Welcome to this week's praxis.
Spanish help.
Cultural knowledge took me from 5 out of 12
to a perfect 12 out of 12 on retake.
That is my biggest single section gain.
Today
I'm going to walk through five cultural questions
live
and show you the framework that did
the work.
Quick challenge before we start,
can you name all 21
Spanish speaking countries
including
Equatorial Guinea?
Drop your list in the comments.
No looking.
I will heart
every comment that gets all 21.
And yes,
there are exactly 21.
Cultural knowledge isn't its own section.
It is about 15 questions embedded inside listening
and reading.
Roughly 12%
of your skilled score.
That is small enough
that teachers ignore it.
But here's the catch.
It is the highest
movability
section on the entire test.
Meaning if you study the right way,
your score
moves the fastest.
Here,
on my first attempt,
I scored
5 out of 12 on cultural
below the average performance
range.
I tried to memorize
random facts.
Famous painters,
capitals,
dates of revolutions,
festival names.
Two weeks in,
I'd built a list I couldn't possibly retain
on test day.
Under stress,
I forgot half of it.
Ten weeks later,
I scored
12
out of 12.
Perfect.
The change
wasn't more facts.
It was
fewer,
deeper,
better chosen ones.
The framework
3 anchor
geography.
All 21 Spanish speaking countries,
regions,
climates,
capitals,
colonial history,
1492
through the early 1800s,
the conquest
independence movement,
Key figures,
traditions and
holidays,
Dia de los muertos,
las fallas,
carnaval,
semana,
Santa,
quinceanera,
regional foods.
That's it.
Three
anchors.
Why these three?
They cross
all 21 Spanish speaking countries.
They cross reference each other
and they map cleanly to the ACTFL
three Ps framework
that every
credentialed Spanish teacher already
knows.
The three Ps
products.
the tangible stuff.
Foods,
art,
music,
laws,
dwellings,
practices,
patterns of social interaction,
rites of passage,
holidays,
perspectives,
the why behind
both
values,
attitudes,
worldview
from ACTFL
standards 2.1 and 2.2.
When I see a cultural question
on the praxis,
I do two things fast
Identify
which anchor it belongs to
and which p.
It's testing.
Then I answer.
Today
I'm doing this
live on five
questions.
Let's go.
If you can't answer this in 5 seconds,
praxis is going to catch you.
But,
by the end of this video,
you won't just have the answer.
You will have the framework
that gives you the answer to every cultural
knowledge question they throw at you.
Here's the deal.
I'm going to show you
five Praxis style cultural knowledge questions.
For each one,
you will get five seconds to pick your answer.
Then I'll reveal the correct choice
and
tag it with one of the three anchors
and break it down using the three Ps.
By question five,
you will see the system.
And the system is what scales?
Not memorizing 3,
200 random facts.
Okay,
so the question number one,
qual es el uni copais africano
de habla span
A,
Maroecos
be Senegal
se
Guinea Equatorial
de
Argelia.
Five seconds
again,
we're going to think first which anchor this
question
belongs to.
Is it a geography question?
Is it a colonial history question?
Or is it a,
traditions and holidays question?
So this question is a geography question,
right?
Now
I know that.
Now I'm going to think about
the three Ps
products,
practices and perspectives.
Products.
So
the correct answer is C.
Guinea Equatorial.
And in this country,
Spanish is the official language alongside French
and Portuguese.
Economy
is built on oil and cocoa.
So when you see African country with Spanish
plus petroleum,
you've got your answer.
Practices.
What kind of practices does this country follow?
This country
has
lots of Spanish language,
schools,
courts and government.
All vestiges of Spanish colonization
from 1778
to independence in 1968.
It is the only African country
where you can take
selectividad style university
exams in Spanish.
Perspectives.
Again,
the question,
why do these people
follow these practices in this country?
Here's why.
Praxis loves this question.
It tests whether you have broken out of the
Hispano America plus Spain mental model.
The Spanish speaking world
spans
four continents.
Europe,
North America,
South America and Africa.
If your mental map stops at Mexico and Argentina,
you will get this wrong
every time.
Notice what just happened.
The fact that
Equatorial guinea,
that is actually the surface answer.
But products
tell you how to recognize it on a different
question.
Practices tell you why it is
Spanish speaking.
Perspectives tell you what category of question
this is.
And that is the leverage.
Question number two.
Qual fue la civilization
indigena
mas extended
en el actual territorio de Peru.
Antes de yigade de los espanoles
a,
Azteca be Maya
C Inca de Almeca.
Five seconds
again we are gonna think
what kind of question
which anchor does this question belong to?
Is it a geography question?
Is it a colonial history question?
Or is it the traditions and holidays question?
So again,
this is a colonial history question.
Pre conquest civilizations
the Spanish
encountered.
Right.
So it's colonial history.
And
now we're going to look at the,
three
Ps,
products,
practices and perspectives.
Products
again we know
Machu Picchu,
agricultural terraces,
endings carved into Andean mountainsides.
Quipus denoted chord recording system.
And
Quechua,
still spoken by about
8 million people
today.
Practices
ILO,
the communal labor system.
Inti,
sun worship
at,
the center of religious life.
And a road network of roughly 25,000 miles
connecting the empire from Ecuador down to central
Chile.
Three praxis,
relevant civilizations and they are not
interchangeable.
Azteca
is central Mexico.
Maya,
is Yucatan
plus Guatemala.
Inca
is the Andes,
Peru,
Ecuador,
Bolivia,
parts of Chile and Argentina.
If you can't map them geographically,
you will miss this every single time.
Question number three.
Que celebracion
marte el paso de una nina azovida de joven adulta
Alos quince anos
a
bautismo be quinceanera se confirmacion
de bodas de plata.
Again,
this is a traditions and holidays question.
And
we are going to think about
the 3P's
products.
The Vestido,
often pink,
blue or white.
The tiara,
the court of damas and
chambilanes.
The ultima muniaca,
the last doll symbolizing living childhood behind.
And of course the cake
practices.
What kind of practices
do people follow?
Misa
de accion de gracias.
Thanksgiving,
mass.
The
choreographed waltz,
the cambio desapatos
flat swapped for heels by the father
and
the
toast
Perspectives.
This is not suite 16 with extra
steps.
It's a religious,
family and community
rite of passage.
Its roots go back to indigenous
coming of age ceremonies fused with Catholic
ritual after colonization.
Which means the quinceanera is itself a,
textbook example of
mestizaje.
Hold that tight.
It shows up again in question
five.
Question number four.
Qual de la cigiantes capitales corresponde a un
pais sin salida al mar Landlock a,
quito asuncion
se la habana de Lima.
Five seconds
and
we're gonna think about
which
anchor does this question belong to?
Geography.
Right.
And also then we're gonna think broadly about
three piece products.
We know that in Paraguay there is
yerba made also huge in Argentina and Uruguay.
But Paraguay drinks it cold.
Terere.
The Itaipu dam,
one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the
world,
shared with Brazil
and Gorani
the only widely spoken indigenous language with
national co official status alongside Spanish.
Question
5,
El Termino Mestizaje serefiere principal mente a
unistilo architectonico.
La mescla cultural y biologica entre indigenous y
evropeos
un novimiento literario
de una practica,
e religios.
So that.
This is our last question.
So.
So we are going to think about which anchor does
this question belong to?
Is it a geography question,
colonial history,
or traditions and holidays?
So this one is a colonial history.
And
after that,
we're going to look at
our three Ps,
products,
practices and perspectives.
Products.
What do we know about
mestizo cuisine?
Mole
pozole,
ceviche,
syncretic religious art.
La Virgen de Guadalupe,
where the indigenous goddess Donatzine is fused
into the Catholic Virgin Mary,
the Cusco school of painting,
even Spanish itself.
Ch.
Chocolate,
tomate,
aguacate.
from Nahuatl.
Cancha pampa
llama from Quechua
practices.
Intermarriage between Spanish colonizers and
indigenous people.
Language blending,
religious syncretism,
Catholic feast days
layered on top of indigenous ceremonies.
Dia de los muertos
and perspectives.
Mestizaje isn't a side note in Latin America.
It is Latin American
identity.
It explains why a quinceanera
looks Catholic but feels indigenous,
why Molly sauce uses chocolate Aztec and almonds
Spanish.
Why most Latin Americans don't identify as either
purely European or purely indigenous.
When you see mestizaje on the praxis,
think one word fusion.
So we answered our five cultural knowledge
questions,
and this is our recap.
In case you missed it,
you can see on the screen,
which P
each question belongs to.
And
as a recap,
you can see
this graphic organizer.
The three anchors and the three
Ps.
And that's the whole framework.
every cultural knowledge question Praxis writes
lives in one of three anchors.
And when the surface fact doesn't come to you
fast enough,
you've got three lenses to crack it open.
That is how five
out of 12 becomes 12 out of 12.
Not memorization,
pattern recognition.
That's what got me from
159 to 174.
And I would like you to notice three things about
what just happened.
First,
anchor first,
then
P.
Every question I ask,
which of the three anchors,
then,
which P is it?
Testing
that two step takes maybe five seconds,
and it routes my brain to the right knowledge.
Second,
recognition,
not recall.
Cultural knowledge questions are multiple choice.
You don't have to write essays about what.
You have to recognize him as one of
four options.
That's much lower cognitive bar than name three
independence leaders
and third,
eliminate them.
Guess
every cultural question
has at least one absurd answer,
often two.
Remove them and you've turned a 25% gas into a
50% gas.
Never
length there is no penalty for guessing
if cultural is one of your weakest
sections.
This is the framework that took me from
five out of 12
to perfect.
Three anchors,
three
P's
recognize,
eliminate,
guess.
And that is the entire
system.
Going back to our question,
can you name
all 21 Spanish speaking countries including
Equatorial Guinea?
Drop your list in the comments.
No looking.
I'll heart every comment that gets all 21.
And yes,
there are exactly 21.
There are two great resources for you to pass
Praxis Spanish Test with confidence.
They are free.
Links are in the description box
one.
My 50 academic Spanish verbs PDF the recognition
list that shapes four to seven minutes of reading
on test day
two.
And this part is a bonus.
When you grab the verbs.
You will also get my Post
Section Debrief checklist.
It covers all five sections of the Praxis
and turns every practice test
you take
into one specific fix.
This insight
Both free,
both yours when you sign up
next Tuesday.
Different format.
I'm going to share both of my actual Praxis score
reports,
the failing one and the passing one,
and walk through what changed in each section.
The Deep Dive series is done.
The school report breakdown is next.
Subscribe so you don't miss it.
Free guide in the description the five shifts that
took me from 159 to 174
and
if you want the full Cultural Knowledge framework
including the 50 verb academic Spanish
list,
the three piece worksheet for each anchor
and a live
Q and A with me.
The founding cohort opens in August.
15 seats at $247.
Waitlist link in the description
Waitlist members get first chance
and that closes the deep dive.
Eight
videos,
one per section,
one for each writing task.
If you have watched all of them,
thank you.
You now have every
core tactic that took my score 15 points.
Quick action this week.
Pick whichever anchor felt weakest in this video
geography,
colonial history or traditions.
Spend 20 minutes on it before next Tuesday.
That's it.
The recognition muscle builds fast
and drop your 21
countries
in the comments.
See you next Tuesday
for the score report
breakdown.
bye.