Adina Harris

MUE 530
12/1/2016
Praxis Questions
The 5113 Praxis II Exam is the Music Content Knowledge exam. This is a test used to
assess a beginning music teachers knowledge and understanding of music and music education,
as well as the persons professional readiness for K-12 music instruction. This exam is important,
because it tests whether the music teacher is fully equipped with accurate knowledge about
music education. In order for the beginning teacher to even take this test, they must have
completed or nearly completed an undergraduate music education program. Therefore, the
purpose of this test is to prove that the graduates or students of this program have adequately
completed all of the necessary studies to be able to successfully and efficiently teach courses to
students in instrumental, vocal, general music settings, or a combination of all three. The type of
questions asked on this exam will represent the diverse areas of music instruction, as well as
cultural and demographic inclusiveness of modern music instruction. The questions on the test
will test the beginning music teachers knowledge of specialized topics and general music
content. This is meant to judge the degree or level, of which the person is familiar and well
versed on the topics related to vocal, brass, woodwind, percussion, and string instruments,
In order to prepare for this examination I have attended all Praxis Lab sessions with Dr.
Crosby for the fall 2016 semester. I have also looked up other test preparation tools, such as
study books. I have also purchased the Praxis II practice test and will be using that as a study
tool. I do not feel that I am prepared to take this exam yet. I believe that I have not set an

efficient amount of time aside to study on my own. I am especially not prepared for the aural
portion of the exam. I have not worked on my ear training as frequently as I should. In order to
be successful on this exam, I need to put in more time with training my hearing. I need to look
for websites and other sources that can help me improve my ear training. I also need to review
my music theory notes from my tenure at Hampton along with my music history notes. It was
very helpful when we did the aural practice exam during Praxis Lab one day. I believed that
doing those exercises really helped me to get an understanding on what kind of questions could
possibly be included on the test. This also let me know where my weak spots were. I plan to take
the Praxis II Exam around two weeks before we come back to school for the spring 2017
semester.