For anyone interested in taking the alternative route to teacher certification, you will likely have to take a content exam. To get hired in your desired content area, you usually must pass this exam or sometimes just have a degree in the subject area.
The process to begin preparing for your content exam and then passing includes determining the test you need to take, finding a study program that fits your needs, determining the test preparation strategies that work for you, mentally preparing for the day of the exam, and then passing with ease.
How to Determine The Teacher Certification Test to Take
For me, I knew I wanted to teach English Language Arts. I took multiple English courses in college but graduated with a Marketing and Communications degree instead of English because I thought it would make me more marketable. After spending seven years in the communications and marketing world, mainly writing and creating content for various brands, I decided I wanted to make a change to help the next generation strengthen their reading, writing, and communication skills and develop a love for the language arts.
I hadn’t taken a standardized test in almost a decade! So naturally, I was concerned about this “looming” test. To be completely transparent, it nearly held me back from pursuing a career in education. Once I determined I didn’t want a few tests to hold me back from my goal of teaching, I determined the grade level I wanted to teach in and worked with the iteach program coordinator to determine the test I needed to pass.
How to Find a Teacher Certification Test Study Program that Fits Your Needs
I started researching programs that could help me prepare for my TEXES 7-12 English Language Arts exam. Through the iteach program, Passage Preparation™ was highly recommended, and I would get a 90-day voucher for free to help me study. Passage Preparation provides online courses developed by teachers and teacher educators to provide test preparation guides and interactive practice tests for teacher certification tests.
Passage Preparation is through Canvas, similar to the iteach courses, so it was already in a program I was comfortable and familiar with. If you haven’t used Canvas before for online courses, it is highly user-friendly and intuitive.
How to Determine The Test Preparation Strategies that Work For You
The course is divided into modules with sections including overviews, videos, and key vocabulary. Before diving into a test prep course, remember how you study best. If you are in a similar situation as I was, it may have been years since you took an exam, so it may require you to think far back! Did flashcards work well for you? Or was taking notes and highlighting more your cup of tea? Whatever it is, determine your study strategies. Scrolling through each section of the course may lead to little retention and, therefore, will not lead to success on your exam.
The study strategies that work the best for me include chunking and annotating text to put it into my own words, as well as flashcards. After determining the strategies I wanted to implement, I started working through the Passage Preparation course.
Begin Your Test Preparation Course
It may seem like a lot of prep work to get started, but by putting in the time to properly prepare yourself to absorb this knowledge, you will save yourself time overall. Stay calm; just take it one step at a time. I broke my course up into the below steps.
- Read through each module for initial comprehension
I started working through each module by simply reading. I didn’t try to absorb all the information; I just read to understand what the section was about.
- Read through again and begin to copy and annotate
After the initial read-through, I would copy sections I knew I needed additional time to comprehend and add those sections to a document. I added comments or sections below the copied text to write the content in my own words. By translating it into terms that made sense to me, I began to quickly understand and absorb the content.
- Flashcards for Terms
For certain modules, like literature genres and time periods, I knew just annotating alone would not work. For these cases, I broke out the flashcards! I wrote the time period on one side and then examples of authors and literature from that period on the reverse. I would study these cards daily until the test, giving me enough time to transfer the knowledge naturally into my memory and help me feel relaxed when test day arrived.
- Practice Tests
After reviewing all course content, annotating for better comprehension, and creating and reviewing flashcards, I felt confident about taking a practice test. There are multiple checks for understanding throughout the Passage Preparation course, so this will not be the first time you answer direct questions based on course content.
Due to my preparation before taking the practice test, I felt completely confident on the Passage Preparation practice test and passed it easily. At that point, I knew I was ready to take the actual test!
I followed the steps outlined in the iteach program and emailed my results to the testing email. From there, I was able to schedule my exam!
How to Mentally Prepare For Test Day
It felt like a lot was riding on passing this exam, so I was anxious, naturally. I had a potential job lined up but needed to pass my content exam to receive the official offer. Ahead of the test, I continued to study as much as I had been before the practice exam. I reviewed my notes, annotations, and flashcards repeatedly. I knew now that I would be successful if I could go into the exam with a calm nervous system.
A daily meditation practice and moving my body helped me feel aligned, so the week before the exam, I ensured I was following the practices that keep me at ease. In addition, positive self-talk reassured me that I was capable and would pass; I just had to believe in what I knew.
What Test Day Looks Like
My exam included writing sections, so I knew I would test for at least three hours. Since my blood sugar affects my mindset, I prepared by starting the day with a high-protein breakfast.
I looked up where my exam facility was located several days in advance so I would not have the additional anxiety of figuring out where to go on test day. I left about 30 minutes earlier than needed to ensure I could find parking.
Bring your ID and any other required materials. When you arrive at the facility, you will check-in, and then you can start your exam immediately. At least for the TExES exams, you cannot have food or water in the room, but you can step out and take a moment to drink and eat as needed throughout your testing time.
My test took about three and a half hours. I took my time and paused to take deep breaths when stress arrived when I did not know the answer to a given question. I flagged questions I wanted to revisit and trusted my gut and knowledge.
Getting Your Results
Depending on your test type, your results can take a few days to a few weeks. The windows for testing and results will be posted on your state education agency website. In my case, I took my test at the start of the testing window, and since my test contained written responses, it was around three weeks before I got my results.
At this point, there was not much I could do. I couldn’t change my answers, so I just had to trust in myself. I received an email the moment the results were released and opened it with bated breath; I had passed!!! I immediately sent my results to the school where I planned to teach and was on my way to starting my journey into the classroom.
Test anxiety is genuine. A 2020 study examining 200 students preparing to take college entrance exams showed that 151 (75.5%) were stressed out before the exam. You are not alone if you are feeling stressed or anxious about your content exam. By following these steps and a proven preparation course like Passage Preparation, you will remove obstacles and be prepared to pass with ease.
Morgan Greenberg is an English Language Arts teacher in Austin, TX. She worked most of her career in marketing and communications in the edtech industry before transitioning into teaching. Morgan hopes to inspire her students to become lifelong readers and writers. In her free time, she enjoys practicing yoga and spending time in nature, hiking, biking, or camping.
