David,
I took 5134 Art Content Knowledge test today. I made 72 correct out of 120. That is 60% I believe. Does that means I scored 160?
And, would the official adjustments lower my score? I need 158
Please help. Thank you
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David Recine
That is an even 60%, and yes, that does mean you have an unofficial scaled score of 160. You’re also right that official adjustments can lower your score. However, official adjustments usually slightly raise your score rather than making it slightly lower. So there’s a good chance you’ll be able to keep your 160 score. If you have time, do come back here and let me know what your official score turns out to be. And until then, good luck!
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Richard
David,
Thank you. I truly hope so! 🙂
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tonya0503
Good Morning,
Is there another way to calculate the Praxis scores. About a month ago you calculated my Social Studies (5004) raw scores and you mentioned that I had passed, but I actually failed it. I retook it yesterday and got a “score” of 150. I’m so mad because I changed some answers last minute that may have cost me to do better.
Anyhow, my question to you is, with scores of; 19, 6, and 8…. “150. Do you think I passed, or did I fail again?.. My first set of scores were; 13, 10, 8. I’m located in NJ and need 155 to pass.
By YOUR calculations I passed, however, using your calculations the first time around I failed.
I need insight please, I feel like I”m going crazy.
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Sandy G
I’m on the same boat!
These have been my scores28 raw score was 152
24 raw score was 140
26 raw score was 137There just isn’t any logic!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Sandy and Tonya,
So sorry for your bad experiences here, Sandy and Tonya! 🙁 The only raw-to-scaled score that seems somewhat on-point is a 28 equaling 152. A 28 actually equals 154, but minor adjustments for point weight or difficulty could cause a loss of two points on the official score.
But your’e right,t he other scores don’t make sense at all. In theory, it could be that the 24 and 26 represent missed questions with heavier “point weight.” (Questions worth 2+ points instead of 1.)
Unfortunately, there are always some test results and score conversions that do not follow the Praxis exam’s publicly stated system and “logic” for calculating scores. To make things even more frustrating, ETS is much less transparent about their Praxis score system, compared to the openness they have with their other exams such as the TOEFL and GRE. So getting a straight answer on this from Praxis customer service would probably be difficult.
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tonya0503
So… Are you saying I failed Social Studies again?… Forgive me, but I’m still confused by your response… ?
I guess I’ll have to wait and see when I get my official scores because I’ve seen other people mentioned that they passed S/S with a lower score than mine.
I wish this test wasn’t so difficult or has SO MANY variations.
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Sammy
Help!
After taking my Praxis for Speech Language Pathology, my unofficial scaled score was 168 and my raw score (number correct) was 65/132.
I read the passing scaled score is 162 and the passing raw score is 75.
This confuses me. Assuming the unofficial score is accurate, does this mean I passed or failed? Is the scaled score or raw score more important/accurate?
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David Recine
That is a little strange. 75/132 appears to be 57%, which would be a scaled score of 157, not 175. And a 65/132 is 49%, or a scaled score of 149. So it seems like neither your score or a 75 would get you all the way up to 62%/162.
That being said, on many Praxis exams, certain questions are worth more than others. If you correctly answered most or all of your 2 point and higher questions, that might explain why your scaled score is 168 even though your raw score shows only 65 correct questions. There’s also a smaller chance that your scaled score of 168 is a mistake– that the test center showed you the wrong score. That kind of mistake on your unofficial score report is pretty uncommon, though. Sounds like there’s a very good chance that you passed!
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Megan Matilo
Hi David,
If you have an issue with your comouter, like I did with the mouse, during testing, is there anything you can do about your test score?
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David Recine
Man, sorry to hear that you had computer issues. That can be really stressful. If you can prove that you have computer issues, you may be able to cancel your score and retake the Praxis for no additional fee. But in that case, it’s best to report any technical problems to test center staff immediately, while you’re taking the test, or right after.
Were you able t talk to test center staff right away? And if so, what did they say?
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Megan
Hi David,
I alerted the test center staff immediately when I realized that my mouse wasn’t working properly. They shut down my computer immediately and changed out my mouse. Nothing else was said after they changed it out and restarted my test.
I contacted ETS about the issue but they said they contacted the test center and they had no documentation of the issue. ETS also stated that according to their review of the test, they saw no issue with the mouse lagging or any other type of malfunction. My thing with this is, that if they review my test further, they will see that with time stamps there was a pause in my test from shut down to start up and the timer from the beginning to end of the test will show the extra time between start and finish. ETS is basically stating that nothing else can be done.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Megan,
I’m very sorry this has happened to you. If no one at the center made any note of a testing abnormality, it is tricky to get ETS to listen to your complaints further. You can try to follow up with a version of what you have said here, but without documentation I would be worried that the issue will be considered closed. Is there any way to talk to the test center yourself?
From what you have described, I do not see evidence that the equipment caused you further issues, and thus ETS is not inclined to do anything about the score or offering a retake because it doesn’t seem necessary, at least from their end. :/
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Kris
I took the combined Praxis I and I recived my official scores for my reading, math, but not my writing. I thought that they reported all scores at once. Does it take even longer for my writing to come through or is it a glitch in the system?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Kris,
Thanks for writing! You may not have received your writing score yet, since the writing section has both selected response (SR) and constructed response (CR) questions. According to ETS, score reports for tests with only SR questions, like the reading and math Praxis tests, are available 10-11 days after your test date. On the other hand, tests with CR questions are available 15-16 business days after you take the exam. So, while you took all three tests together, it makes sense that your writing score will be reported a few days after your reading and math scores. That said, if you do not receive your writing score within a week or so, I recommend contacting ETS to confirm that everything is ok 🙂
Hope this helps! And congrats on taking the Praxis 😀
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Hugh
Hi! I’m preparing to take the Praxis Chemistry Content Knowledge test (5245), so I took a practice test which only tells me the number of questions I got right and wrong, no raw score or unofficial score. I got 99/125 correct, which would be around 79%. If I’m understanding this correctly would my estimated score be a 179? (100+ % correct).
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David Recine
You’ve got it, Hugh! And that’s a great score by the standards of most states. Nicely done practice session!
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Future Teacher
I just took the Language Arts and Reading praxis (5002). I did not receive a scaled score at the end of my test. At the end of the test, the screen displayed that I received a 17 in reading and 17 in speaking. What does this mean?
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David Recine
That does sound confusing. But I think I can decode your oddly-worded unofficial score report. 🙂
This subtest has two main sections: the Reading Section, and the Writing, Listening & Speaking section. Likely, the “speaking” score on your score report is short for “Writing, Listening & Speaking.” So those two 17 scores, combined, would be your total raw score.
There are 80 questions on the test, so this gives you a raw score of 34/80. In terms of percentage, that’s 42.5%, which translates to an unofficial scaled score of about 143. Your official score should be similar.
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Agrima Ahluwalia
I gave the Praxis CORE exam today. I got a 183 on the reading section and 170 on the maths section. Do unofficial scores change? Also how long does ets take to report the writing scores?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Agrima,
Congrats on taking the Praxis CORE today! I will say that it’s not common for the official scores to change from the unofficial ones. And if it does, it’s typically not a significant difference. In addition, you can expect your official scores (w/ writing) in 10-16 business days after your exam. For now, I’d recommend that you celebrate on completing the exam and get some well-deserved rest! 😀
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TC
Hi, thanks for your information. My raw score on Math 5161 showed 32 total correct: 20 in one section and 12 in another. The computer flashed a 153 as the score. I need a 160 to pass. I’ve been a lot of materials which says that 32 scales up to 160 and that is the score required by most states. I’ve also read that although there are 60 questions, only 50 are scored.
Is there any chance my score scales up to 160? If not, I need to gear up again.
Thanks
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Tim,
Unfortunately, if your unofficial score was 153, it is likely that your official score will also be the same. There may be a slight difference, but that’s not that common. To be safe, I’d recommend that you gear up again; however, if you like, you can wait until you see the official score before taking it to full gear. Best of luck Tim! 🙂
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TC
OK, thanks for your reply. Sorry if you’ve answered this a million times, but do they really only “count” 50 of the 60 on the test? Because 32 of 50 is 64%. I was confused by this info from a Praxis review book I used. And believe it or not, I did let the 32 milepost sort of guide my prep and practice efforts. No longer, I guess. Just curious and frustrated all at the same time.
ThanksReply
Tara
I took the new ESOL 5362 praxis II. My raw score was 84/120 but there were probably five questions with multiple answers. I also noted on the ETS website that all of the questions may not count. With all of this said, I need a 155 to pass in my state. What are my chances?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Tara,
As an 84/120 is a 70% overall on the test, I think it is highly likely that you have met your 155 score requirement. The rough approximation is to slap this percentage onto the 100-200 scale, so I would be comfortable guessing your score is anywhere from 160-170 based on what you told me, though without knowing which questions do and don’t count. Obviously the official report will have the final say, but I think things look good! 🙂
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Amy
Hi there!
I took the SLP (speech language pathology) Praxis today and I’m a bit confused by the scores I was given. My unofficial score was 161 and my raw score was 69. There are 132 questions but it is only scored on 108 of them. To pass you need a 162 standard score. Is there any way I passed or did I truly fall one short?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
The unofficial score could technically fluctuate that point you need, but you also may be just one point short (which is really frustrating)! You’ll have to wait for the official scores to come out, unfortunately. :/ I hope it is good news!
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Amy
Thanks for the quick response! I’ll keep everyone updated once I find out!
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Sally
Amy, please update when you can! I took my slp praxis and I ended up with a 68 raw score and ns (no score)! I read online that passing is usually a 74 raw score to equal a 162. You say you received a 161 with a 69 raw score. I know a girl who received a 163 for a 71 raw score, and read online someone passed with a 67 raw score. It must truly depend on the test version you take.
Still, I’m biting my nails for the next month.Reply
Nikki
Any word on what ever happened with your scale conversion?? I took my SLP praxis today and I received a 69 raw score and NS* as my unofficial score, I had several questions asking me for 3-4 answer responses.. praying I got some of them correct to boost my raw score! Until then, I’m freaking out! So I was curious how your scores were converted! Help 🙁
David Recine
Nikki, definitely let us know how your final score turns out as well!
Carlos
Hi, I just took the Praxis II Math Middle School Test and I scored 164 (Raw Score) I was in need to at least score 165 to pass the test. Is there any chances that the official score would be 165?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Carlos,
Yes, there is a chance! It is frustrating, but you will have to wait for the official scores to come out. Good luck! 🙂
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TMJR
I am in the same boat. I got a 163 and I need a 164 to pass in Pennsylvania. Do you really think there is a chance that I would get a 164 in the final scaled score? I’m guessing that I will be retaking the test again.
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David Recine
There’s definitely a chance your score will be adjusted upward by at least one point. But it’s also quite common for your raw score and official score to be the same. So definitely do prepare for a retake, just in case. You’re correct to think that you may need one.
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Jessica
Hi, I just got my scores back for the English Language Arts Content and Analysis: 5039. I need a 168 to pass. Could you please explain how they got my score of 164.
The multiple choice is 75% of test
Reading 34/41
Language and Vocabulary: 23/28
Writing, Speaking 25/41
Constructive Response: worth 25% of test
I got a 6/12
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David Recine
Hi Jessica,
This is a disappointing situation to be sure. Based just on your raw percentages, you got 68% right, which usually does mean a 168 scaled score. However, your score official score can be a few points different than the unofficial scaled score you get in the test center. Official scores for Praxis 5039 are especially likely to be adjusted, because of the wide variety of complex question types on the exam. A number of question formats in English Language Arts: Content and Analysis are wroth more than one point; this also makes score calculation a bit more complicated.
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Raquel Dugan-Dibble
Hello another teacher told me I would take the Praxis 5435 points needed to pass in ND
which 150/200 = .75% and then multiply total number of questions at 135 X .75% = 101.25 which is the number questions needed correct to pass? so if I received a 128 raw score is that enough to pass? Thanks
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Jay
Hi, I just took the Elementary Social Studies Praxis II yesterday and the required passing score is a 155. Unfortunately, the screen flashed 154. What is the possibility, if any, that I will get that one point boost. This is my fifth time taking it and I am really disappointed so I’m trying to be hopeful at this point.
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David Recine
From everything I’ve heard, there’s probably about a 50% chance that you’ll move up to 155 in your official score. It’s definitely not uncommon for a score to move up by one point once it’s fully adjusted. Not the best possible news, but not the worst either, eh?
Even if you don’t quite hit 155, you’re definitely getting close to your goal. You’ll almost certainly pass the test in the near future, either when you get your official score, or when you do your next re-take. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. If you have time, come back and let us know how things went, once you get your latest official score.
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Jeff
David,
I just took the praxis math test, and got 31/50 correct, however it’s telling me I only scored a 144 and did not pass. This should translate to a 162, correct? And that would put me comfortably above the 150 required score for my state.
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David Recine
Hi Jeff. Your numbers sound like they might be right. But to clarify, which Praxis math test did you take? It sounds like it wouldn’t be Core Math, since Core Math has 56 questions rather than 50. Let me know which exam you took, and I’ll give you a better answer. (And sorry this has happened. Definitely sounds frustrating!)
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David
Same as Jeff. My core math test is calculated out 50 raw points and there were 56 questions in the test.
I got my math test back, I had 25 raw points out of 50. That’s is 50%, I received a final score of 132. Base on your post, I should have passed the test for 150 required scored. What should I do? Call ETS? I’m just so frustrated and CONFUSED….Reply
David Recine
It sounds like you’re taking a different math test than Jeff. But yes, same principle as Jeff– your scores are DEFINITELY not adding up. Your scaled score is far enough off the mark form your raw score that I would recommend calling ETS. Hopefully they can shed some light on this, and correct any issues. Be prepared to give ETS a copy of your contradictory score data by fax or email. They’ll probably ask for that. And if you get a chance, come back here and let us know what ETS says!
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toni
i had the same experience as the gentlemen above. I also took the math core and was only scored on a scale of 50 raw points instead of 56. i contacted ETS rep and she couldn’t explain. I’ve since emailed the company hoping i can get a better understanding of this score. i posted a comment below. i received 27/50 and a score of 144.
toni
Here is my response from ETS: The selected-response questions on computer-delivered tests are scored on correct answers only. Usually, each selected-response question answered correctly is worth one raw point, and the raw points earned are the number of questions answered correctly in each test category. However, the Core Mathematics exam often contains 50 raw points. Please be aware that each correct response is still of equal value.
There are several editions of each Praxis test, and each edition contains different questions. The questions on one edition might be slightly more difficult (or easier) than those on another edition. To make all editions of a test comparable, raw scores are converted to scaled scores that adjust for differences in difficulty among editions.
Because of this method of scoring, it is impossible to determine how many correct answers you need to obtain a certain score.
The average performance range indicated on your score report is the range of scaled scores that is achieved by the middle 50 percent of test takers. Although your score may be within the range, this does not indicate a passing status.
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David Recine
Hi Toni,
Thanks for contacting ETS and posting their reply here– interesting and helpful! It sounds like the did indeed adjust your score somewhat based on relative difficulty of the questions. That’s the only thing that would account for the discrepancy between your raw score percentage correct and your actual scaled score.
That being said, it’s important to remember that, unfortunately, ETS’s gives somewhat inconsistent answers about their Praxis Core scoring methods. In the last couple of years, I’ve also talked to students who say that ETS told them 6 of the Core Math problems are experimental and don’t count. That’s a different given reason for the 50 point range, obviously.
I’ve also had ETS tell me that they never or “almost never” make adjustments to Core Math based on the relative difficulty of the test. So again, there’s some inconsistency in their response. Still, I think their latest response to you is the correct one in terms of score adjustments. It does explain your score. And adjustments based on test version are consistent with ETS’s policies on their other tests, such as the GRE and TOEFL.
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Joel
I’m in the same boat… my raw scores from my September 13th math test were 7,6,6, and 9, for a total of 28 raw points out of 50 possible (15, 15, 10, and 10). If I’m doing my math correctly, I answered 56 percent of the questions correctly. However, my score was a 148.
In addition, I retook the test today and the unofficial score today was 146. I actually went down. If only Arkansas allowed a composite of the Reading, Math, and Writing…
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Justin L Rindlisbacher
Hello David. My name is Justin and I took the 5701 Agriculture Praxis test today. I got a raw score of 71 and I need a final score of 147. I’m trying to figure the math out and I am struggling with finding a correct answer. I think it looks like I passed but I’m not sure. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Justin,
What is the benchmark for passing in your case? This would be possible around the 150 range, but slightly below as 71/147 is approximately 43% accuracy overall. I am not particularly familiar with this Praxis test specifically, so you might need to wait for the official score report. Good luck!
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Gigi
Hi David!
I just took a practice Praxis exam and need a 147 to pass in my subject content. The scores show I have 98 out of 140 questions, correct. Does this mean I passed my practice exam and with what score?
Thanks,
Gigi
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Gigi,
It certainly looks like you’ve passed! 98/140 is exactly 70% which meets many state requirements, so that’s a great outcome for a practice test. Your practice exam should also have a key to help you determine your score. This should easily exceed the 147 requirement, though, and could be as high as 170! 🙂
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Reed Grant
The passing score in my state for the Physics Praxis II is 135. Does that mean that I only need to get roughly 35% of the questions correct?
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AMCC
I have taken the Praxis Core Math 2 times, first time got 118, second time 132. My score has improved but not enough….I have been studying and taking the ETS Practice Test like crazy. I need to pass the test by May 15. Do you have any recommendations? In my state passing score is 150.
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David Recine
The first recommendation I have is to keep doing what you’re doing. If you can jump from 118 to 132 on a retake, you should be able to get to 150. The other advice I have is to make sure you are targeting the aspects of Praxis Core Math that are hardest for you. Look carefully at the kinds of questions you miss the most often. If you seem to have the least accuracy with–say– geometry or story problems, focus your studies there.
Another thing I strongly recommend is mental math. Although you do get a calculator on the Praxis, you’ll have more accuracy and confidence if you can do Core Math operations in your head. The idea here is to rely minimally on the calculator. The calculator seems like it would make you more accurate, but it’s actually very easy to accidentally hit a number or math sign you didn’t intend to use. Whereas it’s pretty much impossible to accidentally *think* of one number or math sign, when you meant to use another.
Here on the blog, Mike has written a good tutorial on mental math for Praxis Core Math. And there are several additional video lessons you can watch on this, if you have a subscription to Magoosh Praxis premium.
Finally, make sure you work not only on your math skills, but also on general strategies. Learn the skill of educated guessing; this strategy can really help when you’re not sure of an answer. And refine other test skills, such as skills in Praxis Core Math pacing.
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Allie
Hello David,
I just took the Praxis 5025 (Early Childhood Ed) and was told I had a total of 72 correct out of 120… 72/120 = 60%.. I need a 156 to pass for my state. Do you think I passed? or failed?
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David Recine
Your scaled score comes from adding 100 to the percentage you got correct. This gives you an unofficial scaled score of 160. It’s very uncommon for the official scaled score to be adjusted downward by 4 points, or to be adjusted downward at all. You’ve probably passed. Congratulations!
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toni
i’ve taken the math core 3 times. first time, i wasn’t prepared. scored 118. Second, 140. my latest score was 144. what i don’t understand is how i earned 27 out of 50 in raw points but still failed. there were 56 questions on the test. is it safe to assume that some questions weren’t scored? based on my score report, i scored average in each area tested. can you help me understand this score? i contacted ETS, but the rep wasn’t any help.
thanks in advance
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Ali
Today,I took the Praxis Professional School Counselor test (5421) and the screen showed 150 for the score. I need to have 156 in WI. I am worried if I did not pass it, should I wait and see the official score or I should retake the test. Any suggestions or ideas will greatly appreciate!
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David Recine
150 is significantly below your required score. I’m sorry to give you the bad news, but there is little or no chance that you’ve passed. Even if your score is adjusted upward, it likely won’t go all the way up to 156 on the official score report. You’re close though– a 6 point boost isn’t that hard to get on a retake. So I’d start preparing for another try.
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Dillon
I’m preparing for the Praxis Core Series and completed an online practice test for math since it’s been several years since I graduated college and I certainly don’t use math very frequently in my career. I want to make sure the above forum made sense to me.
So I’m shooting for a 150 on the math exam– I got 41/56 correct on the practice exam. So would that result in a overall score of 173? 41/56=.73 (100+73=173)?
This seems to good to be true….?
Your thoughts are appreciated!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Dillon,
Your math looks right to me. Nice work! 🙂
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Harts
I received my official score today for the Praxis Core for Math and it was a 200 just like my unofficial score. What is confusing me is that it shows that I got 14/15 raw points on the algebra and functions part and 8/10 raw points on the geometry part. I got full points on the number and prob and stats parts. I don’t understand how I got a 200 if I had some raw points taken off. I am obviously very happy with my score but my husband also took the exam and got a 140. I am trying to figure out how the scoring works so I can see how many more questions he will need to get to get to the required passing score of 150 seeing as he really dislikes math.
Thanks!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Eleni, thanks for reaching out! 🙂 First, congratulations on your score. The truth is that there is not exactly a 1-to-1 correspondence between points and the score, so the things you missed must have either been statistically discounted or not worth enough to sway your score. All the score calculators and blogs online are trying to find a way to describe a pattern, but no one (except ETS) really knows what is happening under the hood, so to speak. Roughly, the scale 100-200 corresponds to % correct, so you can use that in your husband’s case to estimate that he needs to get at least half of all questions correct to reach that 150 threshold. I wish I could be more exact, but that’s as much information as we have! Good luck. 🙂
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Isabel
I just took the praxis core math for the 3rd time. First time I got 116, second 132 and now 140. My score has definitely improved but not enough. Passing score in my state is 150. I purchased the test samples and have been studying. How are the point calculated for this test? There are 56 questions… I am frustrated and confused as how many questions I need to answer correctly to get to 150. Any advise is greatly appreciated.
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David Recine
Hi Isabel. I’m sorry to hear that you haven’t reached your target score yet. 🙁 Still, things sound hopeful. It’s good to see that you’re steadily improving.
As for how the scores are calculated, your Praxis Core Math score will be approximately 100+the percentage of questions you got right. So you need at least a 28 correct answers– 50% of 56– to have a chance at getting a 150.
Scores can also be slightly adjusted for a number of reasons. Most adjustments change your score by 3 points or less. So to be on the safe side, you’ll want to be at least three points higher than 50%. That means you need 30 correct answers to be sure (or reasonably sure) that you’ll pass the test.
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Patty
Hello David,
I just took the praxis core math, I earned 25 raw points there were 50 raw points available. Why did I not pass? The passing score in my state is 150. Isn’t that 50% correctly?
Thank you,
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David Recine
Hi Patty,
Praxis Core Math has 56 questions, so there should be 56 raw points, normally. That would place a 25 point score below the halfway mark. Sometimes, though, several of the questions are experimental new ones, and don’t count toward your score. In that case, it’s possible that you could get a 25/50 for a 150. But if certain questions were worth more points than others, it could still be possible to score 25 but get less than 50% out of 50. So unfortunately, it is completely possible to get less than 150, with 25 right on Core Math.
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Stacy
Patty, did you ever find anything out about your score? I just retook my math praxis core and my first score was 136, and my raw points were 24/50 which doesn’t make sense to me because there were 56 questions. I know that is still a failing score but it is really confusing me how they got my score. I just took it again a few days ago and got a 136 AGAIN! I just don’t get it 🙁
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Gaspar
Hi David,
Save me from my misery. I just took the Health & PE 5857 Praxis in NJ. My unofficial score was 151 but in NJ you need a 160 to pass. What are the odds I passed?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Gaspar,
Unfortunately, I would not expect the official score to climb 9 points, and I would start preparing to retake the test in your position. I know this might be disappointing, but you are close and you can do this! 🙂
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John
Hi,
When i finished my Core Math test it said Mathematics 160. is 160 my unofficial score?
Thanks
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi John! Yes, the score that appeared at the end of your exam is your unofficial score. Typically, a test taker’s unofficial and official score do not vary much, if at all. So, you should expect to see around 160 as your official score once your score report is sent 🙂
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K. Davis
Hi David,
I took the RVE (5306) and didn’t receive an unofficial or raw score after completion. Skimming through the comments, I didn’t see anyone else who may have experienced this. In your experience does this indicate unsuccessful test results?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi there 🙂
Happy to help! While many Praxis tests do let you see your unofficial scores after finishing your exam, this is not always the case. Overall, on exams that have constructed-response questions, like the RVE, unofficial scores on test day will not be provided. This is because the constructed-response questions are scored by professional educators, and so the scores for these questions is not available immediately after the exam. With that in mind, there’s no need to worry on your end; not seeing a raw/unofficial score on test day doesn’t indicate you did poorly on the exam or that there was a technical issue. 🙂 Here are more details from ETS, the writers of the exam:
“Some, but not all, Praxis® tests offer you an opportunity to view unofficial scores at the end of your testing session. If an unofficial score is not provided for your test, it means that further analysis must be conducted before scoring can be completed. This does not indicate a problem with the administration of your test and will not result in a delay in reporting your official score. Test centers cannot provide printed copies of score reports.”
For even more information, make sure to check out ETS’s Praxis Score Overview Page.
I hope this helps!
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Jimmy
Hi,
I am trying to find data on where I stand in terms of percentile but I cannot find much other than the average performance range. I got a 200 on reading and 196 on math (not sure about reading yet, took test on June 6). How many people score this high and how beneficial will my scores be for entry into a teacher certification program or obtaining a job? I am currently an engineer about to resign to pursue teaching.
Thanks
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Jimmy
I meant not sure about writing.
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David Recine
Hi Jimmy.
First off, it’s wonderful to see another highly skilled mid career professional bringign their talents to the field of teaching. Our school system needs more people like you. 🙂
Now, the Praxis doesn’t actually publicly post percentiles. The good news is that your percentile isn’t looked at when you apply for teacher training, or for jobs. As long as you meet the minimum state requirement, you’ll be fine. Teacher training programs and actual hiring schools are far more interested in your work history, past career, and your other demonstrated skills and talents.
If you do want to see how well you did, compared to the average test-taker, there are some stats to help you compare. You can see the median score and average score range for every Praxis exam (writing included) in the official “Understanding Your Praxis Scores” PDF: https://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/uyps_1617.pdf
Hope all this helps!
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Laura
Hi
I need to take the Core Academic Skills for Educators test. My only concern is the writing part and especially the essays. Do you know approximately what percentage of the writing portion score is based on the two essays?
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David Recine
The Praxis doesn’t give exact figures on the portion of your score taken up by the two essays. However, based on the information on page 5 of the official Praxis Core Writing Study Companion, it seems like that the essays are worth between 45-50% of your final score.
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Michelle
I took the Praxis PLT 7-12 today. In Alabama, I need a 153 to pass. Theoretically, how many questions would I have to get right to pass? There were 70 multiple choice and 4 constructed response questions. I know the constructed response questions carry more weight. I am so stressed. Can you help me with a ballpark figure of how many I need to get right to pass?
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David Recine
Hi Michelle,
It always takes longer to get your scores when there’s constructed response questions (because of the human rather than machine scoring), and the wait can be anxiety inducing, can’t it?
Fortunately I’ve crunched the numbers on this test before, and I can give you some advice on how well you need to score in order to pass.
First off, the four constructed response questions, together, are worth 25% of your score, while the 70 selected response questions are worth 75% of your score. In other words, the four short essay questions have 1/3 the point value of the 70 multiple choice questions. This means that the constructed response portion is worth roughly 23 raw points out of approximately 93 raw points total. From that number, we can see that each individual constructed response question is worth about 6 points.
You could– in theory– get zeroes on all four constructed response questions, and still get the 153 you need, if you got at least 50 of the 70 multiple choice questions right. (This would be 50/93, or 53.8%).
You might be able to get by with as few as 27 multiple choice questions right out of 70, if you got full credit on your four constructed response questions. And if you got half credit for your constructed response questions, you have a chance at passing with 39 out of 70 multiple choice questions correct.
These estimates can hopefully give you a clearer idea of what it takes to pass, and more peace of mind as you wait for the official score to come in. Hope this helps. 🙂
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Teacher Reacher
Good evening!! How are you? Today I just took the Language Arts and Reading Praxis II (5002). At the end of the test, the screen displayed that I received a 20 in Reading and 20 in Writing, Speaking, and Listening. My unofficial score was a 154 (so close right). When I took it the first time I got a 150 16/29 in Reading and 23/34 in Writing. I took it again and got a 141 18/31 in Reading and 16/34 in Writing. Let’s say that I got a 20/29, 20/30 or 20/31 in Reading and a 20/34 in Writing is it possible that my score could jump to a passing score of 157?
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David Recine
First off, your 20 would be out of roughly 38 for Reading, and 20 out of roughly 42 for Writing/Speaking/Listening. But there’s probably no need to nitpick here. What’s important is that you got an unofficial scaled score of 154. Typically, your unofficial score will either be the same as your official score, or very close, with 1-3 points difference. So it’s certainly possible your score could jump to 157 once you get your official score report. But it’s also definitely not guaranteed that you’ve reached that 157. My advice is to hope for the best, but to also prepare for a retake, just in case.
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Laura
Just wanted to say thank you for the wealth of information provided on your website. I crammed quickly for the Praxis Core combined test and spent hours on your website. I was given an official score of 170 on math and 198 on reading. I need 150 on math and 156 on reading. Any chance my score would change that much? I’ve been so stressed over this test and am still worrying 🙂
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Laura,
Congrats on your great scores! It is highly unlikely that your official scores will drop drastically for you to fall below your requirements. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I would relax, and celebrate your accomplishment! Have a great day! 😀
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Lorrin
I took the English and Content knowledge test. I need a 167 and I made an unofficial score of 166. I have taken this test once before and I have also taken the PLT: 7-12 and passed that. Is there any chance I could be bumped up, and if I am not bumped up, is there any chance to appeal it or raise it in any sort of way? Thank you.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Lorrin. There is definitely a chance that it would be adjusted up to a passing score, but there isn’t really an easy appeals process. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best! 🙂
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Rene’
I have taken the practice exam for middle school math test #5169 and received 41/55 on one of them and 34/55 on the other. Are those exams a sufficient source to guide me for the real test?
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David Recine
Assuming you took the official practice tests on the ETS website, this should be a good guide for what you can expect on the real exam. If you haven’t already done this, I suggest also looking at the practice questions in the official Study Companion PDF for 5169.
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Hello, I am taking the Early Education 5025 in New Jersey, I believe the score is 156 to pass. How many of the 120 questions do I need to get right to pass? Thank you
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Sharyn,
Approximately 68 questions would get you there (I would aim for 75 to be safe). 🙂
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Lea
Hi…I scored a 148 on the Praxis Core Math 5732. I have taken this test soooo many times…and this is the second time that I’ve received a score of 148. After reading the above post and answers, I don’t understand how I got the score that I received this last time. Out of the 50 points, I scored 30. To break it down, I scored average in all areas (except geometry):
# and Quantity – 12 out of 15
Algebra and Functions – 8 out of 15
Geometry – 3 out of 10
Stats and Prob – 7 out of 10
I thought I did amazing…and now I feel like a complete failure. Again. Can you help me understand how I scored a 148 when I scored average to above average in areas…did geometry really hurt me bad enough to not pass?!
Thanks in advance!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Lea,
First, do not be discouraged! All standardized tests, as annoying as they can be, are totally conquerable. 🙂 So, I checked out the Praxis 5732 PDF and instead of being out of 50 points, it looks like they report it being out of 56. This, coupled with items potentially being worth more than one point, can explain how the score turned up the way it did. I say if you can really tackle geometry and algebra, you’ll tip the scales in your favor easily. 🙂
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Stef
As I look closer at information regarding the 5001 test, I found out that the Mathematic subtest 5003, has 10 questions that are pretext questions that do not count towards the test takers final score (unfair to say the least. So with that in mind, they should calculate how many correct answers that you got over 40 not over 50. It does not seem that they are doing this based on what people are saying. So technically if you got 23 questions correct they should calculate 23/40 which would translate to 57.5% which would translate to a passing score. The info can be found on the State of New Jersey website.
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I just completed praxis 5025 and received a score of 182. I’m in Utah and wondering if this is a passing score.
Thanks so much!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Stephanie,
Since the Praxis 5025 has a total of 120 questions, your 180 represents an unofficial final score. According to current Praxis documents, Utah requires a 156, so things are looking great for you! 🙂
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olivia
Hello, I just took the praxis 5001-for Colorado you need a 157 for math and 155 for social studies. I received a 157 on math, so the exact amount you need to pass and for social studies I received a 155 (two points low). Those were my unofficial scores and wondering how much the two could actually change? I am in quite the time crunch so needing to set up a retake as soon as possible to make sure I can take it on the soonest day available.
Thanks for the help!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Olivia,
I am confused, because based on what you said, you got both scores exactly as you needed? To answer your question, we do sometimes see scores shift a point or two in either direction. To err on the side of caution, I would start making immediate arrangements for a retake, because there is always the chance you’ll fall a single, annoying point too low. Hopefully, though, your scores will come through! Good luck. 🙂
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Alissa
Hi David, I took math core 5732 today and on the very last page where the unofficial score is shown it said “163”, i was so anxious and so scared to see my score I glanced at it and quickly x’ed out (sounds silly I know especially because I needed a 150) but now I’m nervous that the numbers I saw represented something else and not my score. Could I that number have represented something else on that last page? Do you know if on that last page there is any reason why I would see a number such as “162” other than the fact that it was my score? Also, is there anyone I could contact to confirm my unofficial score? I’m going to be stressing about this for the next two weeks until I get that official report. Any insight? Thanks so much
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Alissa,
That number could realistically only have been an estimated score for you. The test only has 56 questions, so there is no way it was a raw score. The 163 might shift a few points, but I feel very positively about your chances for passing. 🙂
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Jennifer Powell
Hello,
I am taking 5038-English content. I need a 167 to pass. Roughly how many correct answers would that be? Also, what would the raw score be?
Thank you!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Jennifer,
I estimate that you would need about 89/130 to guarantee a passing score, but I would shoot for more like 95+ because I worry a lot. 🙂
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Sophia
Hello David,
I just took a practice praxis 2 test. It had 120 questions. I got 73 of them correct. If it was the real test would I have pass? Passing score in my state is 157.
Thank you!!!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Sophia,
It looks like you would be on track to get approximately 158-160! So things are looking good. 🙂
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Tonya
Hi there,
I took the Elementary Social Studies Praxis (5004) today (8/21). In New Jersey the passing score is 155, after I took the test, I saw a score of 162.
This is the breakdown of my results:
U.S. History, Government, Citizenship – 17
Geography, Anthropology, Citizenship – 9
World History, Economics – 10
From taking this test previously, I’ve learned that the score on the computer after taking the test, is the final result in the official scores from ETS, so I guess my question to you is, did I really pass this time around?
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Alyssa L.
Hello,
I’m taking the Math Praxis Core exam soon. I’ve been reading some comments on this website. If i need to score a 150 to pass the exam, that means that I would have to answer at least 50% of the questions correctly. Am i thinking of this correctly?
Thanks!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Alyssa,
Yes, essentially. The Praxis Core Math contains unscored/pretest questions that don’t factor in, so to be more specific, you need to get above 50% of the scored questions.
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Erinlovex3
Lets see if anyone can figure this one out for me. I have passed all parts, beside the writing so far. I seem to be having trouble- let me explain. The first time I got a 152, obviously not passing. I got 16 on the multiple choice and 14 on my essay. The second time i got 158, still not passing. Increasing on my multiple choice with 18 and 14 on my essay again. Now i just took the test again and recieved a 158 again. BUT this time i got 20 on my multiple choice and 14 on my essay. Why did my score not go up this time? I know there can be mistakes but unsure if its a mistake or not. Wondering if anyone has answers to my problem before i call on monday as i have to wait a few days and this will drive me insaneeee!!! Someone help. I mean if my score went up six points just going up 2 on my multiple choice. It should of went up once again. Thanks all!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Erin,
You can absolutely call to get official confirmation, but there is not a definite 1:1 correspondence between a question answered correctly and a point earned. This is why your official score cannot be given to you on the day of the test. Good luck!
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Shannon Wi
I got a raw score of 169 on the praxis 2 (5025) did I pass? Md has a passing of 156. Will it change that much?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Shannon,
That 169 sounds like an unofficial score, not a raw score. I think you passed! 🙂
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KM
Hi,
The first time I took the Praxis Core, I got my math and reading scores four days after I took both sections. I did not pass the math so I took it for a second time. However, my official math score has still not come in. I got my unofficial score at the test center. I know it takes 10-11 business days but am just worried because the score is taking longer this time, though it hasn’t been past 10-11 days yet. Is this normal for it to take so long the second time around?
Thanks!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi KM,
Don’t worry yet! This is from the ETS website: “Official score reports are available approximately 10–16 days from the last date of the testing window or on the test date if the test is offered continuously.” So it sounds like you might have had a little more waiting to do, but by now you’ve surely heard. 🙂
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Elizabeth
I LOVE THIS FORUM! Thanks so much! 🙂
If I needed a Reading 156 and Writing 162, and a 150 popped up after my test, that means I didn’t get the score I needed, correcT?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Elizabeth,
Yes, that most likely means that you didn’t quite get the score you needed and you should look into preparing for a retake. You’re close, though, so next time’s the charm! 🙂
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Nicole
Hi!
I’m taking the Professional School Counselor Praxis exam in a couple weeks and I’m trying to figure out what raw score I need to get on it to pass. For the state I want to send my scores to (CO) I need a score of 156. The test has 120 questions on it. Can you tell me the minimum raw score I would need (x/120) to pass?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Nicole,
If you need a 156, that means you need approximately 68/120, but I would aim for closer to 72/120 to account for slight scaling in the score. 🙂
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Tonya
I never got a response to my 8/21 question, however those who posted after me did. But I just wanted to update you. I did in fact passed the Social Studies part of the Praxis.
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Hello. I just took the NV math praxis core. And it showed I got 134. What is that mean? I had 56 questions.
THANKS
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David Recine
This means you got approximately 34% of the answers correct, out of the 56. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll need to retake the exam. Nevada requires a 150– approximately 50% of the answers correct– for Praxis Core Math. This can be seen on the official web page for Nevada’s Praxis requirements. Sorry for the bad news. 🙁
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Hali Fangmeier
Hey David!
I just finished Praxis 5411 and got a tots score at the end of 150, I need 145 to pass in my state. Does this mean I passed?! So nervous!
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David Recine
Hi Hali!
A 150 unofficial score almost certainly means you passed. Official scores can be adjusted from the score you see in the test center, but they are almost never adjusted by more than three points. Nice work! 🙂
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Marli
I just took the combined Core test yesterday. My reading score was 192, my math score was a 146, and it didn’t give me any info on my writing score. To pass in my state I would need a reading score of 156, a math score of 150, and a writing score of 162.
According to these comments, it looks like there isn’t a chance I passed math… Right?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Marli,
Unfortunately, it looks like you are not going to get a passing math score at this time. But you’re close, so I have faith that you can do it next time! 🙂
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Marli
Unfortunately, there will not be a next time, as I was trying to change my major and had to have passing scores before my college would let me in the program. I only have a one-semester window to change my major since I’m a junior and only want to add at the most a year onto my degree plan. So… Looks like I won’t be a teacher after all…
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Shauntell
Hi! I received an official score of 200 on praxis core reading assessment but I did get 3 or 4 questions wrong. Why did i get a perfect score? And is that common for test takers to get a 200 in reading? How excited should I be? Lol
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Shauntell,
First of all, congrats on taking the Praxis and getting a perfect score! That is not an easy feat, and you should definitely be proud of your accomplishment! The scaled score in Praxis is obtained by converting your raw score into the 100-200 scale based on the difficulty of the test. Each test will be scored a bit differently, but the scaling process is meant to make each test equal by taking out small differences in difficulty levels. This means that you can miss a few questions and still achieve a perfect score–perhaps your Praxis test was more difficult than ‘normal’. In any case, this is a pretty rare thing! The median core reading score is 172 and the average range is 160-184, so you are well above the ‘normal’ scores! Congrats again 🙂
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Katie
So, if you took a 70-question all-constructed response Praxis test, with a raw score of 46/70 (Praxis II: PA Common Core Grades 4-8 Math and Science), it would be .6571, which would translate into 165.71? Passing score is 165, so it would mean I *barely* passed, right?
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David Recine
Katie– with luck, you are in the clear, yes. Bear in mind that official Praxis scores are sometimes adjusted a few points off fromt he raw score. Also bear in mind that when adjustments happen, it’s usually up, not down. You may want to prepare for a retake just in case, but it does sound like the odds are very good that you’ve passed! 🙂
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Kelly
Hi, I took praxis 5421 today. I need 156 to pass and I got just the 156. Is there hope that my official score will be positive?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Kelly,
We cannot guarantee that the 156 will stay, but there is a good chance it will. So cross your fingers and I hope for the best! 🙂
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Ron
A quick question: On the Praxis Basic Writing test 5722, are the 3-sections, multiple choice and each of the 2-essays, weighted equally (apprx 33.3% each)?
Then 62% on each section will most likely guarantee a passing grade (for NJ one needs 162 to pass). For example, getting 25 of 40 questions right, getting a score of 4 out of 6 on each essay – that combination should most likely fetch a passing grade 🙂
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Ron! Yes, that is more or less an accurate approximation. The actual score outcome will vary slightly depending on how scaling works between the unofficial and official score, but that’s it. 🙂
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Esteban
I am trying to find a more concrete answer of my challenge beside a letter saying “my score will stay as is”. I would like for you to also to know I simply want to understand further about praxis scores.
My concerns were not only the grade in the writing and speaking section scores of the test which was total BULL, Spanish is my native language and I taught Spanish for 8 years in Venezuela. I was also concern about the addition of the score.
My scores 156 Average scores 160 -184
Listening: 16 out of 25 15-21
Reading: 17 out of 26 18-23
Culture: 8 out of 11 8-10
Writing: 5 out of 18 7-13
Speaking: 15 out of 18 10-17
Total: 61 out of 98 58 -184
In correlations with the average of this test, should 61 raw points be higher than 156 points if 58 raw points is 160 points? Is it logical to say base on this test as stated on your language[Section III, page 3 of the score report] that 61 raw points should be higher than the lowest score of the range of score earned by the middle 50%? What am I missing here?
Many people like myself take this test for our jobs in order to feed our family. I would imagine after paying $160 for a stupid test that does not even test one’s knowledge and $65 to challenge a score, one should be in position to receive a more thrill answer than a short letter in the mail and a rude customer service agent on the phone. I would be delighted of your intention to explain the part I’m missing in regards to this score report. What can I do further? Take them to court? I want to stand up for other people as well. I can retake this test and score way higher, but ETS will win, create a scarcity of great teachers ( good test takers does not equal great teachers) and keep making money out of poor young college students.
David, you are the expert about test prep and answer, what do you recommend?
Machisimas Gracias!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hello Esteban,
There are a lot of points you want to cover here, so I’ll do my best to respond to everything. First and foremost, I want to express my sympathy for the frustration of hitting yourself up against a standardized testing brick wall. I know I work for a test prep company and so this will seem odd, but I personally do not like standardized tests. I understand their utility and I want to help students conquer them, but I do not like them as a requirement. People in a position like you are perfect examples of test takers not necessarily served well by the standardized test model.
Now, let’s dive into some of the deeper elements of this comment.
What’s going on with the score itself?
We can only speculate here because the actual scoring mechanism is not publicly available. I understand the logic behind expecting 61 to be a better score than 58, but the truth is that with scaling processes and the constructed response scoring, there is an opaque element to the process. You have to go with what is on your score report, because that reflects the generalizable mechanisms used to score all of the Praxis tests. :/
I don’t have the citation you referenced in your message, so I cannot review a specific piece of text. All of your scores (except writing) reflect you being in the middle 50 percent of test takers. I want to be clear that each measure is not the same, so you can’t say that a 58 corresponds to a 160 in all cases. The process of converting that 58 (or your 61) to the 100-200 score changes these raw scores and in that process different items have slightly different weight.
In short, unless ETS were to somehow disclose more scoring information, I see no way to conclude that anything is amiss.
I want to take action against ETS.
Before doing anything of this magnitude, I recommend pondering two questions:
(1) What is the outcome you hope litigation or action would achieve? (Do you want a bunch of money from ETS? Do you want to be able to take the test again for free? Or…?) Not all goals are equally achievable through the same means, so it is worth defining what you want as an outcome.
2) Is your way of doing this going to be the best, and cheapest, way to achieve that outcome? (Depending on what you want, it wouldn’t make sense to hire a lawyer and sue, for instance.)
You’re right that many people are left in frustrating and sometimes dire positions when their Praxis scores don’t let them move on with a job offer, for instance. But ETS has the power of lots of data points and undoubtedly a legal team that makes sure their documents are worded in a way that protects them from someone wanting to claim that the Praxis did not adequately reflect their performance.
I am a native speaker. How is this score even possible?
Speaking Spanish flawlessly will not guarantee a passing or high Praxis score. So it sounds like you might have not met the Praxis-specific requirements despite having full command of the language, which results in a lower score. If you review the PDF for this Praxis (5195) you should see if you met the criteria for the individual tasks. It looks like for writing you probably wrote something that did not meet the narrow boxes that a scorer needs to follow to give you points, so you got a very low score.
This means the next time you take this test you need to go overboard following the criteria listed. Even if you feel it is at the expense of writing something more interesting. This is not the time to demonstrate that you are a good writer—it is the time to toe the line and get your scores so you can move on the real Spanish teaching part of your life. This is a frustrating way to have to think about an exam, but it is the key to doing well and getting it over with.
In short, yes, this is a huge money-making industry, and that’s frustrating. But until there is a better tool for systematically assessing candidates comparatively, these tests are here to stay. If I am being honest, I do not think there is anything you can do in this instance except prepare for a retake and write/speak a bland-but-conforming answer to all the constructed response questions. You aren’t writing for an interested native speaker—you are writing for an overworked rater who has only minutes to determine if you meet the discrete criteria probably in a rubric on his or her desk.
On behalf of the entire Magoosh team, I hope your next Praxis endeavor is the last on you need to face. While I haven’t given you any actionable advice, I hope this response helps contextualize this situation for you.
Un abrazo y todo mi ánimo.
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David Recine
Hi Esteban,
I thought I’d weigh in briefly, since you asked for my opinion by name, and this is very important to you. What my colleague from Magoosh Student Help said is completely on the money. I’d also like to echo her sentiments that scoring processes are not so transparent for the Praxis. This is especially true on tests that include constructed response questions. In the case of the Praxis for Spanish: World Language, there just isn’t any reliable way to calculate your own raw score, and final score calculations are a good deal less predictable.
On a personal note as someone who’s spent a lot of time researching how scoring works for all of ETS’s exams, it’s been my experience that ETS is has less “score transparency” for Praxis, compared to their other exams. I’ve found this frustrating at times, and I very much hope it changes.
The one thing I would add to my colleague’s advice is that there is one way for you to challenge ETS regarding your score results, without having to take them on legally. ETS has an appeals process for their scoring on Praxis constructed response.
You can read about that here on the Praxis website. Allison has also written a good post here on the blog entitled “Should You Request a Praxis Score Review?” As Allison mentions, a score change isn’t guaranteed, and your score usually won’t change by more than a few points. But a few points is all you need, and if your main point loss really was in constructed response (which seems likely), I think requesting a review is definitely worth a try. You should also be studying for a retake while you wait for score review results, because as my colleague has mentioned, a retake is very much your best shot at a better score.
I know it’s frustrating, but I do believe that one way or another, you can and will get a passing score on this test, either through favorable score review results, or an improved s retake score.
Best,
DavidReply
Esteban
Thanks David! I appreciate your input.
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April Damon
I was feeling pretty confident about my English 5038 score until you answered a previous question about 200 scores. Now I’m ridiculously nervous. Please advise.
All I remember when I got through taking the Praxis exam for 5038 was seeing:
200
Reading 41
Language Use 25
Writing 37
I figure that comes up to around a 179? But I’m confused about why it appeared that my score was a 200. I read it twice and I left the center thinking that was my raw score. After looking through your responses, you say that it is almost 100% certain that I didn’t receive a 200. So, by your calculations, did I receive a 179 instead? I need a 167 to pass for Virginia.
Thank you for your help with this!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi April,
I definitely know how nerve-wracking it can be to second-guess yourself after a long standardized test–but I encourage you to try not to worry about this until you see your official score report, since there is definitely some missing information here! First, remember that this blog post was written for Praxis Core, and you took one of the Subject Assessment tests. Second, we need to know the total number of possible points in order to make this assessment, and that information is not reflected here–we need that information to hazard any guesses about your scaled score! I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful here–we mostly deal with the Praxis Core tests here–but I encourage you to read about the scoring in the 5038 Companion.
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Brandy B
Hello. I came across your site by worrying about the unofficial score. I studied furiously for the Math Core. I need a 150 to pass and the screen that came up after I submitted by answers sais “Math 160”. Does this mean my unofficial score is 160? What are the chances official scores would be less than 150?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Brandy,
Yes, it sounds like your unofficial score was a 160 and there is a very good chance you will stay above the 150 you need to pass. 🙂
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Rachelle
Hello! I was so excited to find your website in my search of how to figure out a scaled score of a Praxis practice test. I have little time to certify for test 5362 (English to Speakers of Other Languages) before the job I want will be posted for bid in my county. I am scheduled to take my official Praxis test in 17 days. It has 120 questions and they are all multiple choice. If I got 78 of the 120 practice questions correct then that leaves me with a percentage correct of 65%. According to your calculations that should give me a scaled score of 165, correct? I need a 155 to pass in my state. Is ten points on a practice test a good cushion or still too close for comfort? Do you know of any other sites that I can take another practice test to get another estimate besides the ones Praxis offers? Thank you so much!!
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David Recine
I have mostly good news for you, Rachelle. 🙂 The first good news is that yes– you do have a 10 point lead on the requirement, and yes, that’s a fairly safe cushion. The other good news is that there are other sources of Praxis 5362/ESOL exams. Just search for Praxis 5362 on a site like Amazon.com, and you’ll find plenty of books. The only bad news is that I’m not familiar with any of those prep books, and can’t really you which ones– if any– are very good and offer full length tests that are true to the real thing. What I can tell you is that I myself passed 5362 with a very comfortably high score using just the official practice test and the official study companion PDF for Praxis ESOL. It sounds like you’re on track for the same success. 🙂
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Isis
Hello there, how many questions do I need to get correct if Maryland State requires a 162 in the reading test (praxis I)? Same for the math test and the require score is 52?
Thank you!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Isis,
It’s difficult to say how many you would need to get right, because some questions have more than one correct answer and thus contribute more points. For the reading test, you would need to get 62% of the questions right in order to mass, and you would need to get 52% right in the math test. So if there are 60 possible answers on the reading test, you would need to get around 37 questions correct to reach your target score.
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Ben
Hi David,
i took the gace test in Ga and recieved a 27/60 on the first part for american gov
the second part I take next week, it states I need a score of 220 to pass(both exams)
do I get 100 points added to the 27 I received today?
drop me a line
thank you
Ben
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David Recine
Hi Ben,
GACE technically isn’t the Praxis, and is outside my area of expertise. But I did field a similar GACE related question just recently, in the comments under the article “Understanding your Praxis Raw Score.” And the answer I gave to the other commenter will probably give you the info you need as well. So here is my previous response on GACE, re-posted in response to your comment (and let me know if you still have questions after reading it):
I’m going to answer this question a bit cautiously, since GACE is not actually the same thing as the Praxis, although both GACE and Praxis are administered by ETS.
GACE has a score range of 100 to 300, and every question is worth “one raw point” according to ETS’s online PDF “Understanding Your GACE Scores.” Now, 220 represents 120 points more than the minimum score of 100 and 250 represents the 150 points more than the minimum score of 100. Then, the total score range is 200 points (the 200 points between the 100 minimum and the 300 maximum). In theory, that means that you need to get equivalent to at least 120/200, or 60% of the answers correct in order to pass (48 per section or 96 as a whole), and at least 150/200, or 75% (60 qs per section or 120 as a whole) in order to have a professional score.
However, there are a few extra complications here. First, from my brief reading of the official online study companion for the GACE art test, it looks like the two parts of the exam may actually be scored completely separately. In that case, you’d want to have at least 60-75% accuracy on BOTH tests individually. In other words, you couldn’t do something like get 95% on one exam (76 questions right) and then 55% (44 correct) on the other. The average between the two exams would be 75%, but one exam would be below 60 and thus failing.
On the other hand, I could be misreading that. If the score really is based on an average of the two parts, then something like the 95%/55% split would be OK.
But it gets even more complicated than that. According to the official “Understanding Your GACE Scores” PDF, one raw score point may translate into more than one scaled score point, or possibly less than one scaled score point. In other words, not all answers are equally weifghted int he final scaled score. As the PDF says at the bottom of page 8:
There is no way to predict the exact number of correct answers needed to pass any given test. There are several versions of each test, and each version contains different questions. The questions on one version may be slightly more or less difficult than those on another version. To make all versions of a test comparable, conversion tables adjust for difficulty among versions. Therefore,
the number of correct answers needed to pass one version of a given test might vary slightly from the number needed to pass another version. For tests that require constructed responses, there is not a specific number you need to get correct; your score will depend on how well you meet the requirements used in the scoring rubric for each question or task.GACE is a bit outside my area of expertise, and outside the area of expertise for this blog as a whole. So while I hope my answers are helpful, I recommend checking my advice against the official GACE Art Study Companion, as well as ETS’s guide to GACE scores.
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Jackie
Hi David,
I took the math 5003 praxis and I ran out of time so I had to guess on like 20 questions. My score was a 139 and I have to get 155. I am really frustrated because I felt so confident on my answers and then I looked and only had 15 minutes to complete 20 questions! Is it bad to guess? Or should I continue slowly and focus on getting the answers I have time to answer correctly?
Thank you so much! This is the last test I have to pass before becoming an official teacher! 🙂
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David Recine
Jackie,
What a frustrating situation! I’m sorry to hear this happened to you! 🙁
With a full 20 questions left, it’s a tough call whether to guess or keep working at a careful pace. In theory, you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting the right answer if you guess, since there are 4 answer choices. In other words, guessing, statistically speaking, guessing will get you a score of 25% on a set of 20 questions. So if you think you could have gotten the first five questions (or the 5 easiest questions!) correct in the time you had left, that would be as good as guessing. And if you think you could have gotten at least 6 of the 20 questions correct by taking some time and care, that would be better than guessing.
With that said, 20 questions is a lot of questions to have left over at the end of the time limit– that’s more than a third of the test! So what I really suggest you do is focus a lot on improving your pace as you study for a retest, Jackie.
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Kevin
So let me see if I am understanding this. If I need a 167 on a test with 130 questions on it I only have to answer 67% of the questions correctly (roughly 87) in order to pass the test? Assuming the unofficial score is correct and there weren’t any computer errors.
Thanks,
Kevin
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David Recine
Kevin– that’s more or less correct. But since it’s common for an official score to be adjusted by 1 to 3 points, you should ideally get 70% or more correct, just to be safe. 67% should be thought of as more of a “borderline” score that may put you just over or just under the 167 benchmark.
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Fincher
My scores have never been adjusted.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Fincher,
Not all unofficial scores are adjusted. Some stay exactly the same! Perhaps that is what happened in your case 🙂
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Rachel
Hello!
I just took the Social Studies Praxis 5081 and am trying to figure out if I passed. The total score was 169. Then it gave me the breakdown of subjects and the number I got right which was 74. The test was 130 questions. If I did the calculations correctly, 74/130 is 56.9 and I’m really hoping that is rounded up to 57 because when added to 100 my score would be a 157?!! (the passing score in Maine)
is this correct? and if so, what the heck does the 169 stand for???
Rachel
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Rachel,
I recommend that you check out this blog post for some more information 🙂 It sounds like the 169 was the unofficial score, and your official score should be within three points of that–which would be well above a passing here! It’s important to keep in mind that our score estimate isn’t perfect–there are some tests that adjust for difficulty or have questions worth multiple points. The score estimate is meant to provide you with a general reference point for your score, but you’ll have to wait for the official results to know for sure 🙂
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Laura
Hi,
I took the praxis core writing and both times failed by 4 points. In NJ you need a 162 and I keep getting a 158. Do you think it would be worth it to have my essay section reviewed again?
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David Recine
That sounds frustrating! As for having your essay section reviewed, I would say that it certainly wouldn’t hurt. There’s a chance an essay re-score could get your score up to where it needs to be. And even if a re-score doesn’t get you a qualifying score, an essay review could help you determine whether or not the essay is the main reason your scores have fallen short.
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I took the middle school math praxis today. My state requires 165. I scored 163. Is there any chance in the world I might get an official adjusted score of 165 based on other factors?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi KJ,
There is a small chance it could scale up to 165, but I would recommend making arrangements for a retake, because it is not a guarantee. Best of luck!
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TR
Hi
I took the Praxis 5003 Math test. My raw score was 22. I believe I need a 157 to pass. I’m thinking I did not pass unfortunately and I’m devastated. I’ve taken 10 exams in total and have never failed any. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
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David Recine
Since a 157 is roughly equivalent to 57% and a raw score of 22 is 50%, it does sound like you’ll need to retake the test. I’m sorry– the situation does sound frustrating! 🙁
The first piece of advice I’d give you is to stay confident. If you passed exams in practice or passed other Praxis exams, that means you have the skills to pass this one.
The second piece of advice I’d give you is to carefully consider exactly where you went wrong– or are going wrong– with certain question types on the exam. If you haven’t done so already, review questions from your past practice tests or sessions. What kinds of questions do you most often miss? These are probably the skills that you slipped up on during test day. Consider making an error log where you record questions you got wrong and make note of the strategies that could have gotten you to the right answer. You may want to follow Magoosh’s error log guide and templates for such an activity. (The template examples are for GRE and GMAT questions, but the templates could also work well for Praxis.) If you need more practice questions for further error logging, look for books or websites of math problems that cover the topics mentioned on pages 10-12, 27-29, and 55-60 of the official Praxis Elementary Education: Content Knowledge Study Companion PDF. You may also want to get extra practice questions from the official interactive practice tests listed for 5003 found on this page, if you haven’t already.
On any timed, math-based standardized test, you also want to develop as many mental math tricks and shortcuts as you can. The more steps of a problem you can do in your head, the better your pace and accuracy will be. In fact, calculators can often slow you down, causing you to go through unnecessary steps because your’e not looking for mental math shortcuts. And calculators can open you up to mistakes you wouldn’t make with a combination of mental math and scratch paper.
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I just took my business exam and 62/120 right. My state requires 150 for licensure. Did I meet that mark?
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David Recine
You probably have passed. Your scaled score will be the percentage of questions you got right, plus 100. 62/120 is 51.7%, roughly 151. Now, there is a chance that your score can be adjusted from that initial scaled score estimate. However, your official score often will be directly based on your percentage right, and if it changes, it may change only by a point or two, and is often adjusted upward rather than downward.
So again, you’ve probably passed. 🙂 A final score below 150 is possible, but probably not likely. And even if you do get just below the mark, you can almost certainly pass the next time, just by boosting your score one or two percentage points higher.
If you get a chance, give us an update once you get your official score, Carlin!
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Tera
So, I’m really confused. I got my scores and my raw scores on the math were 7/15, 6/15, 5/10, 4/10 which is 22/50. I understand that some questions are worth more and the total might be 56 questions, but even if I got 22/56 that would be be 39% and a score of 139 – but my score was a 126. Am I misunderstanding something or could they have messed up my score. It would still be failing because I need a 150, but I’m curious if this has ever happened. Thanks!!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Tera,
It’s hard to know what’s going on here without more information, but I can make a guess! It’s possible that the questions you got wrong were worth more than one point, which means that your overall percent correct would be lower. It’s also important to note that our method here is meant to be an estimation, and we do see students whose tests do not necessarily conform to this system! There’s not much you can do except wait for your official scores, I’m afraid. Since it sounds like you will be looking for a retake, I recommend that you check out our Magoosh Premium Praxis program, which includes comprehensive lesson videos and practice questions to help you ace the Praxis 🙂
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Randy
I took my praxis core writing test yesterday and I did not complete the source- based essay. I was finishing up my conclusion when time ran out. will that hurt my score a lot? Also, do you have to write a 5 paragraph essay to score high on the essay portion? I am not fast at typing at all, so there is noway I would be able to write 5 solid paragraphs in 30 mins
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David Recine
Great questions, Randy, and sorry to hear you weren’t able to finish the conclusion in time. I’m sure that was frustrating. the good news is that as long as the rest of your essay was strong, and incomplete conclusion won’t have a massive impact on your whole-test score.
I’m glad you’ve asked about the necessity of a five paragraph essay, as that’s a good thing to know if you wind up retaking the test. (Hopefully won’t happen, but it’s best to be prepared.) You don’t need exactly five paragraphs per se. What you do need is a clear introduction, body, and conclusion, in the basic pattern of a five paragraph essay. But so long as the essay is well developed, the body of the essay could be two paragraphs instead of three. In theory, you could even have just one body paragraph, so long as it properly addressed the essay prompt. However, it would probably be difficult to do a fully developed essay with just three paragraphs (intro paragraph, body paragraph, conclusion). Hope that helps!
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David Yost
Hi,
Took the Praxis core a week ago. Got the reading/math scores 172/160 passing. Awesome. I did the essay and wrote a good essay I hope for both questions. How long to actually get the grades back for the whole test? will they post the math/reading then post the writing later, or will they do it all at once? a buddy of mine here took the writing and got his back in a week. thats why i am asking. its been a week and nothing yet. Granted we both took the test in Shanghai, I did get my Social Studies 5081 in 5 days.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi David,
It’s hard to tell–you might get them earlier, but “officially” you will get the official scores for the Math and Reading tests within 10-11 days of taking the tests, and you’ll get the official Writing scores within 15-16 days after taking the test. You may get them earlier like your friend, but I’m afraid there’s really no way to tell. Congrats on your passing score, by the way!
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Shunta Carver
I have taken the Praxis Core writing four times. The first time I missed the passing score by 2 points. The second time the computer shut off in the middle of writing my essays, so I was scored on the selected-response section and one essay. Thankful I received a voucher to retake the test. The third time I missed it by four points. I retook the Praxis writing again today and praying that I pass. I scored a 17 out of 34 on the essay and selected-response section. How many questions from the selection response section do I need to answer correctly in order to pass? Also, how much is each selected-response question worth and why are there 40 questions on the test, but only 34 is scored?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Shunta,
I’m sorry to hear about these frustrating experiences! Many of your questions can be answered in the Core Writing Study Companion PDF, and I’ll answer them one by one 🙂 The number of questions that you must answer correctly depends on your state’s requirements. It’s important to note that the two sections of the writing Core praxis are scored differently: the Text Types, Purposes and Production section (which includes the essays) is worth 60% of your score, and the Language and Research Skills for Writing section is worth 40%. Because the number of questions in each section varies, it’s difficult to say how many questions you must get right for a passing score. An easy rule of thumb is to subtract 100 from your state’s passing score; this number is the % of points that you must get in order to pass (so if your state’s passing score is 150), then you need to get 50% of the points correct. There are unscored questions on the test because that is how ETS researches new questions. They include questions that they wish to test and measure whether the question is strong and how difficult it is. There is no way to know which questions are unscored, however, so it’s important to try your best on every single question!
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Greg Taylor
I just got my results and I’m confused by them. I got 200 on my reading, which is great but barely seems possible. However, I only got a 148 on maths despite getting 64% of the questions right. Shouldn’t that give me a score of over 160?
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David Recine
Hi Greg,
First off, congratulations on your 200 in Praxis Core Reading! That’s very impressive, and yes, with hard work and focus, it’s also completely possible. This is true especially because the Praxis Core will sometimes “curve” a grade in your favor, meaning you might be able to get one or two questions wrong and still get the 200. Again, though, a full 1005 accuracy is also a possibility, and it sounds like you may have done that. 🙂
As for your 64% translating into a 148, that is unfortunate. But it’s not unheard of for a Praxis Core score to “curve” that much downward form your raw score. that big of an adjustment is uncommon, but it does sometimes happen.
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Kayla
Hello, I took my core math for the fourth time today and received a 144. How many questions am I away?
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David Recine
That depends on what score you need. What I can tell you is that each question on Praxis Core Math is worth about 1.8% of your overall score. This means that each additional question you get right boosts your final scaled score by 1.8 points, rounded to the nearest point. So if you take your 144 and get one additional question correct, you’d go up to 146.8, which would round up to 147. And if you got two additional questions right, you’d have 144 + 3.6, or 147.6, which would round up to 148. Your 144 plus three extra questions right would be 144 + 5.4, or 149, and so on.
Bear in mind of course that these are just estimates. Praxis may make additional minor adjustments to your official score. But the figures I gave you above should give you a good estimate of how many more questions you need to get right in order to get to the Praxis score your state requires. (And if you’re not sure what your state requirements are for Praxis, you can look them up on the official Praxis state score requirements website.)
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NervousTeacher
Took the Physics Praxis today and received an unofficial score of 142. I need a 141 in my state. Called ETS about this to ask how reliable that unofficial score is and the lady in the phone said 9 times out of 10, the official score is the exact same and if it does change it’s by a point or 2. I’m worried about my scores being adjusted downwards by 2 points and missing by 1 point. How likely is that to happen? Especially for the Physics test in particularly. The woman on the phone made is sound like that was unlikely, but I’m still nervous. And does the unofficial score take into account getting part of multiple select questions right or counts the whole thing as wrong if I didn’t get it fully right? I got 60 raw score points according to the computer.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Nervous Teacher,
I completely understand how nerve-wracking it is to wait for the official results! In our experience, most official scores are the same as the unofficial scores, and if they change at all they usually increase by 1-2 points. We don’t have hard data to back this up or a probability to give you in this case, but our experience reinfoces the information provided to you by the woman at ETS. You got a raw score of 60, and your percent correct will be determined by the total number of points on the test (if certain questions are worth more than 1 point, you will get credit for every point you answer correctly). I know that this is a stressful time, but overthinking about the test will not necessarily help you as you wait for the Official Score! The test is over and you did your best; there’s nothing you can change now. You most likely passed, and I hope that you can take some time to relax and stop worrying about the results 🙂
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Jen
So I just received a 142 on the Praxis Core Math test (the number of correct answers I got was 28). With your logic, I should have a score of 150 since 28 is 50% of 56.. Should I call ETS?
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David Recine
The logic given in this post is usually applicable to your actual score. However, it’s not all that uncommon for ETS to adjust the final official score, based on certain factors. (Relative difficulty of the questions, for example.) Ad adjustment from 150 down to 142 is unusually big, but not unheard of. I’d say it couldn’t hurt to call ETS, but it might not help either. Regardless, I’m sorry you saw such a drop in score between your unofficial score and your official one. That sounds frustrating! 🙁
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rv
Hi! I took the Praxis Core Math test today and I got a 148. I live in NC and it said I need a 150, but I go to school at USC in SC, and the passing score is 142. Which score is the one I would need to have passed? Thanks!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi RV,
I’m not sure if we are the best people to answer this question! It sounds like your school has a passing score for its own purposes (142), but you will also need to pass the score needed by the state/school district that will employ you. If you plan to work in NC and need to get a passing score in NC, then you may need to retake the test. I recommend that you contact your school or school districts for more information.
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Julia
Do you know approximately how many questions out of 120 on the SPED (5354) might not count toward a score? I took it today and got 93 questions correct and the unofficial scaled score was 191. This seemed kind of high since 93/120 is 77.5%. I would have thought the score would be around 177. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I’m just wondering if some of my wrong answers were on questions that maybe didn’t count. I guess I’ll just have to wait until June 29 to get my official score.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Julia,
Our expertise is really in the Praxis Core exams, so I’m afraid that we don’t know the ins and outs of all of the various Praxis exams! It’s definitely possible that the questions you got wrong were unscored. I wouldn’t worry too much about analyzing your score to this degree, however, because you will never actually be able to answer this question! No matter how you slice it, you got a great score, so take some time to celebrate 🙂
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ShannonH
I took the Educational Leadership Praxis practice test and got 75 of 110 questions right, 68%. Does this likely equate to passing this if a 145 is what’s required to pass in my state?
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David Recine
Your scaled Praxis score for Educational Leadership (Praxis 5411) is–approximately–your percentage correct plus 100. So you got roughly a 168, which easily exceeds the 145 minimum. Congratulations!
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Jenny
Hi there, I took the Praxis on Tuesday and scored 140 on Reading and 136 on Math. How are these scores scaled? Is there a chance that the scores can go up?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Jenny,
That sounds like your unofficial score. These scores sometimes change, but usually by no more than a point or two. Unfortunately, you will have to wait for your officials scores to know for sure! Good luck 🙂
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Elle
Hi! I took the Praxis 5025 today for the second time. I need a 156 to pass and my unofficial score today was a 153. I know it’s really rare that my score may change by a couple of points. Should I wait a couple of weeks for my official score or just register for another exam?
Thank you!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Elle,
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a right answer here. It’s unlikely that your score will change by 3 points, but it is possible. I would continue studying but hold off on scheduling your test right now (to avoid a potential cancellation fee). Fingers crossed!
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I recently have taken the praxis math core twice. I scored 148 and 146, in that order. My question is how can I get a lower score and get more questions correct? The first test I had 27 correct which gave me a 148 and by my calculations that makes sense. Second test I get 30 correct and get a 146. I would think that would have put me at a 154. Any help with an explanation would be helpful very frustrating for me.
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David Recine
Kenny,
Your frustration is certainly understandable. Sorry to hear you experienced this baffling setback! Why did this happen? The short answer is that some questions on Core Math are “weighted” differently than others. In other words, certain questions are worth more scaled score points once the final scaled score is calculated. The slightly longer answer is that questions are weighted differently, AND ETS is not very transparent about the hows and whys of this. I’ve contacted the Praxis call center before regarding this, and they say differences in the weight of questions in the scaled score of Praxis Core tests are connected to two things: difficulty level, and how many concepts are being tested. So a more complicated Praxis Core Math problem might be worth more points on the final score due to both of those factors. I hope this info helps at least a little. And best of luck on your next retake of the Praxis!
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SteachM
I took the 5161 today. My score, with an asterik next to it, was 192. How am I to interpret that score? I forgot how many questions in the two subsections I got right. I think it was 32 and 13…but I can’t remember for sure because I saw a ‘192’ at the top of the screen. There are 60 questions on the 5161…any thoughts?
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David Recine
Hi Steach M. Since there are only 60 questions on Praxis 5161 (Mathematics: Content Knowledge), the 192 must be your scaled score. Your scaled score is the percentage of questions you got right, plus 100. And your final official score will be very close to your scaled score (or exactly the same as it). So it sounds like you got 92% correct on the test. Impressive! Although I don’t know the exact requirements of the state where you’re getting licensed, it really does seem likely that you’ve passed with flying colors. 🙂
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Kit
Hi,
I took the praxis 5543 last month and the score that I was sent was a 155. When I counted up my raw score points on the last sheet, it came out to 58 points not 55. I added 100 to the equation and I should have scored a 158 which is what I need instead of a 155. I sent an inquiry by email and a hardcopy in the mail. Is there anyone else I could possibly reach out too about this issue?
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David Recine
Hi Kit! You could call Praxis customer service at 1-609-771-7395. However, you may not need to. This change in points from your initial score to your scaled score isn’t that uncommon. For a number of reasons, your final official score will often be adjusted from your raw score, so that the results change by a few points. There’s another reason your final score could vary a bit too: Praxis 5543 (Special Education: Core Knowledge and Mild to Moderate Applications) includes some constructed response questions where you write a short answer and/or an essay. Because these are human-scored based on a rubric, after your test day, they aren’t included in your raw score. For more info on how the constructed response questions might have influenced your score, see my article on predicting your Praxis score when constructed response is involved.
If you really would like additioanl answers on why exactly you got a 155, you may also want to consider getting a score review on your constructed responses. Here on the blog, Allison has written a helpful article about that process.
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Jamie
I took the Health 5551 test today. It gave me a NS but raw scores of 14, 20,18,6, and 11 for a total of 69 raw points. I have no clue if I will gain extra by the questions that had multiple answers, or if those are already factored in. I have seen where a raw score of 65 resulted in a 146, and a raw of 79 resulted in a 159. I am thinking I am right on the bubble of the required 149. What do you think?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Jamie,
We provide a method for estimating Praxis scores here. According to this method, we can estimate a score of around 157, give or take a few points because. I’d agree that you are in good shape for a passing score 🙂
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Faith G
I recently took Praxis Special Education 5354 for SC. My total number of raw points was 68. I had 120 questions. Did I pass.
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David Recine
60/120 is about 57% correct. Since your scaled score is approximately 100 plus the percentage of questions you got right, that puts you at roughly 157. Whether that’s a passing score depends on your state’s standards. If you can’t recall the exact requirement for Praxis 5354 (Special Education: Core Knowledge and Applications), don’t worry– ETS has you covered! Just look up your state on the official Praxis State Requirements web page.
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Allison C
Today I took the math praxis core for the first time and received an unofficial score report of a 160, and my state requirement is a 150. I’m scared that when I get the official report that the score will have changed. How common is that? (This website really helped me prepare by the way)!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Allison,
First, congrats on taking the Praxis! Second, I’m glad to hear that our website helped you to prepare! Third, I don’t think you have to worry about your score falling below the 150 mark. Most unofficial scores are exactly the same as the official scores, and if they change at all, it’s generally just by a point or two!
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Kimberly
I took the Language Arts 5047 exam yesterday and did not receive a score at the end. Did something go wrong? I’ve taken the exam before and recieved unofficial scores, but this time it only asked about score reporting and that was it.
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David Recine
First, don’t worry too much– in all likelihood nothing went wrong in terms of how you took the test, or in terms of whether or not you’ll get issued an official score in a timely fashion. On the other hand, something very likely DID go wrong with the display screen in the test center. From time to time, there’s a gliche at the end of the test, and you don’t get to see your unofficial score. That’s always frustrating!
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Jenn
I just took the praxis practice test for becoming a principal (5411), and I answered 79 of 110 questions correctly. Does anyone know if this would be predicted in the passing range? Thanks!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Jenn,
According to our Praxis II score estimation method, this percent correct would put you around a 172. I’m not sure what the passing score is for your state/district, but I hope that helps 🙂
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On my first go at the Core Math, my score on the computer was a 142 and it was scaled to a 146 for the official score. The next time, it was 148 and not scaled at all. When I took it again it was a 140 and not scaled again. I’ve studied and passed higher college math classes with A’s; and the WORKKEYS Math portion. Could my last scores have not been correct??
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
It is not a guarantee that the score at the end of the test will change. It depends on the cohort scaling for each session, so I would not immediately assume anything was amiss. The estimated score at the end is actually usually accurate, and changes are uncommon. If you’re still doubtful, though, you can reach out to ETS!
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beka
I ran out of time before proofreading all the way trough my second essay . It consisted of only notes and ideas in the last forth part How will this effect my score?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Beka,
It’s hard to say exactly how this will affect your score, but it will result in a lower score than a full essay. Keep your fingers crossed, and good luck!
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Jennifer
Hi I am taking the RVE praxis 5304. It has 100 MC questions and 2 essay. I need a score of 162. How do I figure out how the essay questions are weighted?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Jennifer,
The following blog posts will help you find this information about any Praxis II Test:
https://magoosh.com/praxis/praxis-ii-scores-need-know/
https://magoosh.com/praxis/selected-response-and-constructed-response-on-the-praxis-exams/I hope that helps 🙂
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Tracey
I am consistently answering 65% of the questions correctly on practice exams for the Professional School Counselor 5421. I need a 156 to pass in my state, am I close?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
According to our method for estimating your Praxis Score, 65% correct will put you somewhere in the 165 range. Keep in mind that this is only an estimate, and your real score will likely be adjusted for difficulty. It’s always a good idea to provide yourself with as much of a cushion as possible to ensure that you reach a passing score! Good luck 🙂
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Alysha Stone
I just took the praxis middle school science. 150 is passing in Va. A 144 popped up at the end, but out of 125 questions, I got 66 correct. Many of the multiple choice have multiple answers (such as what 3 blah blah go with this subject). So 66/125 is 52.8 x 100 or 152 which is passing, but I got a 144. So what’s the reality that I passed? That’s a big difference. How many questions are field tested and not counted in the 125? Are multiple answer questions “all or nothing” or do they give partial credit (such as I got 2 of the 3 answers correct in a question)? I felt pretty good about the test. Only a small percentage I didn’t really know. If I can pass the Earth and Space Sciences Praxis (which everyone said is much harder), I shoul be able to pass MS science. Please offer your insight. Thank you!!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Alysha!
I’m so sorry to hear that you didn’t reach your target score, and that your unofficial score was lower than our estimates. We provide this scoring method as a way to estimate scores, but unfortunately it does tend to over-simplify the actual Praxis scoring process. ETS adjusts its scores to take minor differences between different test versions into account.
Your score may have been adjusted downwards for several reasons. The test may have been “easier” than normal (the test questions were easier than “normal”, so the score was adjusted downwards to account for this), or some of the questions you got correct could have been experimental questions, which means that they did not contribute to your score. It’s tough to say exactly how many of these questions were experimental, as this is something only ETS knows.
Often times, unofficial scores for the Praxis are the same as the official scores. So, I would recommend scheduling a retake. However, you’re really close to passing – so preparing for a retake could get you there! 😀
Once again, I’m sorry that our score estimate did not work; the ETS scoring process is a closely-held secret, and we provide these estimates to help students prepare for the test, but they aren’t perfect.
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Katerina
Hello,
I just have a question I have taken the Praxis Social Studies Content (5081) once and got a 154 to continue in my education program and to pass the test for my state I need a 157. I keep doing the practice tests and have been studying I keep getting 85-87 correct answers on the practice tests. Im still not sure if I will pass though. Im not sure if my practice tests would be like a passing score or if i should continue studying for this.
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David Recine
Hi Katerina,
And 85-87 out of the 130 questions on Praxis 5081 represents about 65-67% correct. And your scaled score will be roughly 100 plus your percentage correct. Your performance looks good enough for you to pass, so congratulations!
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HMarie
I’m taking the Content Knowledge (5018) Praxis and I need to get a score of 163 to pass for TN; I have a 161, but that doesn’t count. Approximately how many questions do I need to get correct to get this score.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi there,
You can use our method for estimating the scaled score (discussed in this blog post) to estimate the number of questions you need to get right in order to achieve this score. Basically, you should aim to get at least 63% of the questions correct, though I would recommend aiming even higher to account for how ETS scales the test. Since the Praxis 5018 has 140 questions, you should aim for a minimum of 84 correct questions.
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Michael H
So if I get 50 out of 56 on a reading practice text, that is an indication that I have a good chance above the 156 required by my state?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Michael,
A 50/56 would put you at 189. I think you have a great chance to get the 156 required to pass 😀 Congratulations!
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Sadi Sanchez
Hello.
I recently took the CT Admin Test. My unofficial scale score was 173 and my raw score was 73 (120 mc question test). Some of the question were “select two” or “select three” choices. Others were “drag in place”. Currently the passing score in CT is 146.
I feel cautiously optimistic. What do you think?
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David Recine
I’d say you have good cause to be cautiously optimistic. The “select two” or “select three” questions would have higher point value, but this higher value should be automated calculated in the test center right on test day, making your 173 close to accurate or 100% accurate. Good luck, and if you get a chance, come back here and let us know what the official score ultimately was!
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Chole
Hi. I’ve been studying for my praxis core math test for under two weeks, I take my official test on the 30th of the month. I I just took a practice test online a got a 33 out of 56, just wondering what type of score that would look like! Let me know what you think!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Chole!
A 33/56 would be around a 158. With that said, this is just an estimate. 🙂 It’s important to wait for your final scores to know for sure.
Best of luck!
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Gabby
HI. I took the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators: Mathematics (5732) in Virginia . When I submitted my exam it showed me a score of 148. Is there a possibility that my official score could change. Because my raw score is only 2 points away from passing in VA.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Gabby,
I know it’s extremely nerve-wracking to see that the unofficial score at the end of your test is so close to the score that you need! While it is possible that your final score will be a point or two higher than the unofficial score that you see at the end of the test, there’s really no guarantee. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is wait for the official scores to be released. Best of luck!
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Alec
Hello Magoosh, I just took a practice Praxis test offered by the Educational Testing Service (E.T.S) and was wondering if you could help calculate my score? My state is Kentucky and the minimum score is 150 and when I took the test I got 38 questions out of 56 questions correct and when I did the percentage I got a 67.85% would that be a theoretical passing score or should I practice more? Thanks for your help!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Alec! That score suggests you should clear the 150 because a 67.85% is between 167-168. It never hurts to practice more though! Just in case 🙂
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Abdelrahman
Hello,I am taking my core praxis exam this tuesday,i did my test preparation today ans i got 32 out 56 answers correct,what does this score translate to in the range of the 100-150 and does this mean that i passed my praxis exam
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David Recine
Hi Abdelrahman,
For the Core Reading and Core Math Praxis tests, both of which have 56 selected response questions, your official score will be on a 100-200 scale, and the score will be (approximately) the percentage of questions you answered correctly, plus 100. 32/56 is about 57%, so you’re scaled score would be 157. Whether or not a 157 is passing depends only our state requirements, of course. 🙂 You can look up the Praxis Core requirements for the state you’re seeking a license in by going to the official Praxis state requirements web page. Hope this helps!
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Allison
Hello!
I just took the practice exam for the Elementary Education: Mathematics—CKT (7803) and i received 30 correct with 2 partially correct. There are 52 questions on the exam. What would this score translate to? I need a 150 to pass in my state. thanks!
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Allison, I’m honestly not sure how partially correct answers work out, score-wise, since the official study companion materials for Praxis 7803 don’t cover that. However, I can still give you a round ballpark of your score. Let’s say that the partially correct answers are worth half a point each, compared to the other answers. In that case, 30 correct and 2 partially correct comes to 31 out of 52. 31/52 = 0.596, or 56%. Since your scaled score will be approximately 100 plus the percentage you got correct, you’re looking at a score of 156. Official socres are often adjusted by 1, 2, or 3 points, but larger adjustments are very rare. So it looks like you have very likely passed. Congratulations. 🙂
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Valerie McDonald
Hi, there. I am scheduled to take my PLT 5622 test this week, and I am struggling to figure out how the scoring works. Since it has both multiple choice and open-ended questions, will I have a good idea if I passed or failed immediately? I have been getting about 67% of the multiple choice questions correct on practice test. For MS, we have to have a score of 160 to pass. Given that I make at least one point per open-ended question, does it seem like I have a good probability of passing?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Valerie,
We have some resources to help you predict your score in this situation here: Predicting your Praxis Score when Constructed Response is Involved. Keep in mind that these are all estimates, especially when constructed response is involved, but it should give you a good idea of where you stand right now. Good luck 🙂
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Hi, I’ve been really confused about this. I recently took the Praxis Core Rreading, Writing, & Math). I know what my state requires for individual scores for each, but someone recently told me that I get a cumulative score too? I ask because (via the Test Center) I got a 120 of the 150 requirement on the Math portion, but I got a 174 of the 152 minimum requirement on the Reading, and expect to have done well on the Writing portion.
SO, if I did better than the minimum on both Reading & Writing, might they balance out my lower math score to make my overall Praxis score a pass?
Thanks!
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David Recine
Hi Tim,
Great question! Praxis Core score standards vary from state to state. Most states look at individual scores and don’t consider composites as you’re describing. But to know for sure if a composite score is acceptable, you should check your state’s Praxis standards. This can be done on the official Praxis State Requirements website— just go there and look up your state. 🙂
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Tanya
Hello, I am very confused right now. I took Math 5732 and got 20/50 correct. This should show 140, however, it was reported that I got a 120. I need a 150 to pass it in my state of Louisiana. What could be wrong? Also, are you thinking that I needed only to get 5 more correct to have gotten to the 150?
Thanks
Tanya A- Louisiana
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Hello. I recently just took the elementary education social studies praxis test. I received my unofficial score of 152 and have to have a 155. Which is 32/60 questions correct. What are the chances of the scores being changed once they are official.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Bailey,
Changes of up to 3 points have been reported before, but it’s not very common. With that said, you won’t know for sure until you get your official scores. If I was you, I’d start preparing for a retake just in case.
Best of luck!
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Marie
Hello! I just took the reading praxis core and my score on the screen was a 146. I needed to get 148 in order to pass for my college. There were 56 questions total and I got 46 questions correct. Does this mean that I failed the exam? I am hoping maybe it wil go out a point or two once I recieve my final score. I’m super bummed I was behind by two points.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Marie,
Something definitely isn’t adding up here. If you got 46/56 correct, your score would be in the range of 182. However, if you saw a “146” on the screen, then that was likely your unofficial score, which rarely changes. Try to think back on the screen and determine what you remember best–was it the 146 or the 46 correct out of 56? I know it can be difficult to remember something like that, especially after a long and tiring test, so unfortunately you may have to wait until the official scores come out!
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Maria
I took the Praxis 5511. All four sections amounted to a score of 158. I need 150 to pass. Did I pass it?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Maria,
There are only 120 questions on the Praxis 5511, so it sounds like that 158 is your unofficial score. Unofficial scores rarely differ from official scores on the Praxis, so I think it’s safe to say that you passed. Congratulations! 🙂
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Stacy
I need at 157 to pass English and Language Arts. I got a raw score of 50 correct, which doesn’t seem good to me, but if I’m understanding how to calculate the scores correctly, I passed?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Stacy,
This depends on how many total possible points are on this particular praxis exam. In order to get a 157, you’d need to answer around 57% of the questions correctly.
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Mmcduffy
I just took PRAXIS 5354 and at the end of the test it had “score *160”and that was it. I need a 151 to pass. Would that be my unofficial score?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi there,
There are only 120 questions on the Praxis 5354, so it sounds like 160 is your unofficial score! Unofficial scores are rarely different from official scores, and if they are – it’s rarely by more than 1-3 points. Therefore, I think it’s safe to say that you’ve passed! Congratulations. 😀
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Peter
If I answered 86 out of 120 on a practice test for Praxis 5701, and need a score of 147 am I in good shape? I am also wondering if I answer a question with more than one answer partially right does this help my overall score? Thank you.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Peter,
If you answered 86/120 on the Praxis 5701, then it looks like you’ll be in good shape. A score estimate for 86/120 is ~170. 😀
To answer your second question, yes, partial credit may be offered for some questions. 🙂
Best of luck!
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Shiela
Hi I just took the SLP Praxis 5331 and received an unofficial score of 162 which is passing. I’m worried because I heard that the scores can go up or down by 1-3 points. This test consist of mostly multiple choice and about 3 questions requiring drag and drop answers. Is it safe to say that I passed ?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Shiela,
It’s possible for the score to change, but it’s not particularly likely. Most students find that their unofficial score is their official score, but you’ll have to wait for the final results to know for sure. Good luck!
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Cailet
Hi,
I took the Praxis II Biology today (5235) and my unofficial score showed as 182. However, the individual question tallies below showed only 96 total “points” out of 150 questions, which would be a 64%. I am above the threshold for the state I will be teaching in, but I wanted to know where the 182 came from if I only answered 64% correctly.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Cailet,
Honestly, I wouldn’t worry too much about this if I were you. It’s very hard to say what might be happening here without being able to see the unofficial report itself, and you got an excellent score. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful 🙂
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Nicole
I’m due to take the Business Education (5101) Praxis for South Carolina! I need a score of 154 and there are 120 questions on the test! How many questions would I need to pass?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Nicole,
Based on our method for estimating your score, you should aim for around 54% correct, or 65/120 questions.
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Kelly
I just took the Family Consumer Science and the passing score in PA is 153. My unofficial score which appeared on the computer was 167 – did I make it by enough?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Kelly, the unofficial score is usually the same as the official score. Good luck!
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Danyelle
I took the science praxis 5005 and my raw score was a 158 and I need a 159. I had so many technical issues. Their system cut off so they had to restart my test. Is it possible I can appeal my score.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Danyelle, you should contact ETS and explain the issue. They may allow you to retake the test for free. Good luck!
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Lis
HI
I recently took the Praxis 2 Physics 5265 and on test day, I received a “raw score: 121” but then in the middle of the screen it said, “Total score 121”. I assumed I failed and left the facility very depressed. Is there a difference between raw score and total score? I need a 135 to pass and I am praying for a miracle
Thanks for listiening
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Lis, see more information here: Praxis II Scores. Please note that this method is just an estimate. Best of luck!
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Emily
Hi!
I took a Praxis Reading practice test.. out of 56 questions I got 35 correct… If I did the math correctly I got about a 63%.. which means my unofficial score would be 163.. right? If I need a 156 to pass… would I have passed???
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Emily, yes that sounds right!
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M
I just took a practice test for the school psychology praxis. Which is also a 100-200 scale. I got 94/140. I need a 147 to pass and am assuming that my practice test would put me around a 167? All questions are multiple-choice.
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Please see more information here: Praxis II Scores. Please note that this method is just an estimate.
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Shey
Hi I took.an.Slp praxis exam 5331, my raw score is 161, passing is 162..is there a possibility this will still.go up.to 162 in.the actual.report?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Shey, in most cases, the unofficial score and the official score are the same. There is a small chance that your score might change, but I’m afraid you can’t count on it.
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Liv
Hi! In NJ I need a 156 to pass the Core Reading Praxis Test. What is the minimum amount of questions I need to get correct in order to pass the exam?
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Vince
I recently took the Sped (5354) Praxis and my unofficial score was 148. I was wondering is this score accurate enough to base my official score off of?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Vince, the unofficial score is almost always the same as your official score. In very rare circ*mstances, the unofficial score will change by a point or so. You’ll have to wait for the official scores to be sure. Good luck! 🙂
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How about getting an unofficial score of 162 in which 167 should be a passing score given that there are at least 7 questions that require 2-3 responses? Is there a great possibility that my unofficial score of 162 reach the required minimum score of 167. It’s the English Language Arts: Content and Knowledge.
Thank you so much
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Abelardo,
We usually only see unofficial scores and official scores range within a margin of 3 points. For more on this topic, check out this helpful article, which can also help you to calculate your scaled score from your overall raw score. 🙂
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Robyn
I just took the Sped 5343 core knowledge test. the computer calculated a score of 186–The passing score in MD is listed as 163. Can I be assured that there will be no significant changes in my raw score that would reduce it by more than a few points?
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Magoosh Test Prep Expert
Hi Robyn,
Praxis scores rarely change by more than 1-3 points. I think it’s safe to say that you passed it. Congratulations!
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