Kaplan Cset: The California Subject Examination for Teachers

I was able to pass all segments of the cset the first time after pouring over the material. It had been many, many years since I'd studied this stuff so I needed more than a reminder. I felt well prepared to do the multiple choice and the guide guided me on how to structure essay responses but all of the essay questions took me by surprise. Still, I knew enough to be able to formulate responses that allowed me to pass. Spend the time with the guide and you should do fine on the tests.

Yippee! I just got my scores about ten minutes ago and I passed!! I took all three sections at once and passed them all! The only study guide I used was this book! Here's the deal; we've all learned this stuff before. We all recognize the word "isotope." But when is the last time you actually sat there and thought about what an isotope was? When was the last time you divided fractions? You don't need to be doing that for the first time in 5 years on the day of the test - you need to think about this stuff for the first time in 5 years a couple months BEFORE the test. I checked this book out of the library 2 months before my CSET. I read all the review sections and took notes, and finished in a month. That left one month until the test - and I didn't review my notes again until the week before the test. The book has "tips" and "tricks" in every section about how to pass, followed by large sections of review. I only read the review sections. I did feel a bit overwhelmed upon getting the book. It is about 500 pages. But just divide and concur. Take the practice online test from the actual CSET website and you'll begin to see what types of questions are asked. (FYI: I took the practice test from the CSET website and FAILED MISERABLY. Then I studied, and passed the real test! So this book DOES help!!! Don't be discouraged!) Anyway, the practice test will clue you in as to what subjects you really need to review. (For me, it was all of them except English!) The book is just so broad, but that is because the test is. I mean, it is as if there are 100 topics the, say, History subtest will tell you that you need to know, but it will only test you on 20 of them. That is overwhelming! But this book covers just about all 100 of those topics! Immediately after taking the test I felt like I had studied "too hard" and "too much" for the small number of topics actually covered. But since there was no way of knowing what those topics would be beforehand, it is a good thing I did! I would definitely recommend this book. It worked for me!

This book was the perfect thing for my studying habits. I made flashcards, took the CTC practice tests and and reviewed this book in detail. The typos are frustrating and the science part was immense, but I learned a lot by using this text. There are a bunch of practice tests in this book also that really make it nice to get accustomed to the format of the questions on the CSET. It's huge (+/- 500 pages), but it's lightweight, so you can take it everywhere. And I know I wouldn't have passed all three the first time around if it wasn't for this book!

I would recommend this test prep for the CSET for anyone but particularly someone interested in boning up on math. That section is written by Rodney Lee who conducts test prep classes for LAUSD and is absolutely the best elementary math teacher around. He does a great job here giving you what you need for math and sample questions that are like those you will see on the test. The history section wasn't bad, althought it could do a better job on California history and the 20th century. The weakest section is on the phys-ed and educational psychology -- check out Barrons for that. Overall though, it was pretty good. I used this book, took all three sections of the CSET and passed all three on the first try.

It's best, I've found, to buy a couple of the CSET test exam study books because each one presents different amounts of detail for each subtest. This one is better for Science and Math review. It does have parts though where it tells you to look up further information and that gets old. You wonder to yourself why you paid them money when they refer you somewhere else. Still, it's a good review. I would get another book that has more practice tests though, since this one doesn't have enough.