FTCE English 6-12 Exam

The English 6-12 subject examination consists of two parts: about 85 multiple-choice questions and an essay. Test-takers will receive a separate test booklet and answer booklet. The test booklet will conclude a choice of essay topics and numbered test questions. The answer booklet includes lined paper for the essay and an answer sheet for the multiple-choice questions. Multiple-choice question formats will include direct question, sentence completion, command, test analysis, and scenario. Each question will contain four response options, which will be answered by bubbling in choice A, B, C, or D.

The test encompasses 7 core competencies, each with between 4 and 9 skill areas. Competencies are defined as areas of content knowledge, with skills being the behaviors that demonstrate those competencies. Each competency is also assigned a percentage representing the approximate proportion of test items in that content area on the test. Together, the competencies and skills are representative of knowledge that has been determined by content specialists to be important for beginning teachers.

Test-takers will need to demonstrate knowledge of the English language and methods for effective teaching; writing and methods for effective teaching; use of the reading process to construct meaning from a wide range of selections; literature and methods for effective teaching; listening, viewing, and speaking as methods for acquiring critical literacy; methods for integration of the language arts; and ability to write well on a selection from poetry or prose, including fiction or nonfiction.

FTCE English 6-12 Exam Practice Questions

1. Which type of assignment best assesses a student's innovative and creative abilities?

A. essay
B. project
C. research paper
D. group assignment

2. The study of effective thinking, writing, and speaking strategies is called:

A. scholarly
B. expressive
C. rhetoric
D. persuasive

3. What does it mean to write or speak prosaically?

A. to use an ordinary, unimaginative style
B. to use expository language
C. to include pejorative words
D. to add schemata and tropes

4. If you are called a "bromide," you most likely are:

A. a soon-to-be published author
B. an arrogant and snobbish personality
C. a dull and boring person who is apt to overuse tiring cliches
D. an introverted bookworm

5. Which Harvard-educated American writer (1796-1867), who worked as a banker in Boston, wrote The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855), among other works, as an attempt to popularize mythology?

A. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
B. Henry James
C. Washington Irving
D. Thomas Bulfinch

Answer Key

1. B. A project provides insight into a student's creation and innovation because he/she has to understand the material, apply that understanding to another context, and create a project based on this understanding.
2. C. Rhetoricians first analyze and then evaluate what works, as well as speak or write effectively and persuasively.
3. A. A prosaic style uses straightforward, ordinary words.
4. C. Bromide is a figure of speech referring to a boring person who often overuses irrelevant cliches in a conversation
5. D. The Thomas Bulfinch version of myths is still the version taught in many public schools.