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 gave them 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 the CSET exam, pass your knowledge of the CSET exam
The CSET exam is a series of single-subject tests intended to demonstrate to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing that you have the basic knowledge of the CSET exam and the ability to teach its subject in a classroom setting. There is also a CSET Multiple Subject test 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 begin your teaching career.
What you need to know about the CSET
Whatever subject you intend to teach, you’ll find that passing the CSET exam will require you to make use of two skill sets: recall the CSET knowledge you have about your subject; and answer exam questions quickly and accurately.
Both sets of skills are vitally important in the CSET.
What is the CSET?
The CSET is a single-subject exam, intended to replace the old single-subject assessments for teaching and the Praxis II tests. There are three types of tests in the CSET:
Single Subject Teaching Credentials they are used primarily from grades 7-12 and authorize a teacher to teach a particular subject.
Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials they allow teachers to teach a variety of different subjects and are generally 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 you 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 Right answer. You may find that two answers on the CSET exam seem correct, but one answer will be more correct 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. You will often be asked to complete more than one task. Always read the question carefully and make sure you have completed all the tasks.
Tips for Taking the CSET Test for Writing Essays
CSET Exam Preparation: How to Study Quickly and Effectively
Whatever your subject, the CSET exam will expect you to have memorized vast amounts of information. Some of that CSET information you’ll 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 will typically have you turning to books for answers.
In the CSET, you will need to be able to recall those facts from memory. That means being able to crash.
Top Methods for Quickly Completing CSET Exam Prep
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
No one excels at everything. Inevitably there will be some subjects where you are stronger and others where you are weaker. You will want to make sure you spend more time memorizing and learning your weakest areas than your strongest for the CSET.
Don’t worry if there seems to be a big difference 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.
two. 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 strange 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 into musical notes. If you can put the words you’re trying to memorize to 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, keep memorizing for the CSET;
3. Get the CSET rammed right there!
Cramming only puts the information you want into your head for a short time (using what you’re memorizing will keep it there in the long run). To keep from dropping what you’ve memorized before your CSET, 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 you enter the CSET test room. You should certainly be familiar with the CSET guidelines that apply to you.
However, what the CSET study guides won’t tell you 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 flip through the paper. You will surely find some of the questions easier than others. Do that immediately. 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 disposition process
This is an absolute must in any multiple choice question. There will always be one or two shockingly wrong questions. Knock them out fast and your score is doubled.
3. Eliminate language and extreme numbers
One way to choose the bad answer options 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 narrow down the correct answer choices is to select any answer that looks the same. Typically, on the CSET exam, two answers will be extreme, one will look good, and one 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’s a better answer right next to it and you’ll choose the wrong option. That’s bad, but it’s actually doing you a favor. When two answer choices seem similar, one of them is likely to be 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 in the test. It will be almost impossible for 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 the game away 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 will need them all to get you in the classroom and in front of the board. To learn all the tactics you need to make sure your CSET exam preparation is on the right track, check out our Study Guide and start your teaching career with flying colors.