The Four Filters: Passing the TExES PPR Exam When Studying Harder Isn't Enough
You know the material. You've read the guides, taken the practice tests, and reviewed the explanations more times than you can count. So why does the exam keep disagreeing with you?
The PPR doesn't only test what you know about teaching. It tests whether you choose the best professional decision when several answers sound right. If your practice scores have stalled, the problem is usually not a knowledge gap. It's a judgment gap, and more content review doesn't close it.
The Four Filters gives you four questions to ask before you look at the answer choices:
- Who is this decision for?
- What is the teacher's professional responsibility?
- What evidence informs this decision?
- How does this decision improve learning?
The book also names the five reasoning traps that pull capable candidates toward wrong answers: Acting Too Soon, Good but Not Best, Filling in Missing Information, Emotional Reasoning, and Solving the Wrong Problem. You'll learn to spot each one in the answer choices, log your own missed questions by trap, and build a practice plan around the pattern that costs you the most points.
What's inside: 14 chapters (86 pages, PDF), worked scenario questions with the reasoning behind every answer choice, a Four Filter flow chart, and access to the Reasoning Log & Profile spreadsheet that tallies your traps for you.
Who it's for: candidates who have studied, understand the content, and keep missing scenario questions, whether this is your first attempt or a retake.
Who it isn't for: if you haven't reviewed PPR content yet, start there. The Filters work on scenario questions and don't replace knowing the material.
Want the Signal Card and PPR Cheat Sheet too? The PPR Exam Kit includes the book and both for $19.99 through November 20.
Refund policy: 14-day refund, no questions asked. If you ask for one, I'll ask what didn't work for you so I can fix it.
Written by Joshua O., a teacher who teaches people how to pass high-stakes exams. Years before the PPR, he built a framework that took his GMAT score from the 50th to the 80th percentile and taught it to more than 300 GMAT candidates. When his PPR practice scores stalled at 210, he rebuilt that framework for the PPR in two weeks and passed on his first attempt with a score of 250 (240 passes). Independent publication, not affiliated with TEA, Pearson, or the TExES program.