Cracking the CBEST, 2nd Edition (College Test Preparation),   ISBN:9780375762635

Customer Rating: 

This guide helped so much in studying for the CBEST. I signed up for the test with anxiety and uncertainty and passed with flying colors. I am not a great test taker and this book broke it down in such a way that helped me understand so much more. I highly recommend it. It's worth the $20. Really worth it.

Customer Rating: 

Despite the fact that this book was written years ago, I gave it a shot since I felt that the reviews were compelling enough. I took the CBEST for the very first time in October 2009. I ordered this book as a last resort because I felt that the practice tests on the CBEST website was not enough for me. This book arrived literally a week and a half before my test. I finished READING (not including the practice exams) this entire book in 2 days and spent the rest of the time that I had until my test taking the practice exams. If you are concentrated, you'll finish reading this book in that amount of time or less (even trying out those math examples). My overall total (all 3 sections) was above 123 (which is what you need in order to be considered "pass") however, I did not pass the CBEST because I scored below a 37 in the writing section. Here's a breakdown of how I feel about the Princeton Review for the CBEST:

1.) Reading Preparation: Princeton Review does a great job in the Reading section by giving you examples that agree with the tricks and strategies that they teach you. However, the actual questions on the CBEST reading section contained questions and answers that were much more ambiguous and the answer choices contained far more seemingly "correct answers. Did the reading part of the Princeton Review help me? Not much. I have poor reading comprehension and if you're like me, you might want to find another source to help you out. I still passed the reading section on the CBEST despite my poor reading comprehension, but I really think it was pure luck because I walked out of there feeling like I bombed the reading section...

2.) Math Preparation: I felt that the Math portion was really helpful. There were a few questions that may have been on the CBEST where Princeton Review did not specifically prepare me for, but it was not a question where it would completely stump you ( I think). If I were to recommend this book for anyone, it would be solely on the Math part of this book. Princeton Review gave me enough examples and strategies in this book to make me feel confident in the Math section of the test. Math questions on the CBEST are worded fairly the same and I would say that the difficulty level on the CBEST was higher than the questions that the Princeton Review had. Mind you, I am not a math person at all. As a matter of fact, when most people were taking algebra 2 or trigonometry in high school, I was still taking geometry. Although some of you may be able to relate or did worse than me, I failed PRE-Algebra my freshman year... The point here is that if you're bad in math as I am (or worse), this section of the book will definitely help you.

3.) Writing Preparation: By now, you probably know what a terrible writer I am and is most likely the reason why I did not pass the writing section. Princeton Review nonetheless helped me in my writing by giving me useful tips such as "structure, organization, word choice, etc...) however, these are all strategies that you can get off of the internet on "How to write a good essay" or even look up a teacher's guideline to a good essay. I think it's really hard to teach someone how to write better when the topics are always changing. It's really important to have someone who has good writing skills to read through your paper after you've written one from the Princeton Review topics because if you're like me with terrible grammar, you are most likely not going to be able to make your paper better because then you would have written it better to begin with and not need someone to look over it. Because when you self-proofread your paper, you should be correcting little careless mistakes and not trying to re-write the whole thing because it sucked the first time around. I may have a really negative view towards writing, but that is because I absolutely despise the fact that I'm terrible at it.

The bottom line is...I would only really recommend this book for the Math section. If you want to get this book for the practice tests, I would like to advise you that the questions (in general) are harder than it is presented in this book. Also, there are only 2 practice tests in this book, so if you think its worth the money, go for it.

Customer Rating: 

I read the reviews for all of the CBEST study books and ended up picking "Cracking the CBEST" from Princeton Review and CliffsTestPrep CBEST. I found "Cracking the CBEST" the most useful out of the two books, but the Cliffs book was also great. I felt that the "Cracking the CBEST" had better explanations and I felt the practice tests were more practical. Although the Cliffs gives 4 practice tests and that is great for anyone who wants to hone in on any areas that they are having trouble in or just wants some extra practice to be prepared.

I was skeptical about the publishing dates of both of these books when I bought them because the Cracking the CBEST was published in 2002 and it looks like Cliffs was published in 2000. I was scared that the material would not be relevant to what is currently on the test. But I was wrong. I passed the CBEST with these two books as well as taking the online practice tests.

For any of you that are going to take the test soon, I felt it was a fair test. Nothing too hard, but my nerves were still going crazy on test day. If you prepare yourself and pass a few practice exams then you will breeze through the real CBEST test.

Customer Rating: 

This book was very helpful. Everything in the book was relevant to test. I passed the test!

Customer Rating: 

If you want to pass the CBEST on your first try, this is the only book you will need to actually buy. All the fundamental skills you will need are in it. Yes it is outdated (I was worried because it was published in 2002) but it is still very much relevant to the actual exam. It is extremely easy to read, and even made the math section ridiculously easy for me. I had more confidence in my English skills before reading this book, but I actually did better on the math section than the English section because of this book!

Do not waste your money on other books. If you are worried at all about having multiple resources, just go to a library or bookstore and skim other prep book practice exams.

If you read this book thoroughly, and utilize all it has to offer you will be well prepared for the CBEST.