My Praxis Story

Despite no people of color on this poster, it has a lot of great info

Last week, I completed another milestone in my #SLP life. I passed my national licensing exam in Speech Language Pathology! I am not a great test-taker so this was a topic of much anxiety for me…I studied for about 3 weeks (watching Review videos compiled by my Department, taking practice tests provided by ETS and reviewing my areas of weakness, using a Praxis review book, and searching personal blogs for bits of inspiration and test prep tips). I found some inner confidence to face an exam that in all reality was fair and related to real life situations we find in our field.

I originally scheduled my exam for February 14th. After hearing success story after story of my classmates passing the exam, I decided to push my date up by a week. Testing sites usually offer times beginning at 8am. I scheduled my exam for 12pm on a campus I had never previously visited. I also rented a car to get there. Below are some things I learned from the experience.

Smart things to do:

• If you schedule your exam at a site that you are not familiar with, take some time to go and visit the location, and find out what parking is like, etc. I didn’t own a car at the time, so I didn’t have the option of doing this ahead of time.
• Know yourself well enough to schedule your exam at a time where your brain is at its most productive state. I scheduled my exam for 12pm because I didn’t want to oversleep and I wanted to have a decent breakfast. The morning of I woke up at 7am and could not go back to sleep. Needless to say, I spent a lot of hours twirling my fingers at home that morning.
• Approach the exam with confidence. For me, I kept writing affirmations like “I’m grateful that I will pass the Praxis” and taping them on my walls, used positive self-talk, and envisioned what I would do the moment I saw my passing score. This is another perk of the computerized exam– your exam is graded right away!
• Anxiety is good, if you can learn to manage it. Anxiety can help us, whether it be that kick in the behind to stay on our study schedule, to turn down social events, stay focused at the task at hand during the exam and to stay motivated about the end result.
• Don’t second guess yourself! Your first answer is usually the correct one.

For me, the most helpful piece of advice was to stay confident because, if you’ve made it this far in your graduate school journey, you know more than you give yourself credit for! I spent a considerable amount of time studying how to take this particular exam, because it is not merely an exam of recall– it involves analyzing, synthesizing and critical thinking. I took 3 practice tests, under real live testing conditions (put my phone on airplane mode and out of arm’s reach) and gave myself 2 hours. It also helped that my school offered a Praxis preparation course, where helpful tips are given and practice exams are also administered.

I wish every #SLP2B, no matter where you are on the journey, positive wishes to stay the course…the pay off is surely worth it!

Any SLPeeps who have passed the PRAXIS have any tips they care to share?

Sincerely,

She

Remember #TheLegend

I once read somewhere that it was impossible to stay upset while listening to Bob Marley. Yesterday I was mad at the world and feeling so stressed out that I snapped on someone on my telephone (whom I deeply care about) while stuffing my face with custom-made pizza (don’t judgeth). Then Bob Marley came on in the establishment I was sitting in. Subconsciously, I began singing along and the parasympathetic branch of my autonomic nervous system kicked in (the one that restores your system in response to our fight or flight reaction) and I started to realize that I was wrong, yo. So, I give the man respect.

Whose music puts you in a better mood?

Motivational Monday, On Tuesday

And so, it begins: Motivational Monday

It’s about the only thing I can do…

I have officially begun my diving expedition into the world of ERRYTHANG speech-language pathology as I’ve scheduled my national licensing examination (brought to you by the makers of the GRE and AP Exams, my exam is the subject-specific PRAXIS). I won’t disclose dates but I will say that unlike the dreaded GRE, the PRAXIS is more practical and makes sense to me. It’s about synthesizing course work and application, not merely about regurgitation. My motto this semester is Keep Calm and Graduate because anxiety and worrying have proven to do me no good. They don’t motivate me to work harder, they actually just breed self-pity and negative self-talk. Although I have some great gigantic goals this semester, I am reminded that my fear reveals where I don’t trust God. And so, I must trust.

Worry…fear..is just a misuse of the creative imagination that has been placed in each of us. Because we are smart and creative, we imagine all the things that could happen, that might happen, that will happen if this or that happens. -The Noticer by Andy Andrews

Back to my notes,
She