Offices across campus offer tips and tricks to undergraduate students at Mississippi State University seeking to perform well on graduate school admissions tests and certification tests, such as the Praxis II, the Law School Admissions Test and the Graduate Record Exam.
 
 
Praxis II
The Praxis II is an obstacle all education majors must overcome to graduate and be licensed by the Mississippi Department of Education.
To assist students in preparing for the exam, the Learning Center will offer a Praxis II workshop on Feb. 25.
The workshop, which runs 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., will cover topics from the Principles of Learning and Teaching exam, the elementary education content knowledge exam, and the special education content knowledge exam Praxis II workshop leader Candace Weed said. A breakout session will be offered during the workshop for students taking the foreign language content knowledge exams.
Weed said the best study materials available for the Praxis II are offered on the ETS website, including an e-book and practice test.
 
 
LSAT
Many students in various degree programs who intend to continue their education by attending law school must first do well on the LSAT, the standardized test for law school admission.
Whit Waide, political science and public administration instructor and pre-law adviser, said he thinks there are many ways students interested in law can prepare for the LSAT.
“Perhaps the most widely used LSAT prep-workshop is in the philosophy department. They offer a class called ‘PHI 1113: Introduction to Logic,'” Waide said. “Order old practice tests, as well as a study guide, from lsac.org, the company that administers the LSAT.”
He said he thinks students should begin practice tests for the LSAT two to three months in advance to have time to work through them.
“Trying to cram in a bunch of study and working a few problems a week before the test won’t do you much good. Success in law school is about maturity, discipline and working smart. Cramming doesn’t work in law school,” Waide said.
While a pre-law minor that will assist students in preparing for law school will be created in the near future, Waide said the best way to keep up to date about LSAT workshops and other pre-law events is following @bulldawg_prelaw on Twitter.
 
 
GRE
For admission into most graduate school programs, students must pass the GRE general knowledge exam and occasionally a subject area exam for their field of study.
Nita Wyman, workshop facilitator for the Learning Center, said there are several ways for students to prepare for the GRE.
“Familiarize yourself with the test format and the test question types. Review the math topics you need to know for the test,” she said. “Practice your test-taking skills using actual GRE tests, which are usually available from the test creator, Educational Testing Service.”
Wyman said students should also identify test-taking skills they need to improve, check their progress while studying for the verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning sections and know the requirements for the analytical writing section.
Lauren Holifield, research associate for the Learning Center, said the formats in the verbal and quantitative reasoning sections could be tricky for students who are not prepared.
“Some questions require multiple answers and every correct answer must be selected to receive credit. Students must pay attention to questions that require multiple answers versus those that require only one answer,” she said.