Essay, Reading, English Language Arts,
Math (please note that some of examples
in this guide --and the corresponding power
point presentation -- were derived from the
CliffsNotes, FTCE General Knowledge Test
Prep [3rd edition]).
Test Prep
Dr. Megan Schramm-Possinger
FTCE GK EXAM
November, 2015
The ESSAY
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The ESSAY
1) “Write a thesis statement that provides a clear focus for your essay. State a
point of view in your thesis that guides the purpose and scope of your essay.
Consider the larger point you are trying to convey to the reader and what you
want the reader to understand about the topic. Avoid a thesis statement
framed as a statement of fact, a question, or an announcement.”
2) “Develop the essay according to your purpose. Develop paragraphs fully to
give the reader examples and reasons that support your thesis. The key is to
develop a topic by using concrete, informative details.”
3) “Tie your main ideas together with a brief conclusion. Provide a concluding
paragraph that ties together the essay's point m
s and offers insights about the
topic. Avoid a conclusion that merely restates the thesis and repeats the supporting
details. Check your time.”
4) Proofread (read aloud to yourself)
(From CliffsNotes)
Sample Prompt:
“Teaching has become a profession that is considered to be fundamental to
the health of our nation. Some people contend teaching certification should
be granted only after completion of a university teacher education program.
Others maintain teaching certification via an alternate route through nonuniversity entities such as school districts, education service centers, and
private agencies is appropriate. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages
of each of these paths to teacher certification.”
• Take some time to list the advantages and disadvantages; let’s share some
ideas with the group (BE VERY CAREFUL TO READ THE PROMPT SO
YOU ADDRESS THE QUESTION DIRECTLY)
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Example of a first paragraph:
Teaching is a highly complex task. Becoming a skilled teacher requires knowledge of best
practices – derived by educational theories-, content area expertise, and extensive practice in
the field. University-based certification programs are often constructed to increase the
likelihood that all teachers will have these competencies; however, some university-based
programs are of higher quality than others, and most require substantial financial and time
commitments. These costs can dissuade those who could be talented teachers from entering
the field. At the same time, although alternate route training programs may make entering the
teaching profession more appealing -- due to the less lengthy and less costly training processes
--, these shortened training programs may or may not prepare teachers to be skilled at their
craft. If this is so then the United States could gain a larger teaching force, but suffer the
consequences of lower teacher quality. These costs and benefits will surely affect the health of
our nation.
In this paragraph, what are the advantages?
What are the disadvantages?
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Please note the differences between these two paragraphs:
Paragraph two (adapted from CliffsNotes):
Teaching well is difficult. I like some of my teachers, especially my English teachers. I had a
few good history teachers, too. Most teachers are good at what they do, yet sometimes the way
they describe the material is confusing, especially when teaching us math problems. I once had a
teacher who started and stopped a math problem three times. Teaching algebra is never easy.
You must solve for “x” and “y” a certain way. I remember a substitute I had for math one year,
and his descriptions were confusing, so the class ended up being exceptionally hard. I do not
know what I would do without my favorite teacher who helped me with my homework, Mr.
Bowman.
Teaching subject matter effectively involves five simple rules. The first rule is to know your
content. Read through the material, practice the problems, and expand your knowledge base
repeatedly. This will help you build concept-specific schemas that are increasingly clear and
accurate. The second rule is to make sure you can explain what you know to a specific audience.
An understanding of what your students already know and how they perceive the material you
are presenting is imperative if you are to facilitate their learning. If you are unsure what your
students already know, administer a formative assessment. Also, use examples that pertain to
your students’ lives and interests. By using these examples, you can be sure that your students
can visualize what it is you are trying to teach. The third rule is to never abandon best practices
in classroom management. Give your students a sense of safety, comfort and belonging in your
class. If your students make poor choices, be sure to calmly explain the consequences of their
actions. This will ensure that your students know that choices are associated with consistent
consequences; and next time, you will have an opportunity to praise them for having made good
decisions. The fourth rule is that all students have different needs, strengths and weaknesses.
Whether your students are visual or auditory learners, make sure they have ample opportunities
to learn the material in different ways, work hard on the subjects they find to be more
challenging, and shine when they are doing what they love. Finally, the fifth rule is to make sure
you use relevant data to make instructional decisions. A student’s misconception can be an
opportunity, or it can lead to more extensive confusion – and even confuse other students in
some cases. By following these five simple rules, teachers can assume their roles effectively and
foster their students’ content area knowledge.
List these differences:
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SAMPLE CLOSING (“Tie your main ideas together in the last paragraph –
offer insights about the topic”)
In sum, teachers’ influence on educating our citizenry, thereby enabling
our nation to retain its global standing, is incontestable. Whether we can
incentivize entering the profession, while also ensuring our teachers are
trained extensively to effectively assume their professional roles, is an
extant issue. Thus, we must strive to find a balance that protects us from
increasing quantity – or our pool of educators -- at the cost of quality and
longevity.
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Sample Reading Passage (from CliffsNotes)
When Hernando Cortéz left Cuba in February of 1519 with 550 soldiers on 11
ships, he could have no idea that one of the oldest soldiers in his company would
become the last living survivor of his great conquest. Bernal Díaz not only
participated in all of the great events of the conquest, but as an old, old man
living almost without funds in Honduras, he happened to read an idealized and
romanticized history of the conquest written by a priest and determined—at the
age of 79—to set the record straight. Though Bernal Díaz died at the age of 84,
he was able to complete his eminently readable six-volume account of the
conquest of Mexico.
Though the priest's version of the conquest tells that Cortéz secretly burned the
boats of the expedition so that his men would be unable to retreat and would
have to advance, Díaz corrects him. Cortéz, says Díaz, was appalled to learn that
the boats had been attacked by sea worms and that they were no longer
seaworthy. Moreover, the fittings of the ships were made of metal that could be
salvaged and used to make both guns and ammunition necessary for the
conquest. According to Díaz, Cortéz called his men together and informed them
of the problems, then they voted to burn the ships.
Díaz also sets the record straight with regard to Doña Marina, the brilliant girl
from a Yucatan tribe who spoke several of the Mexican dialects and thus became
invaluable to Cortéz as interpreter, negotiator, and guide. He acknowledges that
Doña Marina bore Cortéz a son and that she was with Cortéz when Cortéz's
wife died shortly after she arrived in Mexico City from Cuba. This situation was
the center of a firestorm of gossip. But he tells how Cortéz arranged a marriage
for Doña Marina with one of his lieutenants before marching off toward the
Northwest on a new exploration and conquest and vanishing somewhere near
the Sea of Cortéz—the inland bay between lower southern California and the
mainland, the bay that bears his name.
Almost incidentally, Díaz describes how some indolent aristocrats from Spain,
expecting to make their fortunes in the new world, were given large grants of
land on some of the Caribbean islands. But, of course, they could earn little from
their lands without workers, so they approached Bernal Díaz with the
proposition that they would provide the financing if he would attack an island
and carry back its population to bondage. His reward would be half of the
captives.
Díaz showed his humanity and humility as he refused this partnership, declaring
such an attack on the homes, culture, and lifestyle of free peoples a terrible
injustice.
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Identify the most accurate statement of the central idea of this passage.
A. Bernal Díaz corrected the record of Cortéz's conquest of Mexico.
B. Bernal Díaz proved that Cortéz did not trick his men into marching to
Mexico by burning their boats.
C. Hernando Cortéz conquered Mexico in one of the greatest invasions
the world has ever known.
D. Doña Marina was a great help to Cortéz during his great battles in
Mexico
From this passage one could infer that the author:
A. likes Cortéz very much.
B. thinks Díaz was a fine man.
C. believes that Doña Marina and Cortéz murdered Cortéz's wife.
D. thinks the priest's version of the conquest is superior to that of Díaz.
All of the following pieces of information relate to Cortéz's conquest EXCEPT
A. Cortéz asked his men to vote on whether or not to burn their ships.
B. Doña Marina was with Cortéz at the time of his wife's death.
C. the ships of the expedition had been attacked by sea worms and were
no longer seaworthy.
D. Bernal Díaz refused to lead an expedition to bring back islanders as
slaves.
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1
Know
ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLSledge 25%
• Evaluate correct placement of modifiers.
• Apply knowledge of parallelism, including parallel expressions for
parallel ideas.
• Apply knowledge of a variety of effective structures (e.g., recognizing
fragments, comma splices, run-on sentences, syntax errors).
• Determine patterns of organization in a written passage (i.e., modes of
rhetoric).
%
• Determine the meaning of unknown words, multiple-meaning words, and
phrases in context.
• Determine and select the correct use of commonly confused words,
misused words, and phrases.
• Determine diction and tone appropriate to a given audience. conventions
50%
• Determine and select standard verb forms.
• Determine and select inappropriate shifts in verb tense.
• Determine and select agreement between subject and verb.
• Determine and select agreement between pronoun and antecedent.
• Determine and select inappropriate pronoun shifts.
• Determine and select clear pronoun references.
• Determine and select pronoun case forms (e.g., subjective, objective,
possessive).
• Evaluate the correct use of adjectives and adverbs.
• Determine and select appropriate comparative and superlative degree
forms.
• Demonstrate command of standard spelling conventions.
• Demonstrate command of standard punctuation/capitalization.
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1) Modifiers
WHAT IS A MODIFIER? A MODIFIER IS A WORD, PHRASE, OR CLAUSE
WHICH FUNCTIONS AS AN ADJECTIVE OR AN ADVERB TO DESCRIBE A
WORD OR MAKE ITS MEANING MORE SPECIFIC. MODIFIERS MUST BE
CLOSE TO THE WORD IT MODIFIES.
•
Princess Beatrice, who is starting a history degree at Goldsmiths
College, London, later this year, was photographed running in the surf
on the island of St Barts with her American boyfriend Dave Clark
dressed in a blue bikini last month.”
Please view the sentence below. What is the modifier? How can it be
moved closer to the word it is modifying?
•
The wildlife scientist saw several male moose driving through the
woods.
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2) Parallelisms: How would you fix this sentence?
Arnold is both friendly and a considerate person.
3) FRAGMENTS –WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT CLAUSE? WHAT IS
A COMMA SPLICE?
AN INDEPENDENT CLAUSE IS A GROUP OF WORDS CONTAINING A
SUBJECT AND A PREDICATE (VERB).
COMMA SPLICE
THE HORSE RACE WAS SUSPENSEFUL FROM START TO FINISH, MY
FRIEND’S HORSE WON THE RACE.
COMMONLY MISUSED/CONFUSED WORDS:
ALL TOGETHER: TO INCLUDE EVERYBODY OR EVERYTHING (THE
PRINCIPALS LED A WORKSHOP ON TIME MANAGEMENT ALL
TOGETHER.)
ALTOGETHER: TO BE TOTALLY INCLUSIVE
4) ALSO STUDY SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT- A SINGULAR
SUBJECT SHOULD BE FOLLOWED BY A SINGULAR VERB. ALSO
STUDY PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT.
A chorus of cheers were heard from the crowd.
• What is the subject of this sentence?
• What is the verb?
• Is this sentence written correctly?
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5) Pronouns/antecedents
A woman who works hard to achieve success may find they are not accepted as
equals in certain situations.
What is the antecedent in this sentence? What is the pronoun? Is there agreement?
Why or why not?
6)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
6) STUDY SPELLING
Believe
Occasion
Patted
successful
Receive
Noticeable
Beginning
PUNCTUATION
Use of commas
Use of semicolons
Use of colons
I will need apples, pumpkins, and cinnamon.
We were living in Newtown, Pennsylvania, before we moved to Florida.
I broke my clock; therefore, I could not tell what time it was.
TENSES
Present: I work
Past: I worked
Future: I will work; he will work
Present perfect: I have worked; he has written (started in the past and is
ongoing)
 Past perfect: I had worked; she had written (past action that occurred before
a previous past action)
7)






8)




 Future perfect: I will have worked; she will have completed (past action that
will occur before a future action)
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NOTES:
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MATHoperations
17%
Knowledge of number sense, concepts, and operations
17%
Compare real numbers and identify their location on a number line.
• Solve real-world problems involving the four operations with rational numbers.
• Evaluate expressions involving order of operations.
Knowledge of geometry an 2 Knowledge of geometry and measurement 21%ment
21%
• Identify and classify simple two- and three-dimensional figures according to their
mathematical properties.
• Solve problems involving ratio and proportion (e.g., scaled drawings, models, realworld scenarios).
• Determine an appropriate measurement unit and form (e.g., scientific notation) for
real-world problems involving length, area, volume, or mass.
• Solve real-world measurement problems including fundamental units
3 Knowledge of alge3 Knowledge of algebraic thinking and the coordinate plane
29%f
• Determine whether two algebraic expressions are equivalent by applying properties of
operations or equality.
• Identify an algebraic expression, equation, or inequality that models a real-world
situation.
• Solve equations and inequalities (e.g., linear, quadratic) graphically or algebraically.
• Determine and solve equations or inequalities, graphically or algebraically, in realworld problems.
• Graph and interpret a linear equation in real-world problems (e.g., use data to plot
points, explain slope and y-intercept, determine additional solutions).
• Identify relations that satisfy the definition of a function.
• Compare the slopes of two linear functions represented algebraically and graphically.
4 Knowledge of 4 Knowledge of probability, statistics, and data interpretation 33%y,
statistics, and data interpretation
33%
• Analyze data presented in various forms (e.g., histograms, bar graphs, circle
graphs, pictographs, line plots, tables) to solve problems.
• Analyze and evaluate how the presentation of data can lead to different or inappropriate
interpretations in the context of a real-world situation.
• Calculate range, mean, median, and mode of data sets.
• Interpret the meaning of measures of central tendency (i.e., mean, median, mode)
and dispersion (i.e., range, standard deviation) in the context of a real-world
situation.
• Analyze and evaluate how the selection of statistics (e.g., mean, median, mode) can
lead to different or inappropriate interpretations in the context of a real-world
situation.
• Solve and interpret real-world problems involving probability using counting
procedures, tables, and tree diagrams.
• Infer and analyze conclusions from sample surveys, experiments, and
observational studies
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1)
If the company would like to give the impression that its employees are
highly paid, which salary statistics should it use?
Employee Salaries
Title
Yearly salary
President
$120,000
Office manager
40,000
Foreperson
60,000
Laborer 1
15,000
Laborer 2
15,000
Laborer 3
15,000
Laborer 4
15,000
A. minimum
B. mode
C. median
D. mean
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2) PROBABILITIES
• Ellen has a bag full of 5 red, 7 yellow and 8 black marbles. If she draws
one marble from the bag without looking, what is the probability it will
be black?
• First ask: How many marbles are there in all?
• Second: How many are black?
• Then create a ratio: the dividend/divisor = quotient (or
probability)
Or, the number of black marbles is divided by the total number of
marbles
3) CORRELATIONAL STUDIES, EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES,
CONTROL GROUPS, STANDARD DEVIATION, MEAN, MEDIAN,
MODE, CONFOUNDING VARIABLES
•
•
Forearm length is positively correlated with reading ability – why?
•
•
•
•
I administered a placebo to 1/3 of the participants. Why?
If I randomly assign participants to multiple conditions, is that an
experimental study or a non-experimental study?
rd
How would I compute the mean, median and mode?
What does the standard deviation tell me?
If I want to evaluate reading comprehension on a typewritten test and the
participants vary in their ability to type, why would this variation be a
confounding variable?
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4) LINEAR EQUATIONS
•
Yael bought 4 pairs of shoes and two pairs of boots for $250.00.
All shoes cost $25.00 less than boots. How much did Yael pay
for one pair of boots?
4(x – 25) + 2x = 250
4x – 100 + 2x = 250
6x -100 = 250
6x = 250 + 100
X= 58.30
How can I check my answer?
5) Solve: 4x – 3 = x + 1
3
3 (4x -3) = 3x + 3 1
3
4x – 3 = 3x + 3 simplify
4x – 3 – 3x = 3x + 3 -3x
-3 + x = 3
-3 + x = 3 + 3
X=6
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Solving inequalities:
6x -5 < 37
6x – 5 + 5 < 37 +5
6x < 42
6x < 42
6
6
X<7
Solving quadratic equations:
X2 – 5x -24 = 0
(
)(
)=0
(x
) (x
)=0
we need the product to be x2 so x is the “first term”
Now, the second terms must yield a product of -24 and they must
add to equal -5
Since the product of -8 and 3 is 24, and the sum of -8 and 3 equals 5, we can use -8 and 3 as second terms
(x – 8) (x + 3) = 0
If we set each factor to zero and solve for x, then x – 8 = 0 or x + 3 =
0
Thus, x = 8 or x = -3
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Geometry:
The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 30 centimeters long and one leg is 24 centimeters long.
Find the area of the triangle.
Make a sketch, then find a, then solve for area.
a2 + b2 = c2
a2 + (24cm)2 = (30cm)2
30 cm
a2 + 576 = 900
a2 = 900 - 576
a
a2 = 324
24 cm
a = √324 or a = - √324
a = 18 (-18 should be rejected, measures of length are nonnegative)
Now, we can find the area of the triangle
A = ½bh
A = ½ (24cm) (18cm)
216 cm2
Resources: www.XAMonline.com http://www.testprepreview.com/ftce_practice.htm
http://www.studyguidezone.com/ftcetest.htm http://www.pocket-prep.com/ftce-practice-test/
http://www.mathhelp.com/ftce-math-test-prep/ http://study.com/academy/course/ftce-generalknowledge-test.html http://thinktimeinc.com/ftce-products/tests/general-knowledge-test/
http://www.gohmath.com/#!teacher-resources/c1ghi http://study.com/academy/topic/ftce-algebraicthinking.html http://www.yourepeat.com/g/FTCE?o=date&d=short (order CliffsNotes, FTCE, GK, 3rd
Edition)
In summary-
 Look at the list of competencies on the test (state website)
 Highlight the topics that are unfamiliar/you don’t recall that
clearly
 Feel free to utilize the resources listed above
Practice, practice, practice
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