Ep. 18 - Why You Should Study the Whole Praxis® Book | SLP Praxis Study Prep

So pretty much what we like to talk about here on this channel are mindset techniques, understanding your why, and leveraging your why and mindset techniques to get a passing score and make that passing score inevitable on the SLP practice exam. So, today is, I guess I'll call it like a continuation of a question that I got on q and a on Instagram stories this week. And pretty much what that question was is should I study the entire praxis book when preparing for the SLP practice exam. And so I'm assuming that that book is the advanced review book by Rosemary McKibbin. That's like that huge book, highly recommended highly recommend getting that updated edition because y'all it is I call it the Praxis bible to be honest with you.

It's it's my top and the most recommended study book for studying for this exam. So when this person asked me this question, my first answer was, yeah. Yeah. Study the whole thing. I understand some people are very different and if you are someone who gets really anxious about time, like, if you have a lot of time anxiety, this exam, let alone read the whole book to study for it, then that is probably your intuition telling you to take more time to study for the exam.

And that is why I always recommend not to just wing it, but to actually set out a plan to put that in place especially if you don't consider yourself a strong test taker. The goal is to take the exam once. The goal is not to take it several times, it's to take it only one time and to pass. Now, of course, there are people like myself actually who, you know, do not pass the first time and that's okay and that's why today I want to start this conversation by talking about how you can fail forward. So, let's go.

So, here's how I failed forward when passing the exam and I will tie it into what this even has to deal with why we need to study the whole entire practice book. Well, when I was studying for the SLP practice exam the first time, I was just kind of, I don't know, kinda touch and go reading. If anyone listening to this understands that, just the touch and go reading, I'll open up my book, spend 30 minutes, like, okay. You know, I'm reading the book. I'm kind of studying it.

Yep. Alright. Let me close close the book and then go on about my life and then I'll come back maybe, like, a few days, maybe even a week later, open up the book, touch and go study, pretty much do the same thing again. And, that's also what I consider winging it because it's not like I actually had a plan. I didn't say, okay, on this week, I'm going to study articulation, on this week, I'm going to study voice, on this week, I'm gonna study adult language disorders, no, I was just kinda picking up and putting it down so that is my first thing is be very intentional with your study time, create a study plan.

The second thing I will say, even why I failed forward, well, like I keep saying, I did not pass the first time. I actually failed the first time. And after I had a moment of kind of grieving and releasing that self doubt and that disappointment from not passing the first time, I was just like, you know what? I'm actually about to study this thing, and that was after graduation when I started studying again. And I'm like, to be honest with you, I don't remember a lot of stuff.

I was also go we were going through the start of the pandemic. So with everything on the news, and I was distracted from the actual study process. And so something in me, I e, my intuition was, like, you need to actually sit down and create a plan to make this inevitable for yourself and I did. So going back to that question, should I study the whole book? Yes, because studying the whole book will end up saving you time in the long run.

So for those of you listening to this who who are on the time scarcity tip, which no shade, but really, if you feel like you don't have time to study the whole book, then that means you're not giving yourself enough time, yourself enough love that you really need to study for this. And so, ultimately, what I did was I saved myself time and money by studying the whole book because I could have been doing the same thing and expecting a different result, which is insanity. Right? So that was my little soapbox on you know, I just hope that that bit right there created some urgency for you all to ensure that you are doing your due diligence for yourself, really. It is an act of self love to make sure that you are putting the plan first, the strategy first.

So, here's another reason why I recommend studying the whole entire book and really here's how, because I think when you look at even the table of contents, that could be overwhelming. And the the advanced review book is very thick. It's like I mean, I'm using my fingers. It's not even that thick, y'all. It's like this, it looks like this thick and so I was like, how could I possibly do this, right?

So, here's the hack, here's the hack. I recommend taking the practice exam, the SLP practice exam. You can do this on ETS. People have also used If you use you can get 10% off with my code Praxis speech sister. I'll put that in the comments and also in the show notes for those watching on YouTube.

And you can also, of course, you could use the quizzes in the back of the book, but I recommend going through the whole shebang taking the practice exam because what that practice exam is going to tell you is what content areas, not necessarily the subjects, but what content areas you need to really strengthen and what content areas are already strong. So I'll give myself, for example, when I took the practice exam the first time so this isn't the practice exam. Honestly, if you've already taken the practice exam once, then you are, believe it or not, at an advantage because, one, you already know how it goes. 2, you already know because, 1, you already know how it goes. 2, you already know where you fell short so you know not to do that again.

Right? So that that was me. For example, when I was looking at my score report, it indicated that my strong areas were treatment and foundations, but that my weaker area was assessment. And, so, when I open up my table of contents in the advanced review book, there were I circled the chapters that I knew I needed to study. For so, for example, audiology. Yes. I will study that whole entire chapter because I am not that sure about it. Voice. Yes. Neuro communicative disorders, yes.

I will definitely do that. But when I get to the childhood side because I'm a pediatric speech pathologist, by then I graduated so I really was able to call myself a speech pathologist, I just wasn't certified yet. I circled under, like, for example, the childhood language section, I circled the assessment chapter. And I also circled the foundations because, you know, as far as, like, language development, which is its whole other chapter in the book, but just for example, the language development section was something I knew I needed. I'm like, honestly, at that time, I'm like, I cannot spit Brown's stages of language development to anybody at this point.

So let me let me also study that. And then in order for me to pace it, once I knew what I needed, I reverse engineered it. And so my mentor said that I needed to study and make sure I was strong on my stronger areas. So I went ahead and did that first and then I took time to study my weaker areas. And when I say took time, I took time.

I said, okay. This week, I'm going to study audiology, and this is the day that I that I, hope to have audiology done. When I was done with even if it was just like a page of the audiology chapter, I celebrated that. And I'm like, great. Now, tomorrow, I just need to study the next page or tomorrow, you know, my goal is to study 3 pages of it.

And so that's how you study the full book. And, again, I will just keep singing this until the cows come home. Give yourself time. So I have two resources that are aligned with this. I have the Praxis 12 week plan.

It's completely free. You can find that on the Praxis Speech Sister Instagram page. I will also put that in the comments, and then I also have your learning styles freebie. So, if you don't already have the learning styles freebie that doesn't just tell you about your learning styles, but it tells you how you can choose what materials according to your learning style. Lastly, I do recommend downloading the mini course.

So if you feel like you are struggling with your mindset, if you are waiting for the other shoe to drop, if you feel like you are not a good test taker, if you are feeling a lot of anxiety about this exam, which if you're feeling a lot of anxiety about this exam, please understand you are not alone. You are not the only one who is feeling anxious or stressed about it. There is a collective of SLPAs, CFs, and graduate students, even undergrads who are anxious and stressed right now about the SLP practice exam. One thing I will say is think about beating the SLP praxis at its own game, and, really, think of it like a game. And, that's one thing I'm trying to do better with life y'all is, you know, I've kind of been groomed to be a little bit serious, and it's not that serious, believe it or not.

I know right now it's like, how could you say it's not that serious? This this is the determining the determining factor of whether or not I'll get my certification so I can played sports and you knew played sports and you knew that you weren't about to just jump on the court or the field without actually practicing or having a strategy. Right? So, that, this is all that is and you're still likely to win because it's just a test. It's not like like some crazy pro football team against a, little league team.

Right? Like, you are actually equipped for this and you've really been preparing this whole season of your life. So now the next step is just to make sure that you have the right strategy in place. So I hope that this helped you all. Just to recap and long story short, yes.

Study the full book, make sure you have a strategy, and I'll go ahead and put in the show notes some freebies to help you on your journey. Also, last thing, if you feel like you are struggling with your intuition, for example, answering test questions correctly, figuring out what time to even take the test, what day, when to take the test. It's even figuring trusting your intuition on understanding what the question is really asking. I am putting together a new resource for you all, so be on the lookout for that. Okay.

Thank you all so much, and I will see you in the next episode. Bye, fam.