Praxis Elementary Education (5001) Pass Rate 2026

There is no official pass rate for the Praxis Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects test (5001), and unlike most exams, there could not be a single one even if ETS wanted to publish it. ETS builds, administers and scores the test, but it does not set the bar: "Passing scores are not set by ETS, and they vary by state." The 5001 is also four separately timed, separately scored subtests, each carrying its own state-set qualifying score. So "passing the 5001" is really four independent pass/fail decisions, and an identical set of four scores can certify you in one state and fall short in another. What ETS does publish — and what this page uses instead — is the score scale, the median scaled score on each subtest, and the range earned by the middle 50 percent of test takers.

How the Praxis 5001 is actually scored

The 5001 is a computer-delivered test of 245 selected-response and numeric-entry questions, taken in one 4-hour-35-minute appointment — 275 minutes — for a fee of $180. The appointment is the only thing about it that is unified. The ETS Test at a Glance lists four separately timed subjects, and each produces its own scaled score on its own 100–200 scale.

Subtest	Questions	Time	Score range	Median	Middle 50%
5002 Reading and Language Arts	80	90 min	100–200	168	159–178
5003 Mathematics	50	65 min	100–200	169	157–184
5004 Social Studies	60	60 min	100–200	164	155–176
5005 Science	55	60 min	100–200	168	159–178
Total (5001)	245	275 min	—	—	—

The medians and middle-50% ranges come from the ETS publication "Understanding Your Praxis Scores 2025–2026," calculated from test takers who sat each subtest between August 2022 and July 2025 — most recent score counted where someone tested twice — and restricted to college seniors, college graduates, graduate students and holders of master's or doctoral degrees. Between 36,800 and 37,800 candidates sit each subtest over that window. These are not pass rates. They tell you where scores land, not how many cleared a bar.

Now the part that nearly every page ranking for this query gets wrong: a Praxis scaled score is not a percentage. ETS defines it precisely — "Scaled scores are derived from raw scores and take into account the difficulty of the test form administered." Each subtest exists in multiple editions with different questions, and raw points are converted so that the same scaled score means the same thing regardless of which edition you drew. The scale also floors at 100, not zero, so dividing a score by 200 is arithmetically meaningless before it is psychometrically meaningless. A 165 on the Mathematics subtest is not "82.5 percent," and it maps to no fixed number of the 50 questions. Asked how many questions a candidate needs correct, ETS answers: "Unfortunately, there is no way to predict this." The test also "may contain some questions that will not count toward your score."

Why the figures you see online disagree

Four things are going wrong at once on the pages quoting a Praxis 5001 pass rate.

• Nobody publishes one. ETS reports score distributions, not pass rates, and it cannot report a pass rate because it does not own the cut score. States own it, and they publish their own requirements separately rather than a pooled national figure.
• A real number would be four numbers, times every jurisdiction that uses the test. ETS is explicit that "each state education agency sets the operational passing score," after conducting "a documented, passing-score study (a standard-setting study) for each test that requires a passing score." A national 5001 pass rate would average across states that disagree about what passing means, on four subtests that are passed separately.
• The percentage conversion. Pages take a state's scaled cut score and divide it by 200 to manufacture a "you need 78 percent" figure. That number describes nothing. It is not a raw percentage, not a percentile, and not comparable between subtests — ETS warns that identical scaled scores on different tests do not represent the same level of knowledge.
• Attempts versus candidates. ETS counts each person once, using their most recent score. A rate built from attempts, which is what forum tallies and provider cohorts produce, answers a different question entirely and always looks worse.

There is also a 2026-specific reason to distrust any number attached to this test code. ETS is retiring it. The new Praxis Elementary Education Fundamentals tests are "Launching Spring 2026" and "will replace the following Elementary Education series of tests: 5001, 7001, 5901, 7811," with new codes 8002 through 8006, larger question counts, and — notably — "no combined test option (to take all tests in one sitting)." Any pass rate quoted for the 5001 in 2026 is a statistic about an exam on its way out, measured under cut scores that states will have to reset for the replacement.

What separates passing from failing candidates

The official content weights show where the marks sit, and they are not evenly distributed within subtests.

Subtest	Content category	Questions	Weight
5002 Reading and Language Arts	Reading	38	47%
	Writing, Speaking, and Listening	42	53%
5003 Mathematics	Numbers and Operations	20	40%
	Algebraic Thinking	15	30%
	Geometry and Measurement, Data, Statistics, and Probability	15	30%
5004 Social Studies	United States History, Government, and Citizenship	27	45%
	Geography, Anthropology, and Sociology	18	30%
	World History and Economics	15	25%
5005 Science	Earth Science	17–18	33%
	Life Science	18–19	33%
	Physical Science	18–19	33%

Social Studies is where candidates score lowest, by ETS's own data. Its median of 164 is the lowest of the four, and its middle 50 percent runs 155–176 — a band sitting several points below the other three. It also has the tightest clock: 60 questions in 60 minutes, one minute each, across everything from the Constitution to world economics. Candidates who allocate study time evenly across four subjects are underweighting the one where the distribution says they are most likely to miss.

Mathematics separates candidates the most. Its middle 50 percent spans 157–184, a 27-point band against 19 points for Reading and Language Arts, and its standard error of measurement is 9.2 points, the largest of the four. Wide spread means the subtest discriminates sharply — strong candidates score very high, weak ones fall a long way. It is also the only subtest that mixes numeric-entry questions in with the selected-response ones, and 40 percent of it is Numbers and Operations — the elementary arithmetic adults assume they can coast through.

The mechanic most candidates get wrong is the retake. Because the four subtests are scored separately against separate state cut scores, you retake only the subtest you failed — not the whole 5001. The Praxis Bulletin prices individual Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects subtests at $64 against $180 for the master test, and names 5001 explicitly in the retake rule: tests "must be retaken on a date that is at least 28 days after the previous test date," and "if you take a test that is comprised of subtests, such as Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects (5001) … you cannot retake a subtest until after the 28-day period." Failing one subject costs $64 and a month, not $180 and another full day of testing. Candidates who do not know this either panic at a partial result or re-register for the whole master test and pay nearly three times what they needed to.

The bottom line

Nobody publishes a Praxis 5001 pass rate, and nobody can, because each state agency sets its own qualifying scores on four subtests that pass or fail independently. What is official and verifiable is the shape of the test: 245 questions, 275 minutes, $180, four subtests scored 100–200 apiece, with medians of 168, 169, 164 and 168 and Social Studies the lowest-scoring of the four. Treat every percentage you see attached to this exam as a red flag — a scaled score has no percentage equivalent, and ETS says outright that the number of questions needed to pass cannot be predicted. Find your own state's four cut scores, compare them to those medians, and study to the gap.

The cheapest way to find out which of the four subtests will cost you $64 and a 28-day wait is to test yourself before you register. Work through a free Praxis Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects practice test and see which subject is actually your weak one.