Challenge Your Exam Readiness With Our Free Praxis Core Practice Questions

The Praxis Core Writing test assesses standard English conventions, including subject–verb agreement in compound subjects. The sentence’s core subject is a compound—“Both the librarian and the students.” When two nouns are joined by “and,” the subject is plural and requires a plural verb. Therefore, “were” is correct. Option B provides “were,” aligning the plural verb with the plural compound subject. Option A incorrectly keeps “was,” which is singular. Options C and D change the coordinating conjunction to the phrase “as well as,” which typically treats what follows as a parenthetical addition, not forming a compound plural subject; however, even with “as well as,” the logical subject would remain “librarian,” singular, taking “was,” but this alters the meaning and structure the original sentence intended (equal emphasis on both parties). Because the task is to fix the agreement error without changing the intended structure, the best choice is B. Praxis items often test the ability to identify the true subject and determine whether it is singular or plural, especially in the presence of intervening phrases or paired structures such as “both…and.”