United States
Hong KongIs the FTCE General Knowledge Test hard?
Hard in a specific way. No single subtest is brutal, with first-attempt pass rates running 64% to 78%, but you have to pass all four to pass the test. Roughly a quarter of candidates manage that at the first attempt, and that compound figure is ours rather than FLDOE's.
The honest answer has two halves and most pages only give you the first one. Each individual subtest is a fairly ordinary piece of assessment. Passing four of them in a row is not.
What FLDOE actually publishes about difficulty
Three separate documents carry a number that speaks to how hard this test is, and they say different things. The pass mark, the percentage correct that pass mark is worth, and the pass rate. Reading only one of them is how people end up surprised.
| Subtest | Questions | Minutes | Pass mark is worth | First-attempt pass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay (825) | One written response | 50 | A summed rater score of 6 | 64% |
| English Language Skills (826) | 30 | 40 | At most 63% correct | 68% |
| Reading (827) | 30 | 55 | At most 70% correct | 78% |
| Mathematics (828) | 35 | 100 | At most 63% correct | 71% |
Every one of those percentages is a maximum. FLDOE sets the pass at a scaled score of 200 and publishes what that has been worth in percentage terms, with the caveat that a harder version of a subtest may need slightly fewer correct answers. So Reading is the strictest of the three on paper, at most 70% correct, and it is also the one most people pass.
You will see "the FTCE pass mark is X%" on plenty of sites. It does not exist. Four subtests are registered, sat and passed separately, each against its own scaled 200, and a candidate scoring 68% across the board has passed English Language Skills and Mathematics and failed Reading.
The difficulty lives in the multiplication
FLDOE's rule says that where an examination has multiple subtests, you need passing scores on all of them for assessment-level passing status. Four gates, all of which have to open. Multiply the four published first-attempt rates and you get roughly a quarter, which is our arithmetic and is set out in full in our note on the compound first-attempt rate.
That is the number that answers the question in the title. Not 78%. Not 71%. Roughly a quarter, with a caveat about independence attached to it that we spell out on that page rather than hiding.
Where the content is genuinely difficult, and where it is not
This is a general knowledge test, so nothing on it is specialist. The syllabus is Section 82 of the Twenty-Eighth Edition of Competencies and Skills Required for Teacher Certification in Florida, and Rule 6A-4.0021 incorporates that document by reference, which makes the syllabus part of a state administrative rule. It sets out ten competencies and 57 skills across the three multiple-choice subtests, plus one competency and 11 skills for the essay.
Read that list and very little of it will look unfamiliar. Subject-verb agreement. Main idea. Slope. Mean and median. The difficulty is not conceptual. It is breadth, plus a clock, plus the fact that a school-level skill you have not used since school behaves differently under 40 minutes of pressure.
The clock is not the same in each subtest
Divide the published minutes by the published question counts and you get the per-question pace. English Language Skills gives you 1.33 minutes a question, Reading gives you 1.83, and Mathematics gives you 2.86. That division is ours; FLDOE publishes the two inputs and not the result.
Mathematics is the subtest people fear and it is the one with the most generous clock by a wide margin, plus an on-screen calculator and a reference sheet supplied. English Language Skills is the one candidates assume is free and it moves more than twice as fast. That mismatch is the single most useful thing on this page.
The concession, and it is a real one
Some readers should not sit this test at all. Rule 6A-4.0021(12) lets a qualifying GRE, SAT, ACT or CLT score satisfy the general knowledge requirement subtest by subtest, so if you already hold one you may be looking at a $130 problem that you do not have. Check the alternative-score route before you register anything. It argues against buying preparation from us, which is exactly why it belongs here rather than in a footnote.
So how hard is it, in one line
It is a test that most people eventually pass and that most people do not pass in one sitting. Best-attempt rates are 79%, 83%, 86% and 83%, so the second and third attempts do most of the work. Failing one subtest costs $32.50 and thirty days, not the whole $130.
Our opinion, stated plainly: people over-prepare Mathematics and under-prepare English Language Skills, and the published rates say so. Twelve of the 19 English Language Skills skills sit under standard English conventions, which is a lot of ground for 30 questions in 40 minutes.
Common questions
Is the FTCE General Knowledge Test hard to pass?
Each subtest is passed by most candidates who attempt it, at rates from 64% to 78% first time. Passing all four at once is harder: roughly a quarter of candidates do, on our multiplication of FLDOE's four published rates.
What is the pass mark for the FTCE General Knowledge Test?
There isn't one for the test as a whole. Each subtest passes at a scaled score of 200, which FLDOE publishes as at most 63% correct for English Language Skills, at most 70% for Reading and at most 63% for Mathematics. The essay passes at a summed rater score of 6.
Which FTCE General Knowledge subtest is hardest?
By first-attempt pass rate, the essay at 64%, then English Language Skills at 68%. Mathematics sits at 71% despite being the subtest candidates worry about most, and it has the most generous clock at 100 minutes for 35 questions.
Do you need to be good at math to pass?
You need 35 questions in 100 minutes at a level the syllabus sets, with an on-screen calculator and a reference sheet supplied. 71% of candidates pass it at the first attempt, which is a higher rate than English Language Skills or the essay.
Can you skip the General Knowledge Test entirely?
Sometimes. Rule 6A-4.0021(12) allows qualifying GRE, SAT, ACT or CLT scores to satisfy the requirement subtest by subtest, subject to cutoff dates on when the score was earned. FLDOE decides whether a particular score qualifies.