Customer Reviews

FTCE Social Science 6-12 (XAM FTCE)

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Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the other customer reviews and bought this book. Here is what I found: The skills/competencies do not match those specified by the Florida Department of Education in the third edition of its Test Preparation Guide. The long rambling passages in the book are not concise and ramble on and on--not focusing on what the test-taker needs to know. I took the test today and realized that the sample questions in the book are not very representative of the sample questions on the test.

This was by far the worst study guide that I have ever purchased. The book was full of errors both of basic english and of factual nature. On top of that when taking the test the answer key does not match up with the questions. So the answer key and the section detailing the answers to each of the questions are different. On top of that most of the questions that were asked in the practice test were never even mentioned in the study guide itself. So out of that taking the test made no difference if I read the book or not because the information was not even included with in it. This book has caused me to start back at the beginning of all my studying. I feel that this company is not up to their own standards of "Higher Quality Study Guides, Higher Quality Teachers" The writers of this guide and most likely the rest of their guides need to go back to school themselves and learn the facts and how to write. So out of all this what ever you do save your money and do not by this or any other study guides from XAM.

I just wrote my exam 10 minutes ago and I passed. The report I received does not tell me whether I marginally passed or got a significant proportion of the answers correct. I registered for the exam last week and bought the book yesterday. I am satisfied with this book as it helped me attain my objective of passing the exam. However, it suffers from major sloppy editing. Aside from missing letters and spelling mistakes, there are errors in the answer key.

Examples:
Page 19-there is a blank where the four factors of production are listed. The blank should say "land". hint: know the 4 fop.

Page 24- 'The' is written as 'he'.

Page 29 and 45 have same 2 paragraphs verbatim.

Page 31- 'Conducted' is written as 'conduced'

Page 31 and 33- 3 paragraphs on these 2 pages are exactly the same. this may be intentional because there is overlap in the topics; however one should take note of this when studying so there aren't extra notes.

Page 55- 3rd and 4th paragraphs should be switched around. The 3rd paragraph talks about the Han dynasty, and then the next paragraph talks about how the previous dynasty was overthrown to start the Han dynasty. Anyway don't worry about the minute details about China for this exam; I only had one question on it.

Page 125-Sentence about Dred Scott appears twice in a row.

Page 188- #33 Should be spelled "principle" rather than "principal"

Page 204-#114a "Investment of the printing press" should read "Invention of the printing press"

Page 221-For #43 the answer is written as 'D' in the answer key and 'A' in the explanation. The correct answer is 'A'.

Page 271-Missing a 'C' at the beginning of 'contrary'

I wrote the exam at the end of the book this morning. I got over 50 wrong out of 186 questions. The exam at the end has a lot of quotations ("who said this" type of questions) but on my exam I did not have any. I felt confident in most of my exam answers; I think I got a max of 20 wrong out of 120.

To use this book properly, you have to be able to condense and organize the info given to you in this book. Sometimes too much detail is given to familiarize you with the general topic. This does not mean memorize all the details! For example, you do not need to know the Hindu holy books or the 3 strains of Buddhism. This info is helpful to give a background, but don't memorize it. You might get a q like "which of the following religions is associated with the caste system" but nothing complicated like "what is the difference between theravada and vajrayana". keep it simple. Most of the questions were understanding the concept type questions. For example, to test your understanding of the electoral college, the exam might say if candidates A, B, and C got this many electoral votes each, what happens? My exam had a lot of American history more than anything. The book has a lot of detail on the Egyptian kingdoms--know it roughly, but I didn't have any questions on it.

what to know:
-4 factors of production
-5 themes of geography
-What causes the diff climates? (note: if longitude is given as an answer choice, it's wrong! only latitude affects climate)
-if given a chart, know how to figure out which country has the comparative advantage
-if given 4 variables, know which would be studied by macro/micro economics.
-no Q on GDP equation or corporate earnings
-Know what happens to the prices/supply/demand if one variable goes up or down. Ex. if demand for gold increases, what happens to the price and supply?
-Chapter 3 has a LOT of detail. I was overwhelmed here and I'm sure I got a lot of qs wrong here. Well, don't freak out. Even if you get 25 wrong, you are still scoring about 80% which is well above passing. Know which branches of government can tax, and which powers are reserved to the states. Also know that the Federalist party died out. So the only 2 existing parties are offshoots of Jefferson's party (the democratic republicans).
-3.6 This section is written well. I had all these terms on my exam.
-Which is an example of a direct/indirect democracy? know this.
3.7 brandenburg v. ohio. the actual case did not appear, but this decision is imp't for defining freedom of speech.

Chapter 4
-I had nothing on the Stone or Bronze Age.
-Main thing to know is unique features of each civilization. Ex. which civ was famous for navigation/purple dye? (phoenicians). which was the first with irrigation? (sumeria).
-Loads of details on China and Rome here. You don't have to worry about them. Just know the big names (Shang, Qin and Han). For Rome, don't worry about all those emperor names. Didn't have any of them.
-4.3 Once again know the distinct features of each civ. Don't worry about Egypt details like when x kingdom collapsed.
-Don't worry about the religious stuff. Just know what caused the splits between the original churches. As for Hindu/Budd, it's posted above.
-Know terms like monroe Doctrine, Truman Doctrine, Manifest Destiny, Jim Crow, League of Nations, etc. My exam was heavy on US history and the changes that occured with each event.
-Chapter 5 is Florida stuff. Know Seminole chief.
-Chapter 6. I skipped this section, it is basically common sense. Your q will be something like, "dr. bla wants to conduct a demographic study of nigeria. which field is he likely associated with?"...before reading the answers you can guess the answer is sociology. Or if they ask who is most likely to use C-14 dating, it's probably an anthropologist/archaelogist. Not too difficult.

In summary:
+ Points
--Order of book matches list of FTCE content section s
--Condensed info helped me pass the exam with very limited studying (but keep in mind that i am a fresh grad, and a lot of the info is still fresh). I was able to condense the entire book onto ONE sheet of paper.
--Exam at the back has answers with not only the correct answer, but description of the alternate answers.

-Points
--SLOPPY EDITING!!
--Basically a lot of plain text. Some things could benefit from charts/graphs/
--Emphasis of certain subjects in actual exam was different than what was in book.

If this was a book for a test graded on a percentage scale, I would be very upset as I know some questions were not included. However, since this book is for a pass/fail test, one can def. pass with this book alone as long as one can mentally filter and organize the given information.

Absolutely not worth the $55.00 I paid for this book. The actual test did not cover any of the material in the book. This company needs to re-evaluate the content use to prepare one for the test. It was absolutely worthless.

I was concerned when I purchased this book that it would not help me pass my exam. I am entering the teaching profession after taking a leave of absence for ten years. However, despite and typographic errors and two or three facts that I did not agree with, I felt this study guide helped me focus on what was relevant. I recognized most of the material matching the test and the pattern of information tested was practically the same. All in all, I think if you read the whole book, check the facts (via the internet), take notes and do the sample test, you will pass. I did!

This book is a total mess. I did not take the test yet however, based on other reviews, there is little material of direct value. There are numerous misprients, duplicate pages, repeated and onorganized sections, and outright errors. This volume can most charitably be used as an outline to expose areas of weakness in one's current subject knowledge. The prectice test has little to nothing to do with the rambling disjointed text. Unfortunately, the other selections for Florida teachers test FTCE, S.S. 6-12 also have poor reviews and I personally plan to purshase the PRAXIS study guide as a last resort.

FTCE Social Science 6-12 (XAM FTCE) This is a very detailed book covering all aspects of history; however, on the test questions some of these answers are not in the chapters that covered these subjects. Sometimes, I would have to go online to understand the test content. I would also like to have the company include a CD diskette for the person to take these tests at home for preparation of computer tests.