Should I Study for Praxis 5001 or 5205 and 5903? A New Elementary Teacher Breaks It Down
Last April, I looked up from my half-cold oatmeal to find my friend Lila slamming her laptop shut on my kitchen table. She was 12 weeks into student teaching 2nd grade, just three months out from needing to pass her Praxis exams to get a full license for fall, and she was stuck. “Why are there two different options for the same license?” she said, stabbing her thumb at the screen. “I just want to teach 7-year-olds how to multiply. Why am I even reading about 5001 versus 5205 and 5903? Should I study both just to be safe?” I nodded, because I’d sat in that same chipped kitchen chair two years earlier, staring at the same ETS webpage, wondering the exact same thing.
My old Praxis binder was still on the shelf behind me, dog-eared and covered in the same coffee stains I’d left on it during my own cram sessions. I pulled it down and flipped to the messy first page where I’d scribbled down all the rules I’d dug up after getting bad advice from three different TikTok creators. The first thing I told her was that the answer doesn’t start on social media or random education forums. It starts on your state department of education’s website.
Most people don’t realize that the difference between the two options boils down to how many content areas you’re required to test. Praxis 5001 is the combined Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects exam, which has four separate subtests: reading, math, social studies, and science. To meet requirements with 5001, you have to pass all four. Praxis 5205 (reading) and 5903 (math) are two separate standalone exams that only cover those two core subjects. A growing number of states don’t require new K-6 elementary teachers to test in social studies and science, as long as you’ve taken the required college courses for those topics, so they let you choose between taking the full 5001 or just the two 5205/5903 exams.
Lila pulled up her state’s license page right there at the table, and sure enough, Ohio only required passing scores in reading and math for a K-6 license. The four-subject 5001 was optional, not required. She’d already seen a dozen posts online saying everyone should just take 5001 “to be fully qualified,” so she’d started studying all four subjects, even though she didn’t need the extra two. She’d spent the entire previous week quizzing herself on rock types and the causes of the Civil War, after a full day of teaching guided reading and grading math papers. She was already burnt out, and she still had six weeks left to study.
I asked her what she wanted to do after she got her license. She said she wanted to stick with K-2 general education at a public school in the district, no plans to add a middle school endorsement any time soon. I told her that meant there was zero reason to study for 5001, let alone both options. Studying for both exam sets at the same time means splitting your time across six different content sections total, when you only need two to meet your requirements. Most people who try that end up spreading themselves too thin, especially when they’re already juggling student teaching or a part-time job to pay rent.
That’s not to say 5001 is never the right pick. If your state or your education program requires all four subtests to graduate or get your license, that’s your answer—you study 5001, no questions. If you know you want to add a middle school endorsement in social studies or science a year or two down the line, taking 5001 now gets all your testing done in one go, so you don’t have to come back to it later. If you’d rather knock out all your testing in one weekend and don’t mind cramming four topics, 5001 works just fine for a lot of people. I have a coworker who took it that way three years ago, passed all four on the first try, and never looked back.
For most people who have a choice, though, 5205 and 5903 are the lower-friction pick. Lila’s case was pretty common: she’d had a bad experience with standardized science tests in college, didn’t need the science section for her license, and preferred to study one topic at a time. With the two separate exams, she could take reading one month, math the next, if she wanted, and only pay for one test at a time. If she happened to fail one, she wouldn’t have to retake both, which is a big plus for people who can’t drop hundreds of dollars on test fees all at once. The content of the reading and math sections is similar enough that if you study for 5205 and 5903, you’d still be prepared for the corresponding subtests on 5001 if you end up needing them later, so there’s no wasted study time anyway.
I’ve gotten this question from at least a dozen aspiring elementary teachers in the last year, and almost every time, the person asking is wondering if they should study both just “in case” the rules change or they move out of state. The only time that makes sense is if you’re 100% sure you’re moving to a state that requires 5001 within the next year. Even then, you can take 5205 and 5903 first, get your license in your current state, start teaching, and add the extra two 5001 subtests later, once you know for sure you’re moving. There’s no benefit to cramming all extra content up front when your main goal is just to get your first teaching job as soon as possible.
Lila crossed out the entire earth science and U.S. history sections in her study guide that night, and shifted her full focus to reading and math. A month later, she texted me a screenshot of her passing scores for both 5205 and 5903, with a dozen confetti emojis. She starts teaching 2nd grade at my school next week, and we still joke about the three straight days she wasted studying volcanoes for a test she never needed to take. Every now and then I still get a DM from someone asking if they should study all three tests just to be safe, and I tell them what I told Lila: check your state requirements first, cut the extra content you don’t need, and don’t overcomplicate it. There’s no one right answer for everyone, but 9 times out of 10, you don’t need to study both.
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