The CSET: Your Path to a Rewarding Career!
Few careers can provide the levels of responsibility, satisfaction, and fulfillment that teaching brings to California educators. Every day, thousands of teachers across California help their students study, learn, and achieve their dreams.
Good teachers create great lives
Teachers can touch lives in ways no one else can. Everyone remembers at least one teacher who provided encouragement and inspiration, with the help and advice they needed just when they needed it most.
You are one small step away from becoming such a teacher.
Good Teachers Lead Great Lives Too
But teachers don’t just inspire and educate. As a teacher, you will enjoy the respect of your family and friends, and a social status that few professionals have. He will have long paid vacations that will allow him to travel the world or pursue his own goals. And he’ll have an income that gives him independence and a career path that takes him from challenge to success.
All that stands between you and a rewarding career of educating, guiding and inspiring students right now is your CSET exam.
Pass CSET exam, pass your knowledge of CSET exam
The CSET exam is a series of single-subject tests designed to demonstrate to the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing that you have basic knowledge of the CSET exam and the ability to teach your subject in a classroom setting. There is also a CSET Multiple Subject exam that is required for K-8 certification.
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With hard work and, not least, proper preparation for the CSET exam, it will be easy for you to pass the CSET and start your teaching career.
What you need to know about the CSET
Whatever subject you intend to teach, you will find that passing the CSET exam will require you to make use of two sets of skills: recalling the CSET knowledge you possess about your subject; and answer exam questions quickly and accurately.
Both sets of skills are vitally important in the CSET.
What is CSET?
The CSET is a single subject exam, intended to replace the old single subject assessments for Praxis II teaching and testing. There are three types of test in the CSET:
Single Subject Teaching Credentials they are used primarily from grades 7-12 and authorize a teacher to teach a particular subject.
Multi-Subject Teaching Credentials they allow teachers to teach a variety of different subjects and are typically used in elementary schools for grades K-6.
Education Specialist Instructional Credentials allow teachers to teach students who have a particular disability or special need in grades K-12.
Each CSET exam contains multiple subtests and takes up to five hours. However, the subtests themselves are not timed, allowing you to spend more time on the areas you find difficult and less time on the parts you know best.
Time management will be an important element in getting the score you need to pass the CSET exam and become a teacher.
Two types of questions, two types of challenge
CSET exam questions come in two forms: multiple choice questions ask him to choose the best answer among several options. In these questions, it is important to remember that the better the answer is not necessarily the only one correct answer. You may find that two CSET exam answers seem correct, but one answer will be it is not correct anymore than the other. (This also means that when two answers look the same, you have a 50/50 chance of guessing the correct one.)
Constructed Response CSET Questions ask him to discuss, describe, analyze, explain, etc. Often you will be required to complete more than one task. Always read the question carefully and make sure that you have completed all the tasks.
Tips for Taking the CSET Test for Writing Essays
CSET Exam Prep: How to Study Quickly and Efficiently
Whatever your subject, the CSET exam will expect you to have memorized vast amounts of information. Some of that CSET information you will know well because you use it every day. But much of the detail that will appear on the test will be the kind of knowledge that would normally cause you to turn to books for answers.
On the CSET, you will need to be able to recall those facts from your memory. That means being able to crash.
Top Methods to Quickly Complete CSET Exam Preparation
At some point, almost everyone is forced to study for a test. It may not be the best way to learn, but it is often the only way to pass the exam.
There are a number of effective techniques you can use to fill your head with the information you need to quickly pass your CSET exam.
1. Organize your priorities
Nobody excels at everything. Inevitably there will be some subjects in which you are stronger and others in which you are weaker. You will want to make sure that you spend more time memorizing and learning your weaker areas than your strongest ones for the CSET.
Don’t worry if there seems to be a big gap between the amount of work you have to do and the amount of time you have to do it. The next step will be to reduce the work and preparation required to pass the CSET.
2. Select and store for the CSET
Once you have identified the areas that will need more work, read through all the information once. Highlight the most important points (don’t just underline: it’s easier to imagine a highlighted page than an underlined sentence).
There are a number of different methods you can use to store your CSET exam information in your head:
Oh Breaking off what you need to learn in dick-sized chunks. There is a limit to how much you can store in your short-term memory at one time. Take each piece a little at a time.
Oh acrostics help you remember a list in the correct order by turning them into odd sentences. My dear Aunt Sally is the famous way to remember to multiply and divide before adding and subtracting. You can create your own acrostic for any set of facts in the CSET.
Oh Convert your CSET notes to music notes. If you can put the words you’re trying to memorize into a tune you like, you’ll find them much easier to remember. You may not be able to hum on the test, but you can sing in the shower and in the process continue to memorize for the CSET;
3. Get the CSET rammed right there!
Cramming only puts the information you want in your head for a short time (using what you’re memorizing will keep it there in the long run). To avoid dropping what you’ve memorized before your CSET exam, you’ll need to keep looking at it and reviewing it until you need it that day.
Mastering the CSET
The actual content of your exam will depend on the subject you are planning to teach. The official CSET study guides will tell you what you are supposed to know before entering the CSET exam room. You should certainly be familiar with the CSET guidelines that apply to you.
What the CSET study guides won’t tell you, however, is how to master the CSET when you’re not sure of the answer. That’s not because you can’t do it; it’s because they don’t want you to know how to do it.
Here are 5 ways to master the CSET (even when you don’t know the answer)
1. Ask the easy questions first
Use the first few minutes of the exam to quickly pass the paper. You will surely find some of the questions easier than others. Do that right away. It will make you feel a little better and give you more time for the tough questions. And if you find yourself stuck on a question, make a mark, leave it, and move on. Come back to it at the end when you have more time, more focus, and less panic.
2. Use a disposal process
This is an absolute must in any multiple choice question. There will always be one or two outrageously wrong questions. Knock them out fast and your score is doubled.
3. Eliminate language and extreme numbers
One way to pick out the bad answer choices from the good ones is to look at the wording of the answers. Examiners generally prefer the correct answer to be vague. Any answer choice that uses words like ‘everyone’, ‘never’, or ‘always’ is likely to be incorrect. Similarly, in math and science questions, the highest and lowest numbers are also often poor choices. Take them.
4. Identify similar responses
Another way to fine tune the correct answer choices is to select any answer that looks the same. Usually, on the CSET exam, two answers will be extreme, one will look good, and the other will be correct.
The one that looks good has been put there deliberately to confuse you.
Examiners hope that as you rush through the exam, you won’t realize there is a best answer right next to it and choose the wrong option. That’s bad, but he’s actually doing you a favor. When two answer options seem similar, it is likely that one of them is correct.
5. Use previous questions
One of the great things about long tests like the CSET is that the answer to a question can often be found elsewhere on the test. It will be almost impossible for the examiners not to repeat a topic or duplicate a point. If you’re scratching your head over a question, go ahead and stay tuned later. There’s a good chance they’ll give away the game in a different question.
Those are just five simple tactics you can use to pass the CSET test. There are dozens of others and you’ll need them all to put yourself in the classroom and in front of the blackboard. To learn all the tactics you need and make sure your CSET preparation is on the right track, check out our Study Guide and start your teaching career with the best grades.