Praxis 5331 in 2 Weeks: A Focused SLP Study Plan

Two weeks isn't ideal, but it's workable — if you spend the time on the right content and skip the busywork. This plan assumes ~2 hours per weekday and 4 hours per weekend day (about 32 hours total). It's built for candidates who already finished a CAA-accredited SLP program and just need to convert coursework into exam-day recall.

The rule that makes 2 weeks work

With 8 weeks, you can study everything. With 2 weeks, you have to triage. Roughly 70% of your time goes to Assessment + Intervention (dysphagia, aphasia, motor speech, voice, pediatric language, fluency) because those clusters carry the most items. 20% goes to Foundations (anatomy, cranial nerves, phonetics, research). 10% goes to Ethics / Standards — high yield, quick payoff.

Week 1 — content sweep

• Day 1 (Mon): Full-length diagnostic in a single sitting (150 min). Score it, list the 3 weakest topics. Everything after this is driven by that list.
• Day 2 (Tue): Dysphagia — 4 stages, IDDSI, MBSS vs FEES, compensatory vs rehab. 60 min content + 20 practice items.
• Day 3 (Wed): Aphasia + right hemisphere — Boston classification, WAB, ARCH treatment principles. 60 min + 20 items.
• Day 4 (Thu): Motor speech + cranial nerves — apraxia vs dysarthria, CN V/VII/IX/X/XII. Draw the diagram from memory.
• Day 5 (Fri): Voice + resonance — nodules, polyps, VF paralysis, cleft. Timed 40-item block.
• Day 6 (Sat): Pediatric language + articulation/phonology + fluency. Longest study day — 4 hours.
• Day 7 (Sun): Audiology basics + AAC + ethics/scope. Half day off in the evening.

Week 2 — practice + weak-spot fixes

• Day 8 (Mon): Full-length practice #2. Compare vs Day 1. Focus the rest of the week on the 3 topics you're still weakest in.
• Day 9 (Tue): Weak-topic drill #1 — 40 items, review every rationale, not just the ones you missed.
• Day 10 (Wed): Weak-topic drill #2. Add high-yield flashcards (cranial nerves, IDDSI, aphasia subtypes).
• Day 11 (Thu): Weak-topic drill #3 + a mixed 30-item block.
• Day 12 (Fri): Full-length practice #3. Target: within 3 points of your goal scaled score.
• Day 13 (Sat): Light review only — 30 min flashcards, no new content. Log off by 8pm.
• Day 14 (Sun) — test day: Follow the test-day checklist. Zero new material.

What to cut

In a 2-week window you do not have time to re-read textbooks, watch full lecture recordings, or hand-write full outlines. Cut all three. Replace them with timed practice questions — the highest-yield activity per minute.

Realistic outcome

Two weeks with focused work gets most candidates from a diagnostic in the 150s to a scaled score in the mid-160s. If your Day 1 diagnostic is under 140, seriously consider pushing your test date — the 8-week plan is safer, and rescheduling is cheaper than retaking.