MTTC Study Materials

Each Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) subject area test has a study guide available for free through the MTTC website. Within the study guide, you will find test objectives and sample questions to help you understand potential test content and practice questions.

Use the following steps to access the study guide for your subject area:

1. access the MTTC website
2. select “Tests” to choose your subject area
3. scroll down to select “Review preparation materials for this test,”
4. review materials in “Section 3: What’s on the test? Overview and test objectives” and “Section 4: Sample Multiple-Choice Questions” within the Study Guide

Additionally, most MTTC subject areas have full-length practice tests available. You can access a practice test in two ways:

• Included with test registration, you can download the practice test and answer key for free after registering for your test.
• Purchase a practice test separately from registration. The “for-purchase” practice test has the exact same questions and answer options as the practice test included with registration.

The MTTC website also includes general information and additional resources about test preparation, computer-based testing (CBT) tutorials, virtually touring a test center, and score report explanations.

Section 3 of each study guide contains an overview of the test (e.g., number of questions, time allotted) and description of test content. Test content is organized into:

• Subareas – major areas of content
• Test objectives – broad areas of knowledge, skills, and abilities within the subarea
• Descriptive statements - detailed statements describing examples of content in the test objective

For example, the Elementary Education (103) study guide includes a table showing the test’s six subareas, the range of objectives for each subarea, and the approximate percentage each subarea represents of the whole test.

Additionally, a circle graph visually represents the distribution of subareas across the test.

You should become familiar with the test structure for your subject area, noting areas you are less comfortable with. Next, carefully read through the test objectives. For each test objective, read each descriptive statement, pausing to ask self-assessment questions.

For example, the Mathematics subarea of Elementary Education has the following test objective:

Understand concepts of Euclidian geometry.

Includes:

• knowledge and application of properties of lines, angles, and two- and three-dimensional shapes
• relationships between three-dimensional and two-dimensional representations
• application of concepts of symmetry, similarity, congruence, and geometric transformation
• use of geometric models, properties of figures, and coordinate systems to solve problems
• knowledge of effective strategies and resources for promoting and assessing spatial reasoning and knowledge and skills related to geometry

The test objective “understand concepts of Euclidian geometry” is broad, but these descriptive statements help focus on key areas of the topic.

Ask yourself questions while reading a test objective, such as:

• What are the key concepts and ideas?
• How well do I understand these key concepts and ideas?
• How would I describe this concept in my own words?
• Could I explain this key concept or idea to a peer?
• Can I think of a time I had to teach this concept? How would I teach this concept?
• Can I think of a question I would ask a student about this concept?

Use the answers from questions like these to identify specific areas to include in your study plan.

Each question aligns to exactly one test objective. Study guide sample questions are organized by test objective with each objective clearly marked (see example that follows). For practice test questions, the answer key indicates which test objective each question assesses.

In addition to answering these questions, try to align each question to one descriptive statement in the test objective. This helps you understand how the test objectives relate to test questions, giving you a better idea of what other kinds of questions to expect on your test date.

For each question, ask yourself:

• Can I explain why the correct answer is correct?
• What makes each incorrect answer incorrect?

These questions can help you understand the key concept(s) in a question as well as common mistakes to look for on your test date.

For example, consider the study guide question for the Elementary Education Mathematics test objective about Euclidian geometry.

We know the item’s test objective based on the question, it assesses the descriptive statement about knowledge and application of properties of lines, angles, and two- and three-dimensional shapes. The question asks you to justify a conclusion that opposite sides of a parallelogram are equal in length. This means you need to think about congruency (lengths of equal measure) and how to justify a conclusion.

Let’s evaluate each option:

1. This is a true statement; however, knowing the opposite sides are parallel is not enough to support the claim that the opposite sides are equal in length.
2. This is a true statement that uses congruent angles; however, this is not enough to support the claim that opposite sides within the figure are equal in length.
3. This is a true statement that compares two similar triangles; however, while congruency is a special type of similarity only knowing that the triangles are similar is not enough to claim that the triangles are congruent.
4. Knowing that the triangles are congruent, we can use the idea that corresponding parts of congruent triangles are congruent to justify the conclusion that the opposite sides of this parallelogram are congruent.

You likely have access to a wide range of additional resources. First, check with your educator preparation program for supports that they offer. Any Michigan-based educator preparation program provider has supports in place for their candidates. Additionally, think back to your coursework and how it prepared you for these concepts. You may have class notes, slides, articles, or books that you can draw from. Michigan-based educator preparation program providers can help you map your coursework to the test objectives. (This may be limited for alternative route providers and out-of-state programs.)

The study guides and practice tests found on the MTTC website are developed specifically for the MTTC program, reviewed by Michigan teachers and teacher educators, and are the intellectual property of the State of Michigan. No other resources have been developed with this level of specificity, using the MTTC program style, with input from Michigan teachers and teacher educators. Products and programs claiming alignment to MTTC content have not undergone the same level of quality assurance and review and should be cautiously considered before purchasing.