50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
read this before buying CBEST guides..., June 17, 2007
This review is from: CBEST (Cliffs Test Prep) (Paperback)
I took the CBEST yesterday morning (06/16/07)and have several observations and suggestions which not only do I hope you'll find helpful but with any luck can save you some time and grief. I purchased four review books. The Princeton Review's Cracking the CBEST (2002)," Cliff's Testprep "CBEST, 6th Edition,(2000)" Learning Express' "The Complete Preparation Guide CBEST (2006)," and Barron's "How to Prepare for the CBEST (2001)." Additionally, I purchased one on-line guide and began receiving emails with "tips of the day" from another. Neither on-line guide was helpful in the least and I would caution you to stay away from them no matter how luring their websites are.
Now onto the test (and then I'll come back to the guidebooks). The test, as I'm sure you're aware is divided into three sections: Reading, math and a writing portion in which you're asked to write two essays.
Let's start with the math. If you go to the official CBEST website they will tell you specifically what you need to know in order to pass this part of the exam. There is no geometry (apparently there was a law suit several years ago and the math portion was made easier) and the algebra on the test is beginner stuff. About the most difficult algebra question went something like this: 10y - 36 + 4y - 6 + y = 3. What's the value of y? Most of the questions are basic math and if I can do them, so can you!
With the exception of The Princeton Review's "Cracking the CBEST," all the guidebooks, when it came to math, were significantly more difficult than you need to know. The biggest offender of this was Learning Express' "The Complete Preparation Guide CBEST" which included very high level math and was poorly written and filled with mistakes. The book also comes with a CD of practice tests but the tests on the CD are nothing more than the same questions from the text in a different order. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK -- YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. In fact we should all stay away from Learning Express' books; after all, as consumers all we can do to send a message to those who try and rip us off is to boycott their products. Enough said...
Barron's "How to Prepare for the CBEST" math sections was also more difficult than it needed to be. Additionally they do something that never seems to appear on the actual test. Very often their "choice E" will be "none of the above." I still haven't run into none of the above on any actual CBEST test. I also had an older version of this text and when I compared the two I found almost no difference which I felt odd since between the two publications the test has changed.
Cliff's TestPrep's "CBEST (6th Edition) should be the best of the bunch based on the entire line of Cliff's books but while this one is pretty good it's not great. Again, they're not up to date on what's really necessary to learn with regard to the math section, also taking the reader deeper into math than the test taker will ever need to pass the CBEST. But as one of your guides, I do recommend this one but do your own editing with too complex math problems.
The best of the bunch (for math) was The Princeton Review's "Cracking the CBEST." In fact on page 7 the authors explain how the CBEST has changed recently. For math, this book is excellent. Enough said.
A suggestion to make this experience a bit easier is first go to the CBEST site, read about the specifications but DON'T TAKE THE PRACTICE TEST YET. Use this guide (Princeton's) first and take their practice tests. When you feel you're ready take the official CBEST Practice Test (which you'll find is very close to the actual test), see how you do and what you still need to review. Sadly, CBEST only offers one practice test.
READING: First of all, the CBEST passages are reading comprehension and they're short. Think about it, you only have four hours to answer 50 math questions, 50 reading questions and write two essays. There's simply not enough time for long reading passages. The CBEST Reading practice test is a realistic example of the length of the passages.
Barron's "How to Prepare for the CBEST" was pretty good (not great) with their reading section prep. Cliff's TestPrep was also good and I thought some of their suggestions and study strategies were very good. Princeton Review's "Cracking the CBEST" reading section was very good and they have a section called "How to Crack It" which was very helpful in their breaking down of the different types of reading questions.
Learning Express' "The Complete Preparation Guide CBEST" was sloppy. One of the questions asked about something that wasn't mentioned and there were several mistakes.
For the Writing portion I recommend both Cliff's TestPrep and The Princeton Review's "Cracking the CBEST." They both give some good tips and sample essays. Princeton has a template you can follow for your essay which was helpful. The one frustrating aspect of their writing section was they only had the opening paragraph of their sample essay when it would have been helpful to have the entire sample essay to review.
One suggestion is to practice writing essays in short periods of time. By the way most of the sample questions I've run into in these guides are pretty close to what's actually asked on the exam. Yesterday's questions were something like, "if you could change one thing about schools what would it be?" and people can find happiness in the little things -- do you agree (something like that).
I guess this has been a long winded way of saying there are two guidebooks that are worth buying: The Princeton Review's "Cracking the CBEST," and CliffsTestPrep (although it's out of date for math.)
Good Luck.
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book, June 11, 2001
This review is from: CBEST (Cliffs Test Prep) (Paperback)
Having taken the CBEST two days ago, and using both this book and Obrecht's book published by Barron's to prepare for the exam, I can assure you that this is the one to buy. It is concise, accurate, and specifically oriented to the test. Bobrow has done an execellent job of walking you through exactly what you need to know for the test - no more and no less.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, concise prep book -- with good sample tests, June 10, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: CBEST (Cliffs Test Prep) (Paperback)
I used the Clifftestprep book by Jerry Bobrow to prepare for the CBEST, which I took on June 8, 2002. I found the book to be very concise. The book reviews the things you'll need to know to take the test -- reading comprehension, math, and essay. The book gives good tips on test-taking techniques. Also, there are numerous mini-tests, and four complete (4-hour) sample tests included. I actually spent four hours one Saturday afternoon taking one of the sample tests, and it was great preparation for the real thing. As for the comment left by the previous reviewer about there being some errors and typos, I think I did find one or two typos out of 400 or 500 solid pages of text and examples, but these few minor typos were not a big deal at all, and in no way detracted from the valuable knowlege the book provided. I say, check it out.
--Mark V.
p.s. I get my results in two weeks. I hope I pass. I'm fairly confident that I did pass.
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