Praxis 5003 study guide
Praxis 5003 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Praxis 5003 is the Mathematics subtest of the Praxis Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects assessment (5001). ETS lists 5001 as comprising subtests 5002, 5003, 5004, and 5005 and describes it as the route to a generalist elementary school license covering English, mathematics, social studies, and science. The Praxis 5003 study guide has 4 sections and about 1,310 words.
01Numbers and Operations
Numbers and Operations carries the most weight on the test. You need fluent place value (reading, writing, comparing, and rounding whole numbers and decimals), the four operations on whole numbers, decimals, and fractions, and easy movement among fraction, decimal, and percent forms.
324 words, about 2 min02Algebraic Thinking
Algebraic thinking on this test means understanding a variable as either an unknown value or a quantity that changes, distinguishing expressions (no equals sign) from equations and inequalities, and using the properties of operations: commutative, associative, distributive, identity, and inverse. You should translate verbal phrases into symbols, evaluate expressions by substitution, solve one- and two-step equations and inequalities, describe patterns and rules in tables, and interpret simple proportional relationships and graphed points.
329 words, about 2 min03Geometry and Measurement
This domain covers two- and three-dimensional shapes and their properties, perimeter, area, volume, and surface area, angle relationships, triangle classification and the 180° angle sum, circles (C = πd, A = πr²), the coordinate plane, transformations (translation, rotation, reflection, dilation), and measurement conversion including elapsed time and money. Expect both direct formula application and multi-step problems involving composite figures.
328 words, about 2 min04Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability
You need to read and interpret data displays (bar graphs, line plots, histograms, stem-and-leaf plots, box plots, circle graphs, and line graphs), compute and compare measures of center (mean, median, mode) and spread (range, and informally the interquartile range), recognize misleading graphs, and reason about sampling. Probability covers sample spaces, theoretical versus experimental probability, simple and compound events, and basic counting.
329 words, about 2 min