114 of 114 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Before buying CBEST books, read this..., June 17, 2007
This review is from: Cracking the CBEST, 2nd Edition (College Test Preparation) (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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book is way out of date. It no longer applies to CBEST, June 19, 2006
This review is from: Cracking the CBEST, 2nd Edition (College Test Preparation) (Paperback)
I took the CBEST on June 17, 2006 and I can tell you that after vigorously reading and absorbing all that I could from this book Cracking the CBEST Ed. 2 (I studied it for about 4 weeks), that the information is FAR out of date. The current CBEST has far more complex math problems and critical analysis questions, and the POE (Process of Elimination) explained by the author is simply not applicable to any significant degree to helping you with this test. The answers (A through E) examples given in the book do not come even CLOSE to the actually level of difficulty I encountered in trying to eliminate possibly incorrect answers.
The author states that you "will not be tested on algebra." I hate to tell you, but there are some algebraic questions. In all, I counted four of them out of the 50 math questions given on the exam.
The only "plus" I can give the author on this much out-of-date study guide, is that the essay section remains in the same format. As for the other two parts to this exam... please -- and I mean this -- please find a better study guide if there is one out there.
If you're planning on using the author's "Ballparking" process to answer questions, be ready for a heck of a ride with trying to achieve a correct answer. Many of the A through E answers can be very, very, very much alike and they may all even appear logical, but being worded differently by the very slightest degree, they are far more difficult than the simplistic ones in this book. With the full-page essays for you to read (yes, NOT a couple paragraphs -- nearly FULL pages) trying to deduce and eliminate incorrect answers will be a highly formidable task if you rely on this book alone to prep for the CBEST. By the way, I wasn't the only one who noticed this. Believe it or not, during the test I took, at least two people actually raised their hands and asked the Proctor, "Are you SURE these questions and answers are right??" And another person asked something like this: "Is this for real?" A lot of people laughed. I imagine they must have studied Cracking The CBEST as well; because they obviously were as shocked as I was to see the very high level of difficulty far and above what the available 2nd Edition teaches.
Overall, I must state that the Princeton Review needs to wake up A.S.A.P. and provide the public with a new and HIGHLY updated version of Cracking the CBEST. Do not... I repeat... do NOT waste your money on this test prep book. I did the same. I bought this book because of the rave reviews here. Uhmmm... I can't help but wonder if these reviewers are on the Princeton Review payroll? (Sarcasm slightly intended). Or did they take the CBEST before it was apparently updated?
At any rate, don't waste your money on this test prep book. Let Princeton Review market an updated and viably accurate version first.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
CBEST Preparation to have and to AVOID, March 18, 2004
This review is from: Cracking the CBEST, 2nd Edition (College Test Preparation) (Paperback)
I agree with the majority of the reviewers here. When preparing for the CBEST I used this book, and studied the material from cover to cover. Admitedly, the tests seem to be a little harder than the actual exam, however, this is to your benefit because you will have a better feel for the exam.
What I liked about this study guide, is that they throw at you a lot of potential questions on the sample tests, that are pretty similar, or near the difficulty level that is expected of you to know. Whatever question you missed out on, always be sure to find your mistakes. The questions you were right on, reinforce what you did well, and do the same thing on the test.<P...Use the Princeton Review CBEST book as well as other legit texts here on amazon.com and you should be fine. Save your $$, and if you want to read more, do an internet search about this company, or visit teacher discussion boards. Other students will tell you the same thing.
But for the CBEST, use Princeton Reviews book and you will be in excellent shape!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
